Can “the perfect nut” get any better?
Can “the perfect nut” get any better?
The Hawaii Macadamia Nut Association will address the present and future of the state’s ubiquitous crop at its 48th annual membership meeting on June 20 at the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources’ Cooperative Extension Center.
CTAHR’s renovated Komohana Research &Extension Center is at 875 Komohana St. Space still is available for the association’s conference. Email Phyllis Stine by today for early registration at HMMAMAIL@gmail.com.
Everyone is welcome to attend.
This informative day will include panel presentations, guest speakers and other presentations to include updates on pollinator management, macadamia felted coccid research and the requisite processors panel.
There will be vendor displays on the first and second floors of the facility. Maureen Ternus, executive director of the International Tree Nut Council, will deliver the keynote address.
A special lunch will be catered by AJ &Sons Catering with time to catch up, meet new friends and check out what’s happening with Hawaii Island macadamia nuts. The day finishes with a processor’s panel including Mauna Loa Macadamia Nuts, Hawaiian Host, Mac Farms Hawaii, Island Princess, Hamakua Macadamia Nut and Royal Hawaiian Orchards.
According to information on Hamakua Macadamia Nut’s website, an Australian plant collector and sugar cane plantation manager named William Purvis came to the Big Island in 1881 and brought with him Hawaii’s first macadamia nut tree. He planted it in Kapulena on the Hamakua Coast, and many think the tree still is growing there today.
The macadamia was named for John Macadam, a scientist, philosopher and good friend of the Melbourne Botanical Gardens director who first classified and described the tree 33 years earlier.
A subtropical evergreen of the Proteaceae family, the macadamia tree can grow up to 40 feet tall, with dark green, holly-like leaves, first used as an ornamental.
The Hawaiian Macadamia Nut Industry lists a total of 620 farms in the state with approximately 18,000 acres of macadamia nut orchards. There are more than 50 million pounds of nuts harvested each year.
It is a good year when “wet-in-shell” farm prices are about 80 cents to 90 cents per pound. Farm gate value of the industry is more than $35 million.
The University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Research Komohana Research &Extension Center‘s renovation in 2009 added a two-story laboratory wing.
The center’s mission, “is to support the success of Hawaii‘s agriculture, promote strong and healthy communities, and to encourage the sound stewardship of Hawaii‘s land and natural resources.”