In case you haven’t heard, yet another wonderful and natural food is going to undergo pasteurization. It’s the almond.
Here’s the official word.
The unofficial story is that a 55,000 acre farm in California south of San Francisco spread fertilizer (chicken poop) just before the almond harvest. As almonds are harvested from the ground, fertilizer also made it into the year’s bounty. As a local almond farmer put it, they made a stupid mistake and now the rest of the large almond farmers have to pay for it.
I got this story second hand. It could be untrue (I’m checking with the California Almond Board). However, if this is true, then there should be a fine and some schooling on how to harvest almonds instead of some blanket policy that denatures yet another food supply.
The good news is farmers who sell directly to the public are exempted at the moment. So, if you want fresh and raw almonds, find your local farmers market.