
Gently exfoliating
Our almonds come from Majorca, the birthplace of the Spanish friar and missionary Junipero Serra, who first took the native almonds from Majorca to California during the eighteenth century. Spain is the second largest producer of almonds in the world, the first being California.
Description
The co-operative that we work with groups over one hundred local almond growers, many of whom have worked in agriculture all their lives and their knowledge and expertise has been passed on through generations. We prefer to work with these local growers to help preserve the traditional Majorcan heritage, whilst also providing them with a fair and valuable income. The groves are fertilised by the sheep that graze on the land, pollinated naturally by native bees instead of using the forced pollination techniques used in the industrial scale agriculture of Californian almond groves. Sheep also provide a useful ground cover control to keep weeds at bay so the use of pesticides is not needed. After the almonds, still encased in their outer shells, have been collected they are taken back to the processing plant to be quality checked, de-shelled and then ground for us. The outer shells are used as bio fuel for the machinery used in processing the almonds, which means that nothing goes to waste. Any of the almonds considered 'imperfect' or broken almonds are utilised for use in the food industry where they are chopped, diced, sliced or ground and even used to produce almond oil.