A Trip To The Almond Orchard

There are many reasons why Alternative Dairy Co source their almonds from Select Harvests for our 100% animal-free Barista Almond Milk exclusive to cafes and restaurants.

The Australian-owned company has 7,600 almond orchards in the Riverina region of New South Wales and processes the nuts at its nearby plant at Carina. This means the almonds are not only grown in rich, fertile land but they also have minimal transport and handling.

That’s just the start – here are some interesting sustainable farming facts you can appreciate whilst you sip your next ADC creamy, smooth almond latte.

They love bees

Select Harvests is a huge supporter and sponsor of the bee and pollination industries and each Spring it brings in around 35,000 beehives from around the country.

Almond orchards provide bees with their first natural source of food each spring. Just like almonds are a nutritious snack for us, almond pollen is very nutritious for bees, providing all 10 of the amino acids their diets require.

Hosting these little guys is a big responsibility and Select Harvests are expected to:

• Supply them with alternative forage sources.
• Supply water for bees at hive sites.
• Not use weedicides when hives are present.
• Avoid spraying fungicides during bloom unless disease pressure is severe and the crop is at risk.

The almonds are not only grown in rich, fertile land but they also have minimal transport and handling.

They are seriously sustainable

Select Harvests aims to be as sustainable as possible right across the business. At Select Harvest, they aim to…

• Source sustainable or renewable materials where possible.
• Reduce the use of non-renewable materials, or replaces with renewable substitutes.
• Maintain a clean and healthy environment.
• Install a 50k litre worm farm that converts almond waste into liquid fertilise.
• Increase water security by managing access to irrigation water.
• Has best practice irrigation systems to deliver water efficiently with reduced system drainage and impact to water tables.

They’re having a crack at ‘almond electricity’

Select Harvests has built a biomass electricity co-generation plant to consume almond by-products including hulls, shells and orchard waste.

The plant will generate enough electricity to power the Carina West Processing Facility, as well as nearby pumps for the Carina farm orchard.

Soil waste will be combined with the pot ash produced by the combustion process, to be used in the orchard as fertiliser.

All of this is expected to reduce their operational carbon footprint by 27%, which nothing short of inspiring to the nation’s food production and processing industry.

Try it for yourself

If you’re in pursuit of the ultimate plant-based barista almond milk for your cafe or restaurant, Alternative Dairy Co have just reformulated their almond milk to make it smoother, creamier and richer for local baristas to use – with no bitter after taste.

This story is sponsored by the wonderful team at Alternative Dairy Co. For more information visit altdairyco.com