My Macadamia Nut Tree

Nov 26

Pictured above: My macadamia nut tree. It's about 70 years old and 35 feet tall!

You don't have to go to Hawaii to see macadamia nut trees. Coastal Southern California is the perfect place to grow the trees. The nuts ripen in the fall, right before Thanksgiving.

The macadamia tree is an evergreen making it a great landscape tree. It doesn't need as much water as an avocado tree, nor does it require much feeding. I only use compost. The husk around the nut splits and the nut and husk fall to the ground when ripe, so no tree climbing or ladders are necessary to gather those delicious nuts. That's lucky for me, as you can see how tall my macadamia nut tree is!

Pictured above are the ripening nuts still hanging on the tree.

Once they fall to the ground, I simply gather them up, remove the split husk (but leave in the shell), and dry in my dehydrator for 24 to 48 hours at about 100 degrees Fahrenheit. This will dry the nut for longer storage life and also makes the shell hard and easy to crack. The nuts can be stored up to one year in the freezer in their shell, or 9 months in the freezer shelled. You can also roast the nuts after shelling, but the shelf life is considerably shorter and personally I think the raw nuts have a much better flavor.

There are many types of macadamia nut crackers for sale in stores and online. I bought mine, pictured below in the bowl of nuts, at my local farmers market for $5.00. A trick I discovered is to crack the nut perpendicular to the grain, in other words, across the middle of the nut and not with the grain. Most of the nuts have a little point on the ends. Position your cracker so that the points are horizontal to the cracker as in the picture below.

I enjoy my macadamia nuts right from the shell, but you can also use them in baked goods such as cupcakes and cookies, you can use them when making pesto instead of pine nuts, they are great in a salad or rice pilaf dish, and in pretty much any recipe you use any other nut.