Talk:Almond

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This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 edition of The Grocer's Encyclopedia.
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Contents

[edit] botanical classification

The article states that the almond is related to the walnut, which is just absurd. What were they trying to say? Obviously it is related to other members of the genus Prunus - is there anything else we ought to know? —Preceding unsigned comment added by MauriceJFox3 (talk • contribs) 00:15, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

On the subject of classification, there is currently a line that says "botanically it is not a nut, it is a fruit", which is ridiculous to the reader, because when you click on the Wikipedia article "nut" it says essentially "a nut is a fruit". Are we nuts?! :) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.105.207.210 (talk) 17:04, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] edible seed

the article mentions that wild forms of almonds arent edible. why is this categorized as an edible seed? Fdskjs (talk) 13:55, 23 November 2007 (UTC)

Because we eat domesticated almonds, which are edible. --Bentonia School (talk) 16:16, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] image problems

I can't seem to fix the pic of the almond in the description section; it's overlapping the text. Woland37 21:58, 24 October 2007 (UTC)


This text originally came from a Very Old Unnameable Source whose copyright has expired. I've attempted to update it; I've also eliminated much of the biblical discussion as it didn't seem particularly relevant. But if you'd rather have it there, go ahead.  :-) --KQ

Most of what I've seen places almonds in the genus Prunus, rather than in a separate-yet-related genus. But I don't know enough botany to know which we should do.

This is a question for Josh Grosse, I think, as he seems knowledgeable in these areas. --KQ

No, not really, I've been making the classification as I sort through the materials on hand and try and figure things out, so I'd have had to do some reading. Thanks very much to Lee Daniel Crocker for saving us the trouble! --JG

[edit] Low-Carbness

From the article: 'The sweet almond itself contains practically no starch and may therefore be made into flour for cakes and biscuits'.

I sit here with a bag of almonds. Serving size 1/4 cup. Total carbohydrates 6 gram, fiber 4 gram, sugars 1 gram. This does not look like 'practically no [carbohydrates] [starch??]. Should this be amended??

Starch is a carbohaydrate, but just because something is a carb doesn't mean it is a starch. - UtherSRG (talk)
And yet, for diabetic use, it is carbs not starch that is a problem, so that almond, with carbs, probably ought not to be utilized for flour that is especially useful for diabetics.--Dumarest 13:19, 18 March 2006 (UTC)
Dietary fiber is relatively indigestible, therefore is not a problem for diabetics. --Fett0001 21:44, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Link suggestions

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I have read that almonds once contained enough cyanide to be poisonous to humans, but through selective breeding it was reduced to the point where they became edible. If this is true, it should be added, but I don't know whether it is.

I think that probably refers to the distinction between "sweet" and "bitter" almonds. --Iustinus 17:39, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Diamond_Growers , almonds are California's largest food export, not the seventh largest as stated in this article. Which is it?

The Almond Board of California also claims almonds are California's #1 export, but only the sixth leading agricultural product overall. Perhaps that contributed to the original confusion. I re-wrote the sentences and added a link to the Board "fact sheet" as a reference. --Michaelfavor 23:22, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Pronunciation

The article currently says:

In parts of Northern California, where almonds are a main crop, the word is often pronounced with a unique regional accent. Rather than the usual American pronunciation of "Ahl-mond", with the soft A and L, it is pronounced with a hard A and nearly silent H, as in "Aah-men". This method of pronunciation is particularly prevalent near the city of Chico in Butte County, but it is also heard in nearby Glenn, Colusa, and Tehama Counties.

OK, well the more linguistic training you have, the less meaningful descriptions like this become. What do "hard" and "soft" A refer to? Is there any actual /h/ in "Aah-men", or is that just a convention to indicate the quality of the a?

Is there any chance that someone in the know could get this transcribed into IPA? Thanks. --Iustinus 17:39, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

I don't know IPA, but as resident of the area, I can try to answer the question. I don't think there is an actual "h" sound in the pronunciation. The "Aah" sound described above should be like the "a" in "cat". I would write it phonetically as "a'-men". (putting a strong emphasis on the "a"). This pronunciation is only common among almond-farming families and orchard workers who use word "almond" hundreds or thousand of times per year. It's an informal, abreviated form of the word, dropping the "L" and the "d" sounds, and changing the initial vowel sound from the "o" in "odd-ball", to "a" as in "apple". Curiously, this pronunciation only seems to apply to almonds until they are harvested and processed. In the context of food, an "almond joy" candy-bar for example, even an almond farmer would be more likely to use the common (non-regional) pronunciation. --Michaelfavor 00:08, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
The use of an 'h' in a pronunciation guide means a voiced 'h', i.e., aspiration (here, as in e.g. the Arabic name Ahmed). Does this really apply to the Calif. pronunciation? - MPF 01:32, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

I've removed the above paragraph from the article as (a) the pronunciation statements aren't cited, and I think are unusual enough to need citation, (b) it isn't in IPA, and the manual of style deprecates non-IPA pronunciation guides, and (c) is it really encyclopaedic?

I'm not very good at writing IPA, but based on the above spellings it is something like /æhlmɑnd/ for the 'usual American pronunciation', and /ɑhmɛn/ for the California local - MPF 10:57, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

I don't know IPA, but the California pronounciation is like 'amp' or 'Amanda'. You should be able to copy the IPA notation for the 'Am' sound from those words. The local joke is that it's pronounced that way because you have to knock the (hel)L out of the tree to get the nuts to fall. Toiyabe 20:35, 17 April 2006 (UTC)
Well it would seem that Americans pronounce the word competely differently from us in the Commonwealth? I pronounce it arr-mond, which is the pronunciation given by the OED: ['ɑːmənd] FiggyBee 09:59, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

I (a native and lifelong resident of the Chicago area) pronounce "almond" something like [ˈɑʟ.mṇd] or occasionally [ˈɑl.mənd] I have heard other Americans using [ˈæ.mən], which may well be the Californian way. Toiyabe, I don't know how Californians pronounce "amp" or "Amanda" to make a comparison. I've also heard a (maybe Ohio/Michigan) variant that is closer to the OED version, something like [ˈɔː.mənd], which if I had to spell it, would be "awmin'd". FWIW, FiggyBee, I would pronounce arr-mond as [ɑɹ.ˈmʌnd] and I would spell ['ɑːmənd] as "ommin'd". Thank heaven for IPA. For fun, have a look at: Phonological history of English low back vowels --Theodore Kloba 20:34, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

As a native of the UK, I can say without any doubt or fear of contradiction that the UK pronunceation in the article "ar-mond" is not in common usage. I've never heard a single british person use it and would be falbbergasted if I heard one use it now. We all say "Aah-mond" "Aah-mund" (or infrequently "aal-mund"). The OED probably has something different but then they frequently give pronunceations which are for the South East of England only, are decades out of date or just shockingly wrong (a good example of this is their pronunceation of "fart") 195.153.45.54 09:04, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Production

"California produces 80% of the world's almonds" - I'd like to see this figure verified from an independent source. The source cited seems pretty biased to me. I suspect it may mean "80% of almonds in international trade", i.e., excluding almonds produced and consumed locally within Portugal, Spain, etc., which don't figure in trade statistics. - MPF 01:29, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

Checked FAO figures [1]; US production is about 45% of world production. So the claim of 80% is a gross exaggeration - MPF 10:45, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

- Using your same source, Almond production in the United States is shown to be 88 percent of total production among the nations tracked by the FAO. Having been raised on a California almond farm, I hear this statistic quite a bit, and have never questioned it's validity. Please correct me if I am reading this wrong. Additionally, this source is 3 years old at this time, and a lot has changed in the industry since then. Thanks, Brad -- 129.8.205.142 (talk) 20:02, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

2006 Production figures from the FAO http://faostat.fao.org/site/567/DesktopDefault.aspx?PageID=567

Country/Quantity/Percentage of world production (1.74 million tonnes)

USA/715623/41 Spain/220000/13 Syria/119648/7 Italy/112796/6 Iran/108677/6 Morocco/83000/5 Algeria/53673/3 Tunisia/50000/3 Greece/47088/3 Turkey/43285/2 Lebanon/28300/2 China/28000/2 Libya/24345/1 Uzbekistan/23545/1 Pakistan/23344/1 Australia/11755/1 Israel/11242/1 Portugal/11166/1 Chile/10153/1 +24 other countries each <1% Mark Nesbitt (talk) 20:18, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

The USDA uses different figures. I think that there is more to the story. Here is one source that I found: link (second page)129.8.205.161 (talk) 02:01, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Production, Supply and Distribution (PSD) database contains data on shelled, sweet almonds for the United States, Greece, India, Italy, Spain, and Turkey" - hence highly selective figures, and not as useful as the FAO figures for this article.Mark Nesbitt (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 20:35, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Chinese Almond Dessert

First off, isn't it served chilled, so that it is is like jello? Secondly, what is the name in English? It's called "Hun Yun Dow Fu Fa" in cantonese. That translates to Almond Tofu Dessert. 165.230.46.150 18:45, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Vitamin C

I've heard that if you soak fresh almonds in water overnight, the Vitamin C content increases termendously. Is this true?

I doubt it. I don't see how it would work. (that doesn't guarantee it isn't true). Gzuckier 17:28, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] An Interesting Fact & What about pareil and non-pareil almonds?

I didn't see anything about this, they are the two main types of almonds grown in California.

Also the saying goes that when it's on the tree you call it an "ALMOND" but when it's on the ground it's called an "AMOND" since you have to knock the "L" out of it. This is an almond joke that growers tell referring to the knocking of the trees with mallets in order to shake the almonds from the tree. (today it's done with tree shakers)

[edit] firewood

Is it worth mentioning that almond wood is commonly used as an excellent firewood? Don't have a reference for that, besides the stack of it on my porch... --Leperflesh 20:07, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WLU removed link

Hey WLU I can appreciate the comments on the article being short and unreferenced. Next time I submit I anything I will make sure the article is comprehensive and referenced well. However, I didn't appreciate the spam comment and "promote spas". The site as a whole is about everything related to spas and massage, including skin care. There is no spa promotion on the article page. The site is completely non profit, not even a hint of adsense or anything else. It costs me money, and it is a project created out of learning how build my own database driven web sites (custom cms from the ground up). So please instead of labeling any outbound link as spam, make sure you understand what you mean. Again I appreciate the other comments, and if that's all that was said I wouldn't be writing this. Also, you may want to check other links on the page before yanking the new one. The cooking link is, short, unreferenced, promotes a book and has adsense on it.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.162.191.128 (talk • contribs).

Comments like this are more appropriately placed on my talk page. Also if you are in any way related to the site you wished inserted, you may be in violation of WP:COI. Finally, if the other links on the page do not merit based on WP:EL, feel free to remove them. WLU 19:10, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bitter almonds/apricot kernels

I am slightly confused about whether bitter almonds and apricot kernels are the same thing or something different. Bitter almond currently redirects to the almond page, where there is a short section on the bitter variety of this nut. Should it really redirect to apricot kernel? (I added the same comment to the apricot kernel page) Jimjamjak 15:05, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

I was also confused about the difference between the bitter and sweet almond. I would guess that everyone buys and eats the sweet almond, but the page doesn't really say. Can the bitter almond also be eaten with tasty results? I like a lot of bitter foods, so there's a possibility, right? Icculusioso 00:28, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

My wife gets very, very sick, with a painful pit in her stomach, when eating a fistful of almonds. Less than a fistful doesn't bother her. I'm wondering if there is any cyanide in commercial almonds. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Professor Krepotkin (talk • contribs) 15:26, 5 October 2007 (UTC)