This was once a well-known Spanish variety was first offered by Gillet in the 1890’s. It has been planted over a wider range of climates than any other almond, but like all other almonds it needs nearly frost-free conditions during bloom in February. Unlike most almonds, this variety bears well on heavy soils as long as there is good drainage. Well flavored, very large (over 1 1/4” wide and long) nut with dark, hard shell. Ripens in September. Needs pollination by Princess or Provence.

The grandmother tree is still growing, barely, at French Corral, Nevada County along the South Yuba River at 1530’. One of the first mining camps along the San Juan Ridge, it had multiple huge hydraulic mines. The name was literal as the town grew around a mule corral built by the first settler, a Frenchman, in 1849. In 1877, it was the terminus of the world's first long-distance telephone line, built to warn the miners that the sheriff was coming to shut down the outlawed hydraulic mines. The telephone was needed to notify the dam tenders on the Middle Fork of the Yuba to turn off the ditch water, making it impossible for the sheriff to bust the miners doing their deeds! The Bridgeport covered bridge, just downstream, is reputed to be the longest single-span wooden covered bridge in the world.