A photo gallery of how Kashmir's almond trees are harvested - Mamra Giri to the Gurbandis, the small to large, the sweet to bitter and so on.
Where do most of Kashmir's almonds grow?
An 45 minute drive from Aagur's head office in Srinagar, lies Pulwama, the almond (badam) belt of Kashmir. Since centuries, Kashmir's oil-rich almonds with immense health benefits have been grown here in the family-run orchards, some with a few almond trees and some with over a thousand trees.
The Almond trees from Spring to Harvest
A picture journey by Aagur
1.) Starts with the spring time blossoms
Spring arrives and the frozen earth thaws in Kashmir. The Kashmiri Almond Trees (Badam Kuls) spring to life with a majestic blossom creating mesmerising white blankets across the landscape.
The blossoms bring hope of a good growing season to village folk for not just almonds but walnuts and other dry-fruits as well for the first trees to blossom are the almond trees.
2.) Little Almonds (Badams) emerge by May
The little almonds emerge on the trees - a trailer of the happiness that the tree will bring come end-August when the almond harvest will take place. It's also time to gauge the almond tree health and take necessary steps to ensure a bountiful badam harvest.
3.) The Green Shells Open - It's Harvest time!
Around mid-summer in Kashmir, the almonds ripen and the outer green soft shells start opening. It's time to harvest. Yay!
The almond tree is the first of the dry fruit trees that blossoms in spring and also the first whose nuts are harvested. Hence, the almond harvest marks the beginning of the harvest season of all dry fruits in Kashmir.
The Weapon of Choice?
A long Himalayan Cedar (Deodar) wood stick to thresh the branches and obtain the almonds.
The hundreds of almonds from each tree fall down with little thuds upon threshing.
Check out the video below
At Aagur, each almond tree is harvested separately for truly one-tree almond kernels.
What are one-tree almonds?
Being native, non-hybrid almonds varieties, each tree presents almonds of a different shape, size and flavour profile. In order to retain similar characteristics across each almond box at Aagur it is imperative that each tree's nuts are harvested and packed separately at the orchard itself.
At Aagur, if you were to buy 4 packs of almonds, you may find 3 of them entirely the same, while almonds in the 4th one may be slightly larger/smaller and of a different shape and flavour profile - all the beauty that non-hybrid desi almonds possess!
Each bag is deshelled separately and the kernels packed so that our customers can buy Kashmiri Mamra almonds and Kashmiri Gurbandi almonds online. We also supply almonds in bulk with almond different grades at varying prices per kg. Our BtB clients include some of the most renowned bakers in the country.
Closing this little picture journey!
To know more and to buy our 'from the farm' Kashmiri Almonds online, hit the 'I want great almonds' button below. We deliver to each pin code in India.
Write to us on hello@aagur.com for any questions or call us at +91 9149404996.
With love from Kashmir. Cheers!
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