Tiny Treasures

Around the begining of winter down under, the macadamia tree in our neighborhood starts dropping its fruit, rich cream kernels locked in hard brown shells wrapped in thick green husks.

The macadamia tree flowering in early spring.

Wanting a piece of the treasure, the girlfriend and i knocked on the door of the house of the new neighbor that now owns the tree and introduced ourselves. Welcome to the neighborhood, we said, et cetera et cetera. And could we help you collect all these macadamias littering your yard, which attract rats, you know? Oh yes, said the neighbor, take as many as you like. I can't eat them all, and here are some bags to collect them. Wow, thanks, kind neighbor!

We hauled home heaps and the next day left a big bar of chocolate on the neighbor's doorstep as a token of our gratitude.

Shortly thereafter, we began the long process of transforming the fallen balls into tasty treats. First we removed the husks, some of which had worms.

Next, we rinsed the nuts from dirt and worm poop, put them in holey sacks, and hung them in a warm, airy spot to dry.

Three months later, the nuts lost enough moisture to shell and eat, as confirmed by test-cracking a few.

In case you don't know, macadamia shells take a lot of force to crack, approximately 2000 N says Wikipedia. A simple handheld, lever-type nutcracker will not do the job. A bench vise will but slowly. I prefer a hammer for speed and excitement.

But using one ain't easy.

I found that holding the nut steady with one hand and hammering it with the other works best. Doing that, it took me about 15.5 minutes to crack 500 g of nuts, yielding 192 g (38.4%) of kernels, which is close to the 40% kernel ratio i measured last year on a store-bought sample.

Now, macadamias are fine raw but especially delicious roasted and salted. So that's the final step in the process, which takes about 8 minutes in a pre-heated fry pan.

Mmm, it's true: after basic needs are met, the best things in life are free.