my nuts are HUGE

I love my Macadamia Nut tree.

Its quite a big tree – around 5m in height – and its always green …. and its perfect for hanging my dive gear in whilst I rinse and dry it.

And this year it has HUGE NUTS!
Huge I tell you.  Nuts I tell you.

As I have not been diving lately, I have been finding new and interesting things to occupy my time.
(Its either that or I sit on the couch drinking beer and eating popcorn and generally complaining about how hot and muggy it is.)

Not knowing anything about said tree – or just not caring about it enough (other than picking up the dead leaves as they hurt my feet!) – I didnt look at harvesting the nuts last year.  But this years crop literally looks like it could smack me in the face.

I’ve been reading a little on New Zealand’s macadamia nuts and they are indeed biennial – alternate years produce light then heavy crops – so no wonder this seasons nuts look bigger and better than last season’s.

The macadamia nut was originally documented in Australia – where the Aborigines called it kindal kindal and feasted on them in winter – by British Colonists.  Funny to read that the sentences of history say the colonists discovered the nut, but if the Aborigines were eating them then surely they discovered them?

The first known orchard was planted in Australia in 1890 and now we see orchards planted in Hawaii, New Zealand, Costa Rica, South Africa, Brazil and Mexico to name a few.  The macadamia nut is considered a delicacy but many people all over the world.

Ripened and unripened nuts can look the same so the advice is to wait until they fall to the ground which could be around May to June to July.  If the spil is wet, I should be looking to see if the hard outer shell (pericarp) is splitting.  Some times this period can be right up until November.
Once they start splitting and/or falling, then I can try husking some of them and seeing whether its better to roast them or not.

YUM!

If anyone knows what variety my tree – and nuts – are from, could you let me know please?
Any information or recommendations would also be greatly appreciated.

>> New Zealand Macadamia Nut Fact Sheet

But after all that excitement, it has to be said – god I need to get back into the water already!
I am enjoying the garden, dont get me wrong, but I miss my eels and my rays and my nudis and get narc’ed!