While macadamia nuts originate and are cultivated in Australia, commercial production occurs primarily in Hawaii. Some countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia also grow macadamia nuts, while the trees are found in California and Florida for the continental United States. She says that during the drying process, the nuts should be covered at night to prevent dew from getting in or they won't cure properly. In commercial environments, macadamias reproduce through grafting, meaning that parts of different plants come together to create a new one.
For home gardeners, once they've established the trees and brought them to the harvest stage, the really hard job is to crack the nuts. Macadamias prefer fertile, well-drained soils, a rainfall of 1000 to 2000 mm (40 to 80 inches) and temperatures that do not fall below 10 °C (50 °F) (although once established, they can withstand light frosts), with an optimal temperature of 25 °C (80 °F). A couple of decades later, the Hawaii Agricultural Experiment Station (HAES) was established to obtain new crops on the islands, since the newly created territory of the United States relied almost exclusively on sugar after the collapse of the coffee market. Most of the crop is sold at farmers markets and other local locations, and through a small cooperative, the Gold Crown Macadamia Association.
Examining the gift shop at Kona International Airport, on the Big Island of Hawaii, I searched for the right box of macadamia nut treats to show my family that I was thinking about them during my Hawaiian spa getaway. According to Onnolee Elliott, an Orange County gardener who specializes in growing subtropical fruit and nut trees, macadamia nut trees will grow and produce well in areas of Southland, where avocado trees do well. After the nuts fall, Elliott says you should remove the shells, which are similar to those of walnuts, and then dry the nuts in the sun. The macadamia tree is usually propagated by grafting and doesn't start producing commercial quantities of seeds until it's 7 to 10 years old, but once established, it can continue producing for more than 100 years.
After that drying period, the nuts must be dried in a 100-degree oven to finish the drying process. When you think of macadamia nuts, you probably associate them with a delicious flavor, high prices, and Hawaii. At first, Purvis didn't intend for nuts to be a success; he planted them as windbreaks for sugar cane fields. On the bright side, it has a high commercial yield; 17 kg (37 pounds) have been recorded from a 9-year-old tree and the nuts fall to the ground.
Since Elliott has 30 trees and sells nuts, he uses a mechanical macadamia cookie that costs several thousand dollars and is the same type used by commercial producers in Hawaii.
