Diamond of California – Harvest Tour Review

 

 

Last week, Diamond of California invited me and nine other bloggers on a Harvest Tour of their orchards and processing plants. Since I grew up on Diamond’s nuts—they’re the only ones we use in our pecan pies on Thanksgiving—I jumped at the opportunity!

 

Here’s a little recap of our outing. Without how much we learned and how many times we laughed, it was practically impossible to summarize it into one “nutty” blog post!  

 

 

1) The introduction dinner. Hosted by an upscale restaurant in downtown Sacramento, the ten of us bloggers, along with a few ladies and a dietitian from Diamond, gathered to meet and eat at a long table in the dining room. Oh my gosh, you guys… The chef and kitchens completely spoiled us!

 

Over the course of two hours, they brought out a nut and cheese platter (at least seven different varieties!), tuna tartar, soup and two different salads, three different entrées (trout, chicken, and gnocchi), and a gorgeous bourbon pecan tart to finish. And every dish contained one of Diamond’s nuts.

 

Even though we just met ten minutes before in the lobby, thank goodness the other bloggers agreed to eat “family style” so we could all sample bites of everything!

 

 

2) Orchard tour. We visited one of their larger walnut orchards in Linden the following morning, where our tour host walked us up and down rows of trees, explained the different varieties of walnuts (at least twelve that we saw!), cracked a fallen one with his bare hands, and finally showed up how they harvested the walnut—by shaking!

 

A big machine comes in, carefully grips the trunk, and vibrates the tree back and forth for a few seconds. It literally looks like it’s raining walnuts!

 

 

3) Walnut drying facility. Next we drove to one of their drying facilities, where they remove the green outer husk and dry the walnuts in their shells. When the walnuts first fall from the trees, they contain 12-18% water, but in order to be shelf-stable, they need to be dried out to about an 8% water content.

 

We climbed a ladder and walked through their drying bins high up in the barn. Because of the fans blowing hot air, it was nice and warm up there—about 100°F!

 

 

4) Lunch. At one of their original plants in Linden, still all wooden beams and floors inside, they served us lunch. One of their growers shared a little bit about his family’s history in the walnut orchard business, and he was actually the father of one of the bloggers! We finished the meal with a walnut hand pie dessert, and oh my… I could eat that sweet nutty orange filling every day!

 

 

5) Walnut sampling. Before we left that original plant, we visited their gift shop, where they set up a taste testing of twelve different varieties. They ranged from light Chandlers (the walnuts that we consumers are most accustomed to) to dark Paynes (the walnuts that growers prefer for their richer taste). Dressed in our new Diamond aprons, we felt so official!

 

 

6) Diamond plant tour. To finish the day, we visited their Stockton plant, where they package all of their nuts—not just the walnuts they were originally known for! We had to dress in smocks, hairnets, and hard hats to go in. Not quite our typically blogging apron attire!

 

Our guide showed us the different packaging lines, including pecans, hazelnuts, and their Emerald snacks. (My mom loves those and buys boxes of their cocoa and cinnamon roast almonds in bulk!) He also walked us outside to view their huge holding towers, which were practically the size of a small castle—and entirely full of walnuts!

 

 

When we finally boarded the bus to drive back, and I started flipping through the cookbook they gave us, I was still in awe of the incredible entire walnut growing and packaging process. From creating and planting each variety of tree, to applying sun block in the summers (to avoid sunburn spots!), to shaking and harvesting the nuts… And then carefully packaging them all for us to bake with and snack on…

 

It’s truly remarkable how much love and effort goes into every single nut. And I’m so excited to create more recipes with them in the future!

 

{Here are more pictures from the tour!}

 

 

Bonus: The “nutty” bloggers! These other ladies were some of the sweetest, friendliest, and funniest ladies I’ve ever met! I already knew Trish, Hayley, Karen, and Sarah (almost all of us live within 20 minutes of each other!), so it was really fun to meet Tiffany, Liz, Annaliese, Melissa, Lynda, and Alex too.

 

We laughed and joked throughout every meal and on the bus, and after the first half hour, it already felt like we had known each other for yeas. I’m already wondering when we’ll have a reunion!

 

{Now go check out their blogs—they have gorgeous photos and mouthwatering recipes!}