Macadamias Are Here (ish)


Ok, were encouraged to find nuts of any amount in the grove to harvest this year as the squirrel population has gotten away from us. We cracked out our first harvest this morning, and have given little bags of our amazing raw macadamias to all large shares. If you've never tasted just harvested, raw macadamias, you'll find them quite different than the ones you might have picked up in Hawaii, which are almost always roasted in coconut oil and salted. We usually rack our mac harvests for a couple weeks before cracking out, so the nut meat has a chance to recede a bit from the shell in the drying process, which makes it easier to crack out. We did wait the two weeks, but the nuts are still quite "moist," you'll definately see why growers compare raw macadamias to coconut! I guess the high humidity from all the rains has made the drying process more difficult.
 
We'll wait a couple weeks to crack out more, as cracking out moist nuts is more time consuming, in an already very time consuming process. You'll want to refrigerate your macs if you don't just eat them the second you get your hands on them; they will not last long on the counter, any better than say, a fresh apricot would.
 
 

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hi Donna, I came for a farm tour last spring and I love your blog. Sorry I am not a CSA member! I have a question~ I have a large macademia nut tree. I bought a hand cracker at the farmer's market but it is still so hard to crack the nuts! What kind of cracker do you use? Thanks for your help and your inspiration your blog provides for my own little 2 1/2 acre "farm". ~Shonda in Vista
January 27, 2013 at 2:53 PM
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