Cracking the nut industry requires years of patience, Waipū grower says

Eric Corner and Deirdre Lawton of Nutty For You macadamias, Waipū. Photo / Donna Russell

Patience is the key to cracking the macadamia nut industry.

Macadamia growers Eric Corner and Deirdre Lawton have had to wait about 10 years for their 1000-tree orchard at Waipū to become established.

The 5ha Nutty For You orchard was once part of a dairy farm that became sectioned off when State Highway 1 was redirected to bypass Waipū many years ago. Corner's parents, Des and Marjorie, ran it as a lifestyle block before he took it over in 2005.

"I thought it had the potential to be a tourist drawcard some day, and that was starting to happen before Covid-19 stopped the tourists being able to visit,'' he said.

Eric decided to plant macadamias and settled in for a long wait for the trees to grow to production.

His primary employment as a plumber, gasfitter and drainlayer has taken him all over New Zealand, including four years working in Christchurch helping rebuild the city after the earthquakes.

It was there he met his wife, Deirdre, who is from Ireland and was a lab technician working for AsureQuality's Christchurch office.

Over the years he fielded many curious inquiries on what the sticks growing in the paddock beside the highway were.

"It's eight to 10 years before you get any commercial volumes of nuts and you have to be careful with the trees when they are young as any stock that get in can do a lot of damage. We had some beef cattle that got in at one stage and we lost some trees,'' he said.

Some trees were also lost to rare frosts – although this is less of a problem now the trees have grown protective canopies.

Now mature, the macadamia trees have finally begun producing good crops, with volumes varying between cultivars and seasons.

A single mature tree can produce 16kg to 32kg of nuts in the shell, depending on the variety.

Trees in the southernmost part of the orchard have taken longer to grow in a narrow section of pipe clay, but most of the orchard is grown in 900mm of river silt on a sandstone base and seems to thrive.

Eric Corner shows the husking process at Nutty For You macadamias. Photo / Donna Russell

"We foolishly thought macadamias were not high maintenance, and they are not compared to perishable fruits, but they are still a lot of work,'' Corner said.

Initially banned, sheep now graze the grass strips between the trees.

"They are our pruning crew, with the trees cropped to sheep foraging height,'' Lawton said.

Four Australian and five New Zealand cultivars fruit at different times to spread harvesting between April and October.

Macadamia orchards in New Zealand can be managed for varieties that are "stickers", which are harvested off the tree, or "droppers", which are harvested from the ground, which is the management method Corner decided on.

"Macadamias have sharp leaves so harvesting from the trees is like death by a thousand cuts. That's one reason why I chose dropper varieties, which drop their shells to the ground when they are ripe,'' Corner said.

One of the biggest pest challenges for growers were green shield bugs, which would cause brown markings on the nuts.

"We seem to be lucky to not have too much of that problem here. We wonder if it is the vibrations from passing traffic that discourages the bugs,'' Lawton said.

Rats are also partial to the macadamia orchard and the entire property is professionally managed by a pest control company.

The green nuts are harvested by hand from under the trees before being taken to the processing plant on the property.

The original processing shed burned down from an electrical short in 2019.

With the shed now rebuilt, the crop can be processed on site. The nuts pass through a husker, air dryers to reduce moisture to 15 per cent, and a drying silo, which reduces moisture content to 2 per cent before they are cracked.

"The processing plant gives us a lot of options,'' Corner said.

Products include raw, roasted or spicy packets, as well as milk chocolate, dark chocolate and white chocolate coatings. Bags of unshelled nuts are also popular.

They also sell macadamia oils and a macadamia brittle toffee as well as a macadamia butter, which can be used like peanut butter.

Nutty For You macadamias are used in Pure Delish Macadamia and Manuka Honey Granola as part of a project to use products from local growers.

Husks were used as an effective compost. When the trees were developing, horse litter from nearby stables was used.

"We're able to be spray free.''

They were managing to sell the entire crop through their website (www.nuttyforyou.co.nz), wholesale, and to local customers, although they hope the roadside shop and orchard tours can reopen soon.