The Mediterranean region provides inspiration for many of the things I make with almonds. In that almond-growing region, there is a tradition of eating immature fruits and nuts that we don’t hear too much about in the U.S. let alone the Northeast where I live. (Although Turkeywood Farms in Mystic, CT is distilling shagbark hickory to make a sweet syrup I love.) This is my signature spirit, Digestivo Mandorlato – Priscilla’s Green Almond Liqueur Think of
Monday, April 20
My Almond Lexicon – Green Almonds
Green Almond Season means renewal and rebirth. During April and May, you’ll find me in the kitchen experimenting with old and new ways to prepare them.”Green almonds?” you ask. Yes, a delicacy in almond growing regions around the world and a term with several meanings. Stages of Green Almonds Newborn Almonds – Almond buds start to appear on the tree right after the bloom, which appears in early winter. (It’s February to March in California
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Monday, April 06
Green Almonds, a Celebration of Spring
These fuzzy green pods are green almonds. These baby nutlets appear on almond trees after the blooms fall. Green almonds, a celebration of spring, mark the calendar in countries where almond trees grow. Cousin to the peach, plum, and apricot, Prunus amygdalus, the almond is the first fruit tree to bloom in spring. Once the fragrant almond blossoms fall, clusters of pale green pods remain on their branches. Called ‘green almonds’, these embryonic almonds will
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Monday, February 23
Almond Bloom 2015
Close your eyes. Imagine a tall sky and wide, flat plain before you. The floor of the valley, in this case the San Joaquin in California, is covered in what appears to be a fine dusting of snow. This is the Almond Bloom 2015. You’re driving along a highway, CA-99; tractor trailers haul bales of hay and a 50-car train matches your speed. You pull off onto a secondary road for a closer look. There may
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Wednesday, May 14
Better from Scratch: Almond Milk
If you drink neither bottled fruit juice nor canned soup, why would you purchase almond milk in a carton? It is just too delicious and easy to make at home. I call this Better from Scratch: Almond Milk. Drink it alone on a hot day, in your coffee, on cereal, soups and in smoothies. Bake with it, cook with it. Enjoy it. The market for “alternative dairy beverages” is more than 23 billion dollars as
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"Let no man fancy he knows how to dine Till he has learnt how taste and taste combine."
-Horace, Satires, 2.4They're here!
