Almonds get all the glory.
They burst into white and pink flowers just as winter’s grip starts slipping.
They are synonymous with San Joaquin Valley residents being able to resume basking a bit outside as the calendar nears March and Mother Nature ends her cold treatment as low temperatures stop venturing into the 30s.
It’s little wonder we go nuts over the almond bloom.
But then again, it’s hard to ignore 1.5 million acres of almonds trees screaming “spring is coming.”
The bloom is a great reason for Ripon to party at its Almond Blossom Festival as it has done every last full weekend in February for the past 63 years.
It might surprise you, then, to know that San Joaquin County is not the biggest California county for almond production.
It doesn’t even make the top six.
Kern County is the undisputed king with an almond crop value of $1.14 billion.
Then come Fresno, Stanislaus, Merced, and Madera counties.
San Joaquin County isn’t even close to Stanislaus County.
The 2023 almond crop in Stanislaus County harvested from 211,149 acres was valued at $813,440,000.
Almonds in San Joaquin County covered 112,000 acres and yielded a crop valued at $343,553,000 million in 2023.
As nuts as it might sound, San Joaquin County does lead California — as well as all counties across the USA — in producing one nut.
The nut? Walnuts.
Of California’s 400,600 acres of walnuts, 66,589 acres are found in San Joaquin County.
Rounding out the top five counties are Glenn with 37,757 acres, Sutter with 35,715 acres, Tehama County with 31,621 acres, and Stanislaus County with 27,478 acres.
So why don’t walnuts get the respect, or at least the attention, almonds in San Joaquin County receive when this is the top county for growing walnuts?
It may have to do with the fact they tend to come out of hibernation in mid-April to early-May.
By then the novelty of a new spring has worn off.
It also doesn’t help that walnut flowers don’t make a color splash like almonds.
Almonds, however, are a tad more flash in the pan.
They are typically replaced after 25 years which is when their nut bearing abilities start dropping off significantly.
Walnut trees have an anticipated productive lifespan of 33 years.
Almonds can reach 70 years or so while walnuts can be more than double that.
You can find walnut intermixed with almond orchards throughout the Escalon, Manteca, and Ripon countryside.
Walnuts and cherry orchards are plentiful around Linden.
They are clearly more prevalent in San Joaquin County with a ratio of roughly two almond acres to every one acre of walnuts compared to Stanislaus County with eight acres of almonds to every one acre of walnuts.
Walnuts were a big part of my youth.
Every year we made a post-harvest visit to my aunt in Yuba City in Sutter County so my mom could buy a big box of walnuts directly from the same grower each year.
It was our job as kids to crack the walnuts and separate the walnut meat from the shells.
They were then placed in plastic containers for future use.
The future use included being in half of the 50-plus batches of homemade fudge my mom made each Christmas as gifts.
They also made their way into homemade Rocky Road ice cream, a process requiring the use of a hand grinder attached to a small jar that was painfully awkward to make walnut pieces.
The remaining walnuts became snacks.
Speaking of Rocky Road ice cream, William Dreyer of Dreyer’s/Edy’s Ice Cream fame, is credited with coming up with the flavor.
He used his wife’s sewing scissors to cut up walnuts and marshmallows and then mix them in with the makings for chocolate ice cream.
The name Rocky Road was supposedly inspired by the rough times the country was going through during the Depression when Dreyer whipped up his dessert concoction.
It was even a rougher time for walnuts.
By the time it became marketed as Rocky Road Ice Cream, Dreyer’s switched out the walnuts for almonds.
Given that San Joaquin celebrates its dominance among California counties growing winegrapes with the Lodi Grape Festival, cherries with the Linden Cherry Festival as well as pumpkins and watermelons with the Manteca Pumpkin Fair plus the Manteca Watermelon Festival, you’d think some community would latch on to walnuts to celebrate with a festival.
Almonds versus walnuts
According to a myriad of studies almonds are the best compared to walnuts when it comes to helping you lose weight.
Medical research for years has consistently shown those who consume nuts of any type as a cornerstone of their diet tend to be leaner.
Nuts’ protein and fiber fills you up.
The body has a hard time using all of the calories in a nut. As a result, research shows nuts ramp up your metabolism allowing you to burn more calories even at rest.
That said, experts say almonds have an edge over walnuts for weight loss.
Walnuts tend to look like a brain so it comes as no surprise experts say it is better brain food than almonds.
Actually, it has to do with walnuts’ high Omega 3 content even though almonds and hazelnuts have been shown to improve brain function by as much as 60 percent after seven years.
Nuts in general help the brain but not as much as almonds and hazelnuts and certainly not as much as walnuts.
Nuts are superfoods while walnuts and almonds are the top nuts.
When it comes to fiber, almonds have twice the amount per ounce as walnuts.
Almonds also have a third more protein than walnuts. Almonds also top walnuts in electrolytes.
In addition, almonds come out on top in a fourth category — Vitamin E.
Walnuts do win on one nutritional category which is Omega 3.
Experts rate walnuts and almonds as a tie for heart health; keeping blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes in check, as well as a hedge of sorts against cancer.
Walnuts, though, have been shown to be effective in combatting arthritis.
All the more reason you’d be nuts not to eat almonds or not to eat walnuts.
