We had about 30 people come to Amy and Peter’s homestead in south Petaluma to gather almonds and apples together!
The precious farm has orchards, goats, sheep, chickens, bees and a livestock guard dog. It also has native landscape plantings including a baby oak woodlands and a baby Monterey Cypress grove.
First we picked the almonds and processed them by peeling off the hull then cracking open the shell to get at the precious seeds. It made us appreciate how much work it is to harvest almonds!
We then had our picnic and picked and washed apples to bring home.
One couple came from San Francisco. The wife was so happy because the event reminded her of her home in Taiwan – she said it was the community spirit of picking together, processing the food together and then eating healthy food made it feel like home.
Picking almonds
Almond bounty!
Processing the almonds
The sheep enjoying the almonds we dropped
More almond processing
Our delicious potluck!
Gathering golden delicious, Fuji and red gravenstein apples
Apples being gently washed with water and a splash of vinegar
Maya holding court
Apple joy!
By Karen & Jay Hamilton-Roth