Macadamia nuts

The genus of Macadamia is in the Proteaceae family. According to our friend wikipedia most species of the genus Macadamia are native to the the rainforest of eastern Australia, with two other species found in New Caledonian and Sulawesi, Indonesia, respectively. The two species that are grown commercial are from Australia- Macadamia integrifolia and M. tetraphylla. If you really want to know more about the phylogeny and phytogeography about the genus Macadamia and their tribe Macadamieae please go here

On a commercial scale they would probably use driers and mechanized cracking devices to speed up the process... but here is what I know of collecting and cracking macadamia nuts on a very small scale.

The step by step guide into how to crack that tough nut!

Step 1: Go find yourself a tree full of macadamia nuts.
Step 2: This is a nut you let fall to the ground. You don't pick it. Look on the ground for green nuts and start collecting.

Step 3: Take your basket or tray of green macadamia nuts and put them in the sun.


Step 4: When the nuts are ready the shell will turn brown and start to crack open. Peel this layer off and put the remaining nugget in a bowl.


Step 5: Once you have enough nuts in a bowl take you handy nut cracker (a really good one- with a big lever) or a set of good rock and start cracking!


Step 6: enjoy!

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