Wet processing

It has been my intention for some time now to post the developing layout for a continuous-flow wet processing area. Until now, all my processing has been on a batch basis, which is very limiting and time consuming. It is my intention to get to the point where my system will contemplate tonnes of product with relative complacency.

My wet processing is done under a steel-roofed addition to my barn. This offers ample opportunity to collect adequate rainfall for storage in two elevated cisterns (8). The area measures about 30' x 15'.

Nuts (more accurately, the fruit) will be received on a conveyor (1), lifted (2) and dumped into a geared-down forage blower (3). This will pre-split the hulls and physically propel them to the hulling machine (4). Hull material will exit the area on another conveyor (5) and the cleaned nut will enter the continuous-flow washer (6) before dropping into the dryer(7). Most transfers depend on gravity, so steps 2 and 3 are intended to lift the incoming material to adequate working height.

The continuous flow washer is this year's collaborative project with Algonquin College, and the initial design is already being critiqued. I hope we will have a proof-of-concept ready for this fall's harvest.

If you click on the above diagram it will open at larger scale in another window.

Tree scoring

Once again, I am indebted to the Ontario Stewardship Rangers (this year aka Josh Bowes, Stefanie McCann, Jessica Rothwell and Eric Dopson), from the Lanark County Stewardship Council for spending a day at the farm and scoring my two main stands of trees for nut load (>1000 trees). This is the third year the OSR has done this, and each year I introduce changes to the system. The 2007 crew had the hardest job.

The purpose of scoring is to identify superior trees ahead of harvest. Different-coloured flagging tapes are tied to the tree in accordance with the assigned score. The superior trees are the ones I am most interested in selecting nuts from for on-planting, and for cracking analysis. We are a season away from mechanical harvesting, so all nuts from superior trees would be hand-harvested and counted before the mechanical harvester was passed through to pick up everything else. The following table indicates the scoring ranges used in the past three years:

2006	2007	2008
None	None	None
1-5	1-5	Few
6-20	6-20	Medium
21-80	21-80	High density
>80	80-320
	>320

The simplification of 2008 stemmed from the realization that counting the nuts on the tree was very difficult and often inaccurate at best (at the high end). Nuts are counted anyway at pickup time, so no more is needed than an estimate of ‘nut density in the canopy’. Thirty-eight trees in total fell into the high category in 2008, about 50% more than 2007.

Prior to harvest the trees will also be scored for other features, and expression of leaf-spotting diseases is one of these. The pairing of low disease expression with medium nut density in the canopy would boost a tree into the ‘of interest’ grouping, such that it would also be selected for on-planting and cracking analysis.

If one embarks on biomass nut production, as we have, where extensive plantations of non-select trees are used, it is important to find management tools which simplify and streamline management for production. Tree scoring is one of these, allowing one to focus on the trees that will eventually add more to the bottom line than others.

Thanks again to the Ontario Stewardship Rangers for their help for the day!

Applied Research Day

Yesterday (10 April 2008) was Applied Research Day at Algonquin College, where student teams showed off the technology they worked on during their final year at the college. Front and centre was Black Walnut Team 3, exhibiting the current iterations of the harvester and cracker/separator (shown in the picture), and taking up the largest footprint in the exhibition hall by far. I say Team 3, because this is the third annual iteration of students to work on machinery development. It has been a pleasure to work with each team, each bringing its own assortment of personalities and skills, working towards our goal of cost-effective farm-scale technology for black walnut nut production (I think we’ve been a reasonable partner, because I frequently hear the words ‘patient’ and ‘supportive’ applied in our direction; from our perspective these are just elements of our commitment to the emergence of a regional nut production industry).

This event marks a milestone: the completion at the College of work on the cracker/separator, and the production of an experimental harvester which we can begin to analyze practically, i.e. under field conditions, before embarking on a ‘second generation’ model. Both units will come to the farm over the summer and be exhaustively tested. Only the harvester will feed back into Team 4’s program; the cracker/separator will be taken up by the members of Team 2 who demonstrated the first proof of concept to the NNGA last year. They will work with us at the farm to define efficiency, where cost savings in manufacture can be made, and to complete (by the end of the year) the construction of the first five units which we hope to offer to the market. Bookmark this post!

IPM 2007

The cracker and separator were displayed on the Croskery Farm during the 2007 International Ploughing Match, near Crosby. During five days of perfect weather about 2,000 people came by the display and were treated to an earful of explanation, and a sample of extracted nut meat. Interest was very high, with many not even knowing black walnuts were edible. It didn't take much arm-twisting to extract confessions of greater tastiness compared to those other nuts on the market. The five days put the machines through some solid testing and they are now back at Algonquin College for improvements.

Northern Nut Growers

Members of the Northern Nut Growers Association in discussion with Algonquin students over the merits of the proofs of concept they demonstrated at the farm in August 2007. Cash offers were appreciated but refused!

Thanks to Gordon Wilkinson for the photo

Algonquin College

Initial support from Canada’s National Research Council (IRAP) allowed us to undertake a State of The Technology Analysis, conducted for us by Brock University’s School of Business. The outcome of this confirmed what we thought: that we would probably have to develop most of the technology ourselves if we were to advance at the scale we wished. Identification of Algonquin College’s Mechanical Engineering Technology Program as the closest fit to our needs was almost immediately followed by the College’s acceptance of our proposal for collaboration. In fact, the College seized it with such fervour that there were almost immediately six teams of three students each working competitively on designs for a harvester, cracker and separator. This collaboration has gone through two complete cycles to date with the result that proofs of concept have been designed and built, and the third cycle of improvement is now underway. Significant funding for student time was obtained from Ontario’s Centres of Excellence. Two students won first prize for Community Colleges at OCE’s Innovations competition in July 2007 for their work on the separator.

Partnerships

It became very clear that we would have to forge some strategic partnerships if we wanted to be successful in our long-term goal of bringing carbon-based black walnut non-timber products to market. We say’ carbon-based’ because everything we use from the tree is the result of carbon partitioning between roots, trunk, branches, leaves and fruits. From this point of view, placing nut-meats in the market is the end point of an environmental service – carbon sequestered and partitioned into that part of the fruit. There are some very basic practical issues around materials handling that any ‘service manager’ has to address: fruit harvesting, processing, component separation. These are technological issues, and as there was no relevant technology available in the market, we had to identify the means of developing it.