Macadamias

It’s macadamia harvesting season.  It’s a small farm, and they are just beginning to sell their nuts commercially, which means a lot of things are still done by hand – no big machines to harvest or sort the nuts.  We enjoyed our first day of work, and got to see the whole process:  harvesting, husking, drying, shelling, sorting, drying again, eating.

 Macadamias hanging to dry – about three months.  Less, if you have a dehumidifier.

 There was one machine we used, for cracking the nuts.

Nuts in the hopper. 

Cracker missed some, so we picked them out and put them through the machine again.

Cracked nuts.

Sorting the nuts.  Some are diseased so we set them aside for the chickens.  The nice ones are dried and sold whole, for baking or eating.  Any damaged or small ones are made into nut butter.

The atmosphere here is so much better than the last place.  The work is easy and varied, so we’re not sore or bored.  And we’re actually learning something interesting.  We can’t wait to get back and apply what we’ve learned to our own walnuts in the backyard.

Our hosts are friendly and easy going, and they make delicious meals for us.  In the last few days we’ve had home made chicken soup (which is great, because I gave Chris my cold), lamb with roasted potatoes, pumpkin and yams, shepherds pie, pickled beets, hummus, cookies, fresh bread, almond cake… all home made, mostly from their own organic produce.

We don't have much access to internet, so our posts are a bit behind.   Hopefully we'll catch up soon!