Over the weekend, I become slightly infatuated with the production of macadamia nuts. I spent some time learning about them and find it so different than anything I am familiar with in Canada; so very interesting not to mention a delicious. Macadamia’s are a tree nut and the trees are native to Australia’s rainforest, on the Queensland coast. The trees are beautiful and can grow over 10 meters high and are cultivated in neat rows as an orchard would be planted. I read somewhere that in the Botanical Gardens in Brisbane there is a tree that was cultivated in 1858 that is still producing nuts. When the tree is trimmed or cut down, the wood can be used to make stunning pieces.
The harvest runs from March to September and the nuts fall from the trees when ripe; they are then mechanically or hand picked from the ground. They are covered in a husk and a shell at this stage. They are typically around 30% moisture and typically the husks are removed at the farm. The factory that I was at had silos on site that dried the nuts down to 1.5% moisture which is suitable for cracking.
All of this to produce, in my opinion, one of the best tasting tree nuts there is. To finish off my macadamia nut day, I stopped at the roadside "Big Macadamia nut" just off the Bruce Highway north of Brisbane. The day wouldn’t be complete without it. It appeared as though it wasn’t the tourist draw it once was, but I managed to snap a few photos.
No comments:
Post a Comment