“It never rains in California, but girl, don’t they warn ya? It pours, man, it pours!”
---Albert Hammond, et. al

Last month when the California Walnut Commission invited me out to the annual walnut harvest, I can’t tell you how excited I was to be heading to sunny California in October. I mean, who doesn’t love California at harvest time?

As my luck would have it, the weather featured torrential downpours the entire time I was there. Of course I didn’t bring rain gear and had to borrow a plastic poncho from our hosts. But more disappointing than my fashion faux pas was that we were not able to see the actual harvest. The orchards were too wet.

Everything, including the transformer-like “shaker,” was waiting on the rain to stop. (Walnuts in California are harvested from October through November.)

Walnut grower Frank Rebelo and his wife Elza were very accommodating to a bus-load of journalists, even though his harvesting efforts were stymied.

Processing continued, though, inside an immaculate plant and so we were able to see the “end part” of what it takes to get the delectable little morsels to market. Below this post I've shared a photo tour of the process. Hope you enjoy.