Almendras del Pais Pilot Project

2023 November update!!!!  Super good news - we have gotten one machine and we will pick it up next Friday Dec. 1 to bring it to Rincon.  So excited! 

See down below for more full details of the project.

Here is a short video with an update November 27, 2023

Everyone in Puerto Rico agrees on one thing: it’s a damn shame that 85% of the food on this island is imported.

The most difficult and expensive macro nutrients to produce are fats, then proteins, then carbohydrates, and fiber is the easiest.

Just ask your local farmer.

Across Puerto Rico are huge Almendra (Almond) trees with nuts that are just rotting on the ground going to waste. Terminalia catappa is the botanical name.

Although not the same species as almonds grown in California, our Puerto Rico Almendras taste and look very similar. The Almendras are high in the most precious of macro nutrients(1)

52.0% fat

25.4% protein

Cracking these nuts are difficult. One study found that manual cracking can be done by skilled men only at a rate of approximately 183 nuts per hour(2)

The Almendra trees are very common in tropical countries such as Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Malaysia. But because these are all basically “shit hole” countries very little efforthas been done to develop a machine to effectively crack these nuts.

A group of us here on the Island have been digging though research papers, NGO literature, missionary orgnaizations, USDA docs, machinists, and Universities and we finally have found a machinethat can effectively crack these almonds. It is hand built by a small machinist, Mike, in Idaho (of all places). We sent him a sample of 250 nuts, and he created a short YouTube video showing us that with his machine thealmendras can very effectively be processed.

​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObvjF_9F92g

Processing the nuts takes two stages: the first stage is to remove the outer husk, and the second to crack shell and extract the almond. From the sample we gave Mike he estimates that ifwe use two of his machines to do both stages simultaneously, we can shell 600 to 800 lbs. of nuts per hour. His machines have a variable input and can be adjusted for both processes but it is much slower.

Having two machines would make the entire process more productive (one to remove the husk and one to remove the shells)

Having a bean sifting machine also eliminates the need for manual sifting of the nuts from the cracked shells.

Ultimately if this makes economic sense, we will figure out how to duplicate the machines here on the island using Puerto Rican machinists.

The current market price for raw shelled organic almonds is approximately $40/lb. In addition to labor, the next biggest expense is the electricity (the machine uses 230V at 10A).

Several possible business models will be explored:

1. Neighborhood level: People collect the Almendras from their yards and bring in two five-gallon buckets to a processing center. In exchange for having their nuts shelled they pay a smallcash fee. Or perhaps give one of the five-gallon buckets of nuts as payment. How much the fee or the % of nuts for trade needs to be determined.

2. Farm level: For larger farms who already have big crops of Almendras, or who plant the trees (they are very fast growing) this may be a viable side income stream.

3. Regional level: Is it more cost effective for several processing centers be developed across the Island? This needs to be explored.

Note the trees produce year-round. This is not a seasonal business but a full-time operation. That is important for labor considerations.

I am looking for $75,000 in funding for a Pilot Project to:

 Purchase two of the machines ($19,623 each including shipping)

 Purcahse a bean sifter ($3,250) to separate the shells and the nuts.

 Lease space and cost of electricity.

 Hire staff for 8 months to collect and process nuts to determine the real viability and throughput.

 Test out the viability of different business models.

 Run social media and publicity campaigns (in Spanish and English) with progress on the project (Facebook, WAPA TV, Time.com, Medium.com,YouTube, speaking engagements, etc.)

Your support of the project is tax deductable.  We can accept USD and crypto.

Please call me at 737 230 4699 or email me at [email protected] and let’s make this happen!

Project leaders: Marjory Glowka Wildcraft. I am the founder of The Grow Network https://thegrownetwork.com/about-us which is an online community of people focused on modern self-sufficient living. I have been featured by National Geographic as an expert in off-grid living, I’ve hosted the Mother Earth News Online HomesteadingSummit, and I’m listed in Who’s Who in America for having inspired hundreds of thousands of backyard farmers. Penguin Random House published my book “The Grow System: The Essential Guide to Modern Self-SufficientLiving—From Growing Food to Making Medicine”. https://www.amazon.com/Grow-System-Health-Wealth-Happiness/dp/0593330366

Carina Linder Jimenez  is the manager for the Almendar del Pais Proyecto.  Caina is a community organizer with a diverse variety of skills including woodworking, rainwater collection systems, social media, farming,  and she is an incredable barista.  

Laura A. Daen has been a leader of the Puerto Rico local food movement for 14 years. In 2010 she founded, and continuesto organize, the Old San Juan farmer’s market.

(1) Edible Nuts by G.E. Wickens, UN Food and Agriculture Orgnaization, Rome 1995

(2) Nut Cracking Machine for Terminalia catappa (Tropical Almond) G.V.T.V. Weerasooriya Rajarata University of Sri Lanka · Department of Agricultural Engineering and Soil Science, January2022.