
We are a family operated farm located on the Hilo side of the Big Island. We have an 18-acre farm that is comprised of macadamia nut trees as well as a variety of fruit and ornamentals. Our premium mac nuts are grown in Hawaiian volcanic mineralized soils off the slopes of Mauna Loa and are a source of essential nutrients including calcium, vitamin B6, manganese, iron, magnesium, zinc, and omega 3, 7 and 9. We are 100% pesticide free and use mowers as well as our two sweet, adorable horses to help us keep the weeds and grass down in our orchard. We are a family of animal lovers and have a dog, two cats and a variety of birds on our farm. Our two young daughters love playing around the farm and really enjoy helping us pick mac nuts.
Our goal is to provide the highest possible quality of freshly air-dried in shell macadamia nuts. Our raw in shell macadamia nuts have a sweet, delicious, crunchy flavor and are perfect for those who want to eat healthy whole foods. All of our in shell mac nuts are hand sorted to ensure top quality. We harvest our nuts on a daily basis during the season to ensure we have the freshest macadamia nuts. We sell a variety of mac nut crackers that can be fun for the whole family to use. Our in-shell mac nuts are also a favorite of large birds such as hyacinth macaws and black palm cockatoos. We specialize in selling our macadamia nuts to bird customers and have automatic shipment programs designed to keep your bird with a year-round supply of fresh in shell mac nuts. Customer service is a top priority to us, and we strive to make sure all our customers, both parrots and people alike, are happy with our products. We look forward to having you as a customer with us!
"..., but I do need nuts as soon as possible, as my Hyacinth Macaw "Max", is finicky and your nuts are about 75% of his diet. I am attaching a picture of him, as one of your most loyal customers!!!"
“Thank you so much! My bird will be ecstatic to get them. You ROCK!”
"We love your mac nuts! Our kids have so much fun cracking them, and I feel good knowing they are eating healthy."
"Blu our 3 ½ year old Hyacinth macaw absolutely LOVES your nuts! We've been ordering them from you guys since we've gotten him!"
“Love your Mac nuts!!”
“My hyacinth loves your mac nuts! Your quality is the best!”
I raise a lot of macaws, and particularly Hyacinths which require high fat diets. I've ordered from you before and found the quality quite good which is important to me. I'd like to set up to order 17 lbs /month under your subscription plan.
"Great service, fast shipping, great product, great prices. Thanks for your help. I received my nuts for my Hyacinth Macaw Lilly, and she is a happy girl. Thank you!"
“He is the Boss Baby of our house, and he loves your mac nuts”
We received our standing order of Mac nuts today. As always they are very nice. You are very generous to send us the 2 extra pounds at no charge. Our macaws love these yummy treats and the extra nuts are wonderful for training and positive reinforcement. thank you so much for your kindness.
And thank you, the nuts are great. My wife and I eat some, however most are eaten by a large Macaw named Lily.
Just a short note to say "Thank you" for the wonderful macadamia honey which you enclosed with my recent nut order. The nuts are for our Green wing macaw, Carmen, but the honey will be for the rest of the family. It's absolutely delicious!
Thanks so much for the extra pound of nuts. These are the prettiest nuts I've seen in a long time! Our Hyacinth LOVES them!
We received our last shipment of nuts and were thrilled with the macadamia nut honey. We are enjoying it and thank you so much for sending it along to us! Please renew our subscription for next year at the same level.
Good Morning Monika, Thank you for the great service on this order .As always, it’s a pleasure doing business with you.
Hello Monika Thanks for sending out the shipment. I will let you know how Buddy the macaw likes the wet nuts. Thanks for the information also. It is a genuine pleasure doing business with you!
Thank you for keeping me on your mailing list. Carmen loves the nuts. I'll send you a photo of him eating one when I get a chance.
Aloha Monika,The nuts and the honey are delicious !Thank you very much!
Thanks for everything. My Macaw cracked open the first nut and said"mmmm". I agree, great Macadamia Nuts!
Hello Monika,We had fun meeting you and hanging out at the farm the other day. Please let us know when you are ready to ship macnuts – put us on your e-mail list if you have one.
Just another note of thanks. Winnie's macs arrived in the mail today. You have never seen a happier bird.
Monika’s Mac Nuts are preferred by Birds and People with a desire for a very High Quality, Fresh Tasting, Nutritious nut. Our in-shell mac nuts are always Naturally Air Dried… Never Cooked (cooking robs the nuts of flavor and nutrition).
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The Macadamia nut tree belongs to the family Proteaceae. It is native to the coastal rain forest areas of Australia. Macadamia seeds were first imported into Hawaii in 1882 by William Purvis and macadamias have since become the most important tree crop in Hawaii. Total acres in macadamia production is 20,200 acres and Hawaii’s macadamia industry is valued at $175 million annually. Major production of macadamia is on the island of Hawaii (Big Island).
Edible nuts are from two species of the genus Macadamia: Macadamia integrifolia (smooth-shell type) and Macadamia tetraphylla (rough-shell type). The macadamia nut industry in Hawaii, Australia, and many other producing areas is based primarily on the smooth-shell type. Considerable research has gone into selection and breeding of the best cultivars for Hawaii. More than 100,000 seedlings have been screened to produce the 7 perfect cultivars grown in Hawaii.
Both species are attractive, evergreen trees, which with age can attain a height of 60 feet and a spread of 40 feet. They have shiny, green, holly-like foliage. The small, perfect, cream-colored flowers are borne in axillary racemes to 12 inches long consisting of several hundred flowers. Although there are a large number of flowers in each raceme, usually not more than about 10 nuts set and mature.
In Hawaii, commercial orchards are planted with grafted seedlings. Macadamia nut trees can start bearing a small crop in the fifth year after planting, and full production is reached in 12 to 15 years. The trees require 60 – 120 inches of rainfall a year and can be grown from sea level to an elevation of 2500 feet.
Macadamia nuts are harvested manually after they have fallen. In Hawaii, the nuts typically drop 8 to 9 months of the year from May to December. The husk and the shell accounts for most of the macadamia nut’s weight. Husk is about 50% of the whole nut. The average kernel recovery rate from “in-shell nuts” (without the husk) is about 25 to 35%. That means the kernel is only 15% of the whole macadamia nut.
Macadamias can be grown successfully on a variety of Hawaiian soils ranging from loose volcanic lava soils to well-drained, lateritic clays. Fertilization (3 to 4 times a year) is necessary for good production and growth. All the husks, leaves and trimmings are used to replace and supplement the soil nutrients in our Pohoiki Farm orchard.
The processing of Macadamia Nuts is done differently from farm to farm and from company to company. At Monika’s Mac Nuts the processing of the in-shell nuts is very labor intensive and most of the work is still done by hand. The following paragraphs will explain how we implement the various processing steps in the order of their occurrence.
On our 15 acre Pohoiki Farm we harvest the nuts once a month. The nuts are not picked directly from the tree. As with many other nut types, they tree-ripen and then fall to the ground. All the nuts are then “picked” by hand from the ground. The nuts are gathered in bags weighing approximately 45 pounds each and brought to our husking facility, which is located within the orchard.
De-husking or husking means to peel off the outer fibrous green shell. Husking is done by machine and should be done within 24 hours of harvest to prevent heat respiration and molding. During this step the nuts are sorted manually. Bad nuts are discarded, and nuts which may be unacceptable for human or pet consumption are mulched, composted and introduced back into the orchard. Any nuts remaining un-husked are returned to the husking machine for a second time around.
When the nuts are first harvested, they have a high moisture content (up to 30%, depending on the weather) and the kernel itself fills the entire shell. By drying the nuts for 2-4 weeks in open-air, well ventilated bins, the kernel starts to shrink away from the inside of the shell and becomes loose, although the moisture content is still near 12-14%. For a drier nut, with a moisture content below 10 %, we dehumidify the nuts with no heat involved after the 2-4 week air drying process.
Important: Please take mac nuts out of the box as soon as you receive them.
We recommend storing the nuts in the freezer or fridge. You can store them in the freezer either in the mesh bag they come in or in zip lock bags. The nuts will stay fresh for at least a year in the freezer.
If you do not have room in the fridge or freezer then we recommend hanging the mesh bag in a cool, dry area such as an air-conditioned room or a cool breezy area.
Do not keep the mac nuts in their box or in a sealed container unless they are in the freezer. Our nuts are air dried not heat dried so the kernel has a higher moisture content and will mold if air is not able to circulate around them.
There isn’t an optimum amount of time recommended for storage as there are too many variables but the nuts will store reasonably well for up to 6 months.
The nuts can be cracked by carefully tightening them in a bench vice or striking them with a hammer after placing them in a sack or clear plastic bag. Here is a link to a video of how to crack mac nuts using a ratcheting PVC pipe cutter… Click Here There are, also, specialty nut crackers available from our store …
No pesticides are used on our farms Macadamia Nut trees or nuts, and at the time of shipping the nuts are thoroughly inspected for quality and only the best of what is available is included in your order. That being said, we recommend, as with any food item that does not come in a sealed package, such as an apple, that you inspect and wash the nuts right before giving them to your bird, and do not let the nut shells come in contact with your birds’ water source. While the chances of your order coming into contact with any outside factors and becoming contaminated before you receive it are slim, the safety of your beloved pets is paramount and we would hate for your pet to get sick from something getting on the shell and then going in its mouth.
If you find an occasional moldy nut it might be one that was not picked from the orchard quickly enough. Either the pickers did not see it on the ground, or it was in a grassy area or something similar. A few moldy nuts in your order are possible and should be covered by the extra half pound of nuts that we include in every box over 10 pounds. If you have more than a few moldy nuts this was most likely caused by moisture build up in the shell.
For example: If the nuts had been sitting in the box in the sun somewhere at the post office or in a car and then you get them and put them in the fridge that would make the nuts sweat and moisture would build up inside the shell. The excess moisture will then make the kernel mold.
Also, any extreme temperature changes will cause condensation and this could cause the kernel to mold. So be sure to avoid rapid temperature change.
Nuts, in general, contain lots of oil. Macadamia Nutse in particular, contain more oils than most other nuts; therefore care should be taken when storage is required in order to prevent the oils from becoming rancid over time.
We recommend using a mac nut cracker to slightly crack the nut before feeding it to your bird. This way you can be sure that the kernel does not have a mold problem. While most birds will not eat a moldy nut, some especially young birds may still eat it. This is a safe way to know that your bird will not come into any contact with mold spores. We sell mac nut crackers here on our website.
To avoid any problems created by long-term storage, you might seriously consider our “Subscription” program. This is a very good way to assure that your nuts are always fresh; particularly the in-shell nuts. It works like this: place your subscription order for, say, 17 lbs to delivered once every 2 months -or- 51 lbs every 3 months -or- some other quantity and shipping period that suits your special needs. We can even ship nuts to you once every month, if that is your wish. You are placed into our shipping schedule, which assures the availability of fresh nuts when you want them. If you have a lively retail/wholesale business or a very hungry bird, you might want to consider this program.
If you prefer your nuts roasted, here is how to do it: Avoid roasting small pieces and whole kernel at the same time, they roast unevenly.
Allow to cool. Enjoy.
If you want to dry In-Shell Macadamia Nuts at home in your oven, do this: Use the lowest warm setting on your oven, or a food dehydrator at (the “nut” setting, if there is one) around 105 degrees F for two to three days. Test the nuts by cracking them open. The shell will become brittle and is easier to crack. If the kernel is still chewy, give them another 24 hours. When they are done, they should be crunchy when biting into them.