How almonds are grown and harvested .

Even though almonds tend to sit among the peanuts and cashews in the nuts section of the grocery store, almonds are not true nuts. They’re actually stone fruits, like plums and cherries. True nuts, like hazelnuts and chestnuts, are the fruit of a nut tree. Almonds are only the seed of the fruit, which is called a drupe.

A drupe is a grey-green velvety fruit that hangs off an almond tree. This fruit grows between 1.5 to 2.5 inches in length and is shaped like an elongated football. Its texture is leathery and tough.

This almond fruit, or almond drupe, consists of three parts. The musty-green flesh is called the hull. When the drupe matures, the hull turns brown and splits open, revealing the second part: the shell. When it’s ripe, the almond shell falls to the ground.

The shell of an almond resembles a peach pit, as they’re closely related. And inside the shell is the third part: the seed. The almond seed is that nourishing little snack you know and love.

Almond drupes grow on deciduous trees ranging from 13 to 33 feet in height. Their trunks expand up to 12 inches in diameter.

The almond tree’s branches grow out and up, speckled with white or soft pink five-petal flowers in early spring. By summer, the almond tree is covered in three-to-five-inch serrated leaves. Drupes grow and mature in the fall, seven to eight months after flowering. The tree goes dormant in the winter, recharging to do it all again the following year.