a whole lotta nuts…
Mar 13
we have a macadamia nut tree in our backyard that produces A LOT of nuts. when we first moved in, niels would collect a barrel of nuts, painstakingly hit every single nut with a hammer, crack it open and then roast the nuts. not kidding. it took eons. in fact, i felt guilty eating them because he worked so hard. as the girls got older, he started making it “their job” to collect the nuts. they do it, but they definitely don’t get excited to pick up nuts. i am convinced that when they’re old, they will talk about picking up nuts and think of it as a fond memory. at least that’s what i tell myself now. anyway – this is niels special project. he has the girls collect the nuts, then he takes off their husks and he actually found a spot about half an hour away that has a macadamia-nut-cracking machine behind their store. what are the chances? in the front they sell creepy fountains. so today, niells took the girls to the nut farm and they cracked nuts (i happened to be driving to a photo shoot nearby, so i pulled over, ran in and snapped these pix. multi-tasting!). as i write this, the nuts are roasting in the oven and tomorrow they will be ready to eat. a freshly roasted macadamia nut is one of the most amazing things i have ever tasted. snappy, buttery, a little salty and totally yum.
Lisa Howard says
OK – now that’s one of the coolest contraptions I ever saw – love the “how it’s made shows” and when Mr. Rodgers had the crayon factory on. Do you know how much we midwest mortals pay for those macadamias!!!! Lordy, lordy…girls are lucky!
Zoe says
the other thing is that it’s REALLY loud – kind of scares the girls because it’s so, so loud. when we first saw the nut-cracking-machine we were expecting something really sophisticated but looks like a bunch of folgers coffee cans welded together. funky.
christina Nash says
Cracking up reading this, a couple weeks ago I was with my cousins (all 40+) and we were discussing how they would come from the country to visit and bring grocery bags full of walnuts from their trees, and my mom would set a timer and we had to sit around the picnic table and crack walnuts for a specic amount of time. I not sure if “fond” was in the memory description, but we had some laughs over the memories. Your girls should be beyond thrilled Niels found that darn machine!!
Zoe says
HILARIOUS christina! you turned out awesome so i’m not so worried about my kids anymore