PISTACHIOS ANYONE !!!!!!!!!!

This is pictures of about half of my 2010 pistachio crop. I harvested about 1000 pounds this year. It was alittle below average. It is alot of work. Spreading huge tarps out on the ground under each tree and then hitting the branches of the tree using a huge baseball bat looking mallet. The nuts fall onto the tarp. Move tarps to next tree and do it all over again. Then unload nuts into a wheelbarrow and put nuts into truck. I can shake about 3-4 trees in an hour. I have 26 trees. So it took along time and alot of sore muscles for an old man. I take the nuts to Bowie, Arizona and they buy them from me. They have acres and acres of trees down there. They look at me sort of funny when I pull up in a pickup truck and get in line with all the semi-trucks waiting to be unloaded. They really think I am crazy when I tell them I shook all my trees by hand. They have huge machines that do all of their shaking, and umbrella looking panels that catch the nuts as they fall that are attached to the machinery. They can shake a tree in about 15 seconds. I know why pistachios are so expensive in the stores. It is just alot of dadgum work.

Darvil