As such, Mr. Woolf is squarely astride what has amounted to an explosion in the California almond crop. Almonds were first brought to the state in the 18th century, by the Franciscan padres who founded the chain of coastal missions, but the trees suffered in the misty, moist conditions near the Pacific, and only a hundred later were successfully planted inland.

The Central Valley has been prime almond terrain for most of the 20th century, but the crop has quadrupled over the last 30 years as efficient production, ideal growing conditions, economies of scale and growing demand for almonds in everything from breakfast cereal to specialty oils has given the state a virtual corner on the world market, with countries like Spain, Italy and Greece together producing not even a third of California's yield.

Anne Gingrass, the chef at Hawthorne Lane in San Francisco, uses almonds year-round, and in ways that are not always obvious. In a risotto with dried red chilies and goat cheese, she chops up almonds and cooks them with the rice so they attain a similar texture as the grains, and, she added, they round out the flavor and heat of the chilies. She also uses them to thicken chicken soup, pureeing the almonds with the broth.

''Hazelnuts are so strong, pine nuts are unpredictable -- you don't know if you're going to get a bad one, and they're really fatty,'' she said. ''Almonds are subtle.''

Almonds, long promoted in culinary lore as a hedge against intoxication if eaten with wine, have also benefited from a recent wave of nutritional and dietary revisionism. Like all nuts, they are high in fat, but mostly in mono-unsaturated fat, the kind that predominates in canola and olive oils and avocados, and is celebrated for its ability to lower harmful cholesterol. Several current diets, like the Zone, by Barry Sears, celebrate almonds for their satiating qualities and their ability to help satisfy cravings for less healthy fats. Almonds contain beneficial calcium, potassium and magnesium, all protections against high blood pressure. They are also potent sources of anti-oxidants, which have been linked to protection against cancer and heart disease.

An ounce of almonds, about 24 whole nuts, has 164 calories.

An almond tree in commercial production today begins with a hardy root stock grown from a peach pit (another botanical relative), onto which a more delicate almond cutting is grafted. Trees can begin producing nuts in about five years (two or three years shorter than pistachios) and reach peak productivity at about 10 years, which tapers off to almost nothing by age 25 or so. The annual production cycle -- and forecast of the year's yield -- begins romantically around Valentine's Day with the bloom, when orchards are transformed into spectacular oceans of pale pink blossoms.

Because almonds are not self-pollinating, different varieties are planted in alternating rows, and more than a million beehives are brought by commercial beekeepers into the state each winter to pollinate trees. It is a fraught time, and a whole year's crop depends on the vagaries of wind and weather.