New visitor from California

[speedstar]

Hi everybody. My wife and I farm in California and grow tree nuts, rice, and various row crops and specialty seeds. We also have A water well drilling company with a rebuilt state of the art Speedstar drilling platform. My interest is primarily in agriculture and water issues, but environmental issues, conservation lands and lake development is also a passion. We have all the soil types on our farms from heavy clay and hard-pan red dirt to gravelly class 2 and 3 and some river bottom class 1 (perfect) alluvial soil. Have spent tons of time and money making farming mistakes, rolling over in earth moving equipment, and drilling for water where it should not be. Would like to see about doing a walnut deal in Chile someday. Trying to learn the landscape.

[eeuunikkeiexpat]

Walnuts are plentiful in Chile.

Welcome to el foro.

[speedstar]

Thanks

[Space Cat]

Welcome! It's impossible to find pine nuts here. Raw cashews aren't present either: they are always sold roasted and salted. Of course I'm not sure if there's any serious demand for both.

[paladin]

my family eats lots of walnuts and if it’s of any use to you, we pay $8000 kg shelled

[speedstar]

Hi Space Cat, thanks. Love pine nuts, but know not a thing about farming them. Cashews are my absolute favorite and are easily bought at Whole foods for expensive.

Paladin, that's a good price on shelled product especially if they are big halves of the Chandler variety...our most valued walnut.

[passport]

I think Chile's markets could use cocktail tomatoes - the ones that are maybe 3.5cm diameter, a little smaller than a golf ball. Here in the US they have taken on very well. They have excellent flavor in any season and seem to ship and hold well. There is even a successful commercial grower in Maine - which has a cold climate and shorter days than in the south. The standard perfectly blemishless grocery tomato in Chile is a gustatory waste of time, flawless in appearance but devoid of flavor and texture. Grape tomatoes are found in Chile, similar to the US, but they are really inferior to a nice cocktail tomato. I even like to keep the cocktail tomatoes til they get deep red, and use them to make sauce.

[eeuunikkeiexpat]

I think Chile's markets could use cocktail tomatoes - the ones that are maybe 3.5cm diameter, a little smaller than a golf ball. Here in the US they have taken on very well. They have excellent flavor in any season and seem to ship and hold well. There is even a successful commercial grower in Maine - which has a cold climate and shorter days than in the south. The standard perfectly blemishless grocery tomato in Chile is a gustatory waste of time, flawless in appearance but devoid of flavor and texture. Grape tomatoes are found in Chile, similar to the US, but they are really inferior to a nice cocktail tomato. I even like to keep the cocktail tomatoes til they get deep red, and use them to make sauce.

Anyone in a tomato growing zone knows that Chile supermarket tomatoes are crap and the local feria is the best place to buy tasty tomatoes. Even at the local season edges, the ones the feria people get from further north are still better than the supermarket crap (and cheaper too). Ask Hybrid about the tomatoes of Llolleo which he tried (with local feria bought parsley, Chile olive oil and Chile sea salt) with his veggie traveling companion when he visited me.

That said, there is probably a market for the cuico set for a speialty tomato. I noticed how argula lettuce became a cuico hit in a short amount of time.

[at46]

Welcome! It's impossible to find pine nuts here. Raw cashews aren't present either: they are always sold roasted and salted. Of course I'm not sure if there's any serious demand for both.

The Arabic store in Patronato has pine nuts. Lider also sometimes has them is select locations supplied by the same Arabic store. Tostaduria Talca has unsalted cashews at 16 mil per kilo. They're Brazilian, so not as good as Indian but better than nothing. Ask someone to buy and ship them to you.

[Space Cat]

Welcome! It's impossible to find pine nuts here. Raw cashews aren't present either: they are always sold roasted and salted. Of course I'm not sure if there's any serious demand for both.

The Arabic store in Patronato has pine nuts. Lider also sometimes has them is select locations supplied by the same Arabic store. Tostaduria Talca has unsalted cashews at 16 mil per kilo. They're Brazilian, so not as good as Indian but better than nothing. Ask someone to buy and ship them to you.

Awesome, thanks!

[speedstar]

What region would be best for almond or walnut growing?

[at46]

I think Chile's markets could use cocktail tomatoes - the ones that are maybe 3.5cm diameter, a little smaller than a golf ball. Here in the US they have taken on very well. They have excellent flavor in any season and seem to ship and hold well. There is even a successful commercial grower in Maine - which has a cold climate and shorter days than in the south. The standard perfectly blemishless grocery tomato in Chile is a gustatory waste of time, flawless in appearance but devoid of flavor and texture. Grape tomatoes are found in Chile, similar to the US, but they are really inferior to a nice cocktail tomato. I even like to keep the cocktail tomatoes til they get deep red, and use them to make sauce.

Anyone in a tomato growing zone knows that Chile supermarket tomatoes are crap and the local feria is the best place to buy tasty tomatoes. Even at the local season edges, the ones the feria people get from further north are still better than the supermarket crap (and cheaper too). Ask Hybrid about the tomatoes of Llolleo which he tried (with local feria bought parsley, Chile olive oil and Chile sea salt) with his veggie traveling companion when he visited me.

That said, there is probably a market for the cuico set for a speialty tomato. I noticed how argula lettuce became a cuico hit in a short amount of time.

A campo friend here in the Fifth Region says his neighbors just plowed in a bunch of tomatoes this year because of tremendous overproduction. Apparently, someone had a good year with tomatoes a couple of years ago and now the entire area is growing them. There's no planning whatsoever as to which crop to plant and the competition is pretty fierce.