Sandy Creek Macadamias

Native Macadamias

Macadamia’s are native to Australia and are one of the only native Australian crops to be cultivated and sold internationally. If you’ve ever eaten a Macadamia, you’ve likely had one of two main varieties, the Australian Macadamia or the Hawaiian Macadamia.

Visually, the two varieties look very similar, with the unique (and super tough) brown shell and creamy white kernel. However there are two key differences between the two!

Australian Macadamias tend to have a thinner (and more easily cracked) shell and a mild, creamy, nutty flavour, while the Hawaiians have a thicker shell and a stronger taste.

Spray Free & Pesticide Free

Our Macadamias are spray and pesticide free, to keep harmful chemicals from seeping into the soil and nuts. Instead of using traditional chemical pesticides, we use more natural pesticides to keep pests away, like wasp cards.

These strong, chemical fertilisers can linger in the soil for up to 10 years, building up over time and causing extensive damage to delicate soil ecosystems.

While they may help in the short term, these pesticides can harm the overall health of the soil over time and lead to several diminished soil health and yield.

Natural Fertilisers

We also try not to use heavy, industrial fertilisers on our trees.

Instead, we choose to use the chicken litter from our own chickens and mulch from the discarded Macadamia husk to fertilise our orchard. 

Our philosophy is that we want to try and minimise as much waste as possible and work towards a closed loop style of farming, where we can nourish the land with things we already have instead of introducing things that might upset water or soil ecosystems.

Macadamia Growing & Processing

Macadamias flower in August and we begin our harvest in February and March.

From there, we do a first sort on the sorting machine. This is basically where we separate out as much empty husk (the outer shell around the actual shell), rotten or bad nuts, leaves, and other debris the harvester picks up. We usually do a few sorts of the harvest to make sure we catch as many bad nuts as possible.

From there, the nuts are stored in the silo for a few months to help the nut dry down, and also protect it from moisture, pests, and temperature fluctuations. It’s very important to store the nuts in silos, as storing them in the open before they’re cracked can lead to harvest loss.

Once they’ve been dried, it’s off to the processor, where the nuts are cracked, sorted, roasted and packed up to be sold!

If you’ve ever had a nut from Nutworks on the Sunshine Coast, you may have eaten one of ours!

Fun Fact!

If a macadamia nut in its shell rattles when you shake it, it means it’s ready to be cracked and eaten! Try it for yourself the next time you see a Macadamia in its shell!