How California Farmers Harvest 809,000 Tons of Walnuts _ Farming Documentary

California is the center of America’s walnut industry, producing around 809,000 tons of utilized in-shell walnuts in 2025. In this farming documentary, we explore how California farmers grow, harvest and process walnuts using one of the most mechanized orchard systems in modern agriculture.

The journey begins in vast walnut orchards, where farmers manage irrigation, pruning, pest control and tree health through the growing season. When the green hulls begin to split, powerful tree shakers enter the orchard, clamp onto the trunks and shake thousands of walnuts to the ground in just seconds.

After shaking, sweepers gather the fallen walnuts into windrows before harvesters lift them from the orchard floor and send them to hulling and drying facilities. There, the green hulls are removed, the walnuts are washed, dried, sorted, cracked and processed into clean walnut kernels.

From tree shaking to packaged kernels, discover how California turns walnut orchards into a billion-dollar nut industry.