At last some good news to post! Today we spent a few hours cracking open our home grown macadamia nuts and made some lovely chocolate and macadamia nut muffins! I did say I'd post when I found something good about Australia well here it is...The Macadamia nut!! I love em, and whats more I've got about 20kg of them from this years harvest (only 2 trees!)
There would have been more but my two fat dogs eat most of them before I realised they had all fallen off the trees.

Ohhh yum. I tend to eat them until I feel slightly queasy We were at the Tropical Fruit World and hoped to come away with a couple of plants but they didn't have any.

Very pleased something good has happened! Remember this moment

[QUOTE=arkon]The Macadamia nut!! I love em.

I love nut's but have never heard of Macadamia nut before ?

[QUOTE=lor] Yes, I was going to buy a Macadamia nut farm. But this is the first time I've had a couple of mac trees growing in the garden, and they taste better for being free. Free from pesticides and free from cost!

Cool and yummy

You're nuts

And becoming quite popular I see Arkon

[QUOTE=lor] Macadamias were originally called Bauple nuts named after the locality about 20k north of where we live. They were then called Queensland nuts and after that renamed Macadamia nuts.

Arkon I think your supposed to store them for at least a few weeks before you eat them they become sweeter then as the starch turns to sugar

Maybe arkon you could advise me how to get the macadamia nuts out of the shells, normal nut crackers are useless, the macadamia is a small round ball, rather like a erm malteser, when I get these nuts they just pop out the crackers theres no keeping them in there. Tried using a hammer, but then they just shoot all over the road, (decided the kerb was the best place to smash nuts) could be messy.

What do you use , something from bunnings maybe

a course at the local TAFE
followed by licencing perhaps

ROFPMSL

Would that be

the Cert III in nut operations

or the Cert IV in safe handling of nuts and the service of nuts to the general public.

LOL, yes they are a bugger to get out. Firstly pick em all up off the ground and lay them on a big tin for a few weeks so that the outer green shell separates from the NIS (nut in shell). Yes they have 2 shells! We then leave them another couple of weeks for the actual kernel to shrink slightly and so come away from the hard brown shell. Then you put a shell in a special mac hammer and bash the buggery out of it on some concrete until the brown shell cracks open. After some practise you get the strength right so you don't pulverise the kernel. (the hammer came from a big market north of Brisbane). You can now eat the nut or slow roast it for a better flavour, keep an eye on them in the oven as they are full of oil and burn really easily.

Another way to get them out is to let the dogs have them and just as they crunch down, prise the dogs jaws open and fish out the nut. Wipe of the dogs saliva and bobs your auntie!

If you really want to be put to shame, hide somewhere and leave the nuts outside and wait for the rats to come and get them. They seem to be able to get them open with no effort at all!

Go to the Tourist Mecca that is Eumundi and buy the hammer cracker that the guy there sells, it's excellent .
Just need to complete the short course in using a hammer & your home free

What suprises me about this kindergarden country is that as adults you are actually allowed to buy and eat nuts. Don't the government realise you can choke on nuts, not to mention anal-falactic shock.

We have a special macadamia nut cracker. Bought it in a specialist kitchen shop.

It's basically a triangular vice made out of cast iron (I think). Put the nut in the vice and screw. Works really well, doesn't need brute strength and never squashes the kernel.