I bought some organic raw almonds from a farm in California that are unpasteruized and soaked them for 48 hours and tried to remove the skins to no avail. Normally even after 12 hours of soaking the skins come off pretty easily. Here, you would have to scrap the skin off nut by nut, something I'm not going to do. The box when I received it said "part of the 09 crop". Question, does the fact that the skin won't come off after soaking indicate that the nuts themselves are not fresh? Thoughts?

Paul

Paul,

After some digging, I discovered that September is the typical harvesting month for almonds, and after they are shelled, they are left to dry for a while so as to retard mold. Only then are they pasteurized[using steam or the toxic propelyne glycol] and packaged for shipping. One site mentioned that, although almonds are commonly eaten raw, that is, green off the tree, in the Middle East, this is not usually done here because ripening the nut, that is, letting it come to maturity in the shell and then air drying it, neutralizes the controversial amygdalin[I personally believe this chemical is beneficial, but that's a whole 'nother tirade].
I suppose your almonds are as fresh as can be had on this continent, short of growing your own. In fact, that the skin is stuck to the meat is proof of this; had your almonds been properly dehydrated, they'd have retreated through shrinking from the shell and the skin would be susceptible to rehydration--the skin and meat would separate easily.

maybe their like too fresh eggs , hard to peel when fresh, hard boiled eggs always seemed eaisier if the egg was older
(sorry for my non vegan comparrision)

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

I had that happen to me, also! However, the time prior, they slipped right off after soaking. I'd love to know what this is all about, should anyone have information-PLEASE, post! Thanking you in advance.

I thought either the almonds were bad OR irradiated. I heard all almonds in the USA are irradiated from my local health food store.
I heard the almonds must be imported from Spain in order to avoid that.
However, that makes them about 4xs as much money-ugh, always something!

If interested I have a link from Dr. Mercola about irradiated foods-CRAZY!!!
[livingfoodvillage.com]