Green almond

Prunus dulcis · Stone fruit

40 pairings

The green almond is the immature, whole fruit of the almond tree (Prunus dulcis), picked in spring while the drupe is still soft, downy and grass-green — long before the woody shell and hard nut inside have formed. Eaten skin, flesh, jelly-soft kernel and all, it is crunchy, intensely sour and faintly bitter, tasting of green apple, cut grass and fresh almond, and is traditionally dipped in salt as a springtime snack across the Middle East and Mediterranean.

Picking a good onedrag

Downy, jelly-softLeathery, shell set

FirmingStill whole-fruit good: salt, brine, or sliced into spring salads.Buy it

Skin and downStill green, down rubbing to a shine

SqueezeFirm, but a nail still marks it

Cut it openMilky soft kernel, green-apple sap

Stem endPale at the break, hull tight round it

What to look for, from downy, jelly-soft to leathery, shell set.

What one gives you

100%

Usable yield

eaten whole - hull, soft shell and all

Keeping ittap a band

A domestic fridge holds it about 4× longer than the counter.

Humidity

90-95%

Bag them. Bare in a dry fridge the hull dehydrates, leathers and browns in days - exactly the change you bought them to beat.

Airflow

Vented, not sealed

A perforated bag: in storage trials sealed packs plus 10 C grew the most mould, so vent the bag and keep the cold instead.

Too young to ripen anything

Picked long before the climacteric rise, it gives off almost no ethylene, so it ripens nothing beside it - and nothing ripens it. It only dries and toughens.

Preparing