Macadamia Nuts, Part Two

Yesterday I shared some photos from our visit to the macadamia grove. Today, I'll pick up where those left off.

Yesterday's photos included the nuts, in their green husks, on the tree. Here is a photo of the husk cut away to reveal the nut in the shell:

When the macadamia nut is mature, the husks split open, and the nut falls to the ground.

Here are two different varieties of macadamias, in their shells

The nuts are then dehydrated:

And then packaged for delivery. They are usually sold already shelled (I've never seen one sold in the shell?)

Trivia: Macadamia nuts have the hardest shell of any nut, and it requires a special tool to crack them open. 

When we visited the grove in March, Joan purchased a little tree. Here is Bailey next to the little itty bitty macadamia tree:

That little tree is now planted in our backyard. If we feed and water it properly, after two years, it should start producing nuts. 

OK, that's it for the macadamia lesson, for now. I'm sure I'll be writing about macadamias again over the next few months.

Photo source