At this time of the year, almond farmers like Richard Phillips and Don Putz start playing cat and mouse with Mother Nature.
The latest game, for lack of a better term, happened over the weekend.
The Phillips family had only about three hours worth of work in the orchards around the P&P Huller on Union Road south of French Camp Road when the downpour reduced the almond-crusted brown powder on the ground into mush. There’s no way for a pick-up machine to scoop up that gooey stuff, much less for the huller to separate the nuts from the hulls.
Three hours longer and the Phillips’ almond harvest for this year would have been over.
“Last year, we just barely beat the rain. This year, Mother Nature got even with us,” said the family patriarch, Richard Phillips, with a little laugh, trying to make the situation light out of frustration.
“That’s the most rain we ever got during the (harvest) season. It rained on us five or six times this harvest season,” Phillips said.
Compounding the problem was the fact they started the harvest season late. “Probably for a couple of weeks before September, and since then we got at least five times, maybe six times of rain. Normally, we get maybe one,” he said.
“This is the worst that I’ve ever seen it rain so many different times. We were about two weeks behind because of the cool summer, so we knew we were going to be hit by the rain, but we didn’t expect quite this much. We got an inch and a half in about an hour and a half,” he said of the wet phenomenon in the orchards two weeks ago on a Wednesday.
“Thursday morning, I go over to see how much we got over there, we had an irrigation. We got two to three inches on the ground right at Union Road at Lovelace. They predicted it was going to rain but nothing about a rain that hard. I’ve never seen it rain that hard, that long. I’ve been in Hawaii when it rained that hard for a long time, I’ve been in Jamaica when it rained that hard, but it was never quite like it was here. And I’ve been here since 1938,” Phillips said.
Work stopped completely for a week after that, he said.
“We didn’t even do anything until the following Wednesday. Then it started raining again. By the end of the week, it started raining again. We tried to pick up our last field Saturday afternoon and we got half of it picked up. Then it rained so hard Saturday that we had to quit. And, of course, Sunday the wind blew all day and kind of dried everything out. We felt pretty good but then we got another half inch of rain (Sunday) night. Now, they’re saying it’s supposed to rain again Thursday. We’re going to try Wednesday morning and see if we can pick up the rest of that field – we got another 20 acres,” Phillips said.
Even Blue Diamond in Salida would not accept any more wet nuts for drying because “they’re completely filled up. They were filled up yesterday and today. They won’t let us bring in anything because no dryers are available,” explained Phillips.
What was even more frustrating for the Phillips clan was that, the week that the rain drenched their orchards forcing them to temporarily park their harvesting equipment, their friend and business associate Don Putz who was also wrapping up the harvest at his orchard along Austin Road east of Highway 99 felt nary a single drop of rain.
“We didn’t get any significant rain here. We didn’t have any problem at all, no moisture at all, and we finished the job. We didn’t get the rain at this side of town, but over at the huller it was soaked,” said a relieved Putz who is just about done with the harvest this year.
“We’re going to finish this week,” said Putz who is a partner with Phillips in the hulling business - P&P Farms on South Union Road – but farms separately. The Phillips farm about 500 acres of almonds around Manteca.
Phillips and his wife, Ernie, their daughter Dianne, and sons Mike and Ricky are pinning their hopes on a good harvest weather this week, too, when they expect to wrap up their chores. Everybody will be trying to work double time – Dianne on the pick-up machine, Mike on the sweeper, and Ricky who drives the trucks to the huller – he is also the huller plant manager. Matriarch Ernestine is the caterer who brings the food to her hard-working family on her trusty ATV.
While farming is a family affair for the Phillips, Dianne has her own hot dog stand in Stockton which she has owned and operated for more than two decades. She was also one of the earliest woman mail carrier for the Manteca Post Office. Mike works in security management at Sandia Lab, and her brother Ricky is a reserve firefighter.
Richard Phillips said he hopes they can get done with the harvest this week.
“We certainly hope so. We have plane tickets to Laughlin, Nevada, this weekend. We go there about three or four days every few months. I golf and Ernestine and Diane gamble,” he said laughing.
It’s their R & R time after working hard in the fields.
The latest game, for lack of a better term, happened over the weekend.
The Phillips family had only about three hours worth of work in the orchards around the P&P Huller on Union Road south of French Camp Road when the downpour reduced the almond-crusted brown powder on the ground into mush. There’s no way for a pick-up machine to scoop up that gooey stuff, much less for the huller to separate the nuts from the hulls.
Three hours longer and the Phillips’ almond harvest for this year would have been over.
“Last year, we just barely beat the rain. This year, Mother Nature got even with us,” said the family patriarch, Richard Phillips, with a little laugh, trying to make the situation light out of frustration.
“That’s the most rain we ever got during the (harvest) season. It rained on us five or six times this harvest season,” Phillips said.
Compounding the problem was the fact they started the harvest season late. “Probably for a couple of weeks before September, and since then we got at least five times, maybe six times of rain. Normally, we get maybe one,” he said.
“This is the worst that I’ve ever seen it rain so many different times. We were about two weeks behind because of the cool summer, so we knew we were going to be hit by the rain, but we didn’t expect quite this much. We got an inch and a half in about an hour and a half,” he said of the wet phenomenon in the orchards two weeks ago on a Wednesday.
“Thursday morning, I go over to see how much we got over there, we had an irrigation. We got two to three inches on the ground right at Union Road at Lovelace. They predicted it was going to rain but nothing about a rain that hard. I’ve never seen it rain that hard, that long. I’ve been in Hawaii when it rained that hard for a long time, I’ve been in Jamaica when it rained that hard, but it was never quite like it was here. And I’ve been here since 1938,” Phillips said.
Work stopped completely for a week after that, he said.
“We didn’t even do anything until the following Wednesday. Then it started raining again. By the end of the week, it started raining again. We tried to pick up our last field Saturday afternoon and we got half of it picked up. Then it rained so hard Saturday that we had to quit. And, of course, Sunday the wind blew all day and kind of dried everything out. We felt pretty good but then we got another half inch of rain (Sunday) night. Now, they’re saying it’s supposed to rain again Thursday. We’re going to try Wednesday morning and see if we can pick up the rest of that field – we got another 20 acres,” Phillips said.
Even Blue Diamond in Salida would not accept any more wet nuts for drying because “they’re completely filled up. They were filled up yesterday and today. They won’t let us bring in anything because no dryers are available,” explained Phillips.
What was even more frustrating for the Phillips clan was that, the week that the rain drenched their orchards forcing them to temporarily park their harvesting equipment, their friend and business associate Don Putz who was also wrapping up the harvest at his orchard along Austin Road east of Highway 99 felt nary a single drop of rain.
“We didn’t get any significant rain here. We didn’t have any problem at all, no moisture at all, and we finished the job. We didn’t get the rain at this side of town, but over at the huller it was soaked,” said a relieved Putz who is just about done with the harvest this year.
“We’re going to finish this week,” said Putz who is a partner with Phillips in the hulling business - P&P Farms on South Union Road – but farms separately. The Phillips farm about 500 acres of almonds around Manteca.
Phillips and his wife, Ernie, their daughter Dianne, and sons Mike and Ricky are pinning their hopes on a good harvest weather this week, too, when they expect to wrap up their chores. Everybody will be trying to work double time – Dianne on the pick-up machine, Mike on the sweeper, and Ricky who drives the trucks to the huller – he is also the huller plant manager. Matriarch Ernestine is the caterer who brings the food to her hard-working family on her trusty ATV.
While farming is a family affair for the Phillips, Dianne has her own hot dog stand in Stockton which she has owned and operated for more than two decades. She was also one of the earliest woman mail carrier for the Manteca Post Office. Mike works in security management at Sandia Lab, and her brother Ricky is a reserve firefighter.
Richard Phillips said he hopes they can get done with the harvest this week.
“We certainly hope so. We have plane tickets to Laughlin, Nevada, this weekend. We go there about three or four days every few months. I golf and Ernestine and Diane gamble,” he said laughing.
It’s their R & R time after working hard in the fields.
