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Macadamia trees are native to Australia. It is believed that long before European explorers mapped Australia, Aboriginal people would congregate on the eastern slopes of Australia’s Great Dividing Range to feed on the seeds of an evergreen tree, they called this tree ‘Kindal Kindal’. Later know as Macadamia tetraphylla and commercial the only plant food native to Australia that is produced and exported in any significant quantity.
In the Northern Rivers is a big growing belt of Macadamias. This is where the Gough Family Macadamia Farm is in a little village called Rosebank.Rosebank lies about 30 mins inland from the beautiful coastal town of Byron Bay.
The Gough Farm has been in the family now for 30 years. Purchased in the 80’s as a Banana Farm it has had many revivals ending finally as a 25-acre macadamia farm. The farm is also home to 70 lime trees, 60 mandarin trees, 3 avocados, and a big veggie garden. On the internal boundary snuggled next to the neighbors custard apple farm is a wildlife corridor. Big tallow wood trees line the boundary ending in a rainforest terrain at the end of the property. Koalas and owls frequent this area and along the boundary trees are native beehives, big stag horns and native Australia orchids. The farm was not always organic but for the last 6 years organic practices have been used and in 2009 The ACO (Australian Certified Organic) certification was accredited.
A diverse range of organic practices are used on the farm. They use Trichogramma wasp which lay their eggs in nut borer eggs and then eat the larva of this nut damaging insect. This is part of the benifical insects system which makes it redundant to use the bad pesticides. These beneficial insects are world's best known form of organic pest control. For more information on good bugs look up http://www.goodbugs.org.au/
For organic fertilizer they use an amazing product, which not only provides great nutrients but also is a waste management solution for the Lismore area. The Tryton Organic Recycling Facility runs the biggest worm farm in the Southern Hemisphere. Apart from composting the organic matter, the worm farm has facilities to further improve the compost. Giant temperature and humidity-controlled greenhouses, are so far housing around 25 tonnes, up to 100 million worms. Essentially these worms are employed to transform some of the composts into certified organic compost and fertiliser. The manufactured products act as environmentally friendly long-term soil conditioners containing nutrients readily available to plants, which greatly improve soil performance and crop yields.The end results of Lismore’s organic waste service is an exciting range of products that gardeners, farmers, horticulturalists and land managers can use to improve soil health and stimulate plant growth.
Macadamias grow on trees almost like a bunch of grapes grow on a vine. The nuts have a shell and then a husk. Once the nut is ready it will fall to the ground and a machine with large brushes picks it up and pops it in a hopper. The nuts are then put through a de-husker, traveled along a conveyabelt where damaged nuts are pick out by hand and then floated to skim off any bad nuts. They are then put in a silo and dried down untill ready for processing. The above process happens on the farm and the husks are used as a beautiful mulch back onto the trees and in the veggie garden.
Compared to other common edible nuts like almonds and cashews, macadamias are high in fat and low in protein.[9] They have the highest amount of beneficial monounsaturated fats of any known nut, but also contains approximately 22% of omega-7 palmitoleic acid,[10] which has biological effects similar to saturated fat. They also contain 9% protein, 9% carbohydrate, 2% dietary fiber, as well as calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, selenium, iron, thiamine, riboflavin and niacin.[11]
You can use macadamias in pesto, salads, goes well with fish, in stir fries. For a great recipe source log onto http://macadamias.org/recipes
Find Organic Road macadamia products here. Macadamia nuts or Macadamia Butter.
Reference: Wikipedia, www.macadamiasaustralia.net, macadamias.org