Macadamia heaven!

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Oliver: Hoy (today) we visited an organic macadamia finca called 'Valhala'. Our parents didn't have to twist our arms to go on this trip. Macadamia nuts are really delicious, I know this because my grandparents grow them on their farm in New Zealand. We hired two motorscooters in Antigua and travelled in pairs - me with Martin and Louis with Paula. 5 mins after we left we had to turn around and go back to get a bigger one for me and martin because the original was far too small and Martin was getting squished. We ended up on a much bigger but older model, which it turned out squeaked so much we nicknamed it 'the cricket'. We set off again (squeaking all the way) and promptly got lost. Mucha practica hablar español with some bemused locals later, we finally found valhala - right on the main road.

What a treasure! We really enjoyed our visit and our guided tour. In no time Luis was busy cracking and munching fresh macadamias. We enjoyed playing with the machines to husk and grade the nuts, and sampling the products -especially the hand made chocolates. We learned about the valhala project which has been going for about twenty years and is now a model for sustainable organic agriculture over here and attracts many overseas visitors and volunteers. The farm grows its own trees from seed and donates seedlings every year to local communities. Most of the trees are hybrids of M. integrifolia and tetrafolia and grow really well in the dry local climate and rich volcanic soils. Most of the farmers around here rely heavily on coffee, which is grown in large plantations shaded by grevillia trees. Some farms are beginning to trial using macadamias instead to shade the coffee plants because the nuts are such a versatile and valuable crop and the deep rooted macadamia trees don't need irrigation and help to reduce erosion.

Needless to say, we came away from Valhala with a big bag of goodies including mantequilla de macadamia (Peanut butter made from macadamias) to put on our toast for breakfast. Yum!!!

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Photos

Grading macadamia nuts
The biggest nuts are dried and then processed into cosmetics or roasted for eating and the smallest nuts get put back under the trees.

la machina
this clever machine is built around a rotating flat tyre and strips the skin off the nuts before they are graded.

Los Flores
Most of the trees flower intermittently and set fruit all year round.

Luis at Valhala
The nuts are put out to dry for about a month. The farm dog is very partial to them and was stealing them from the drying racks.