Macadamia Nut

Long before macadamia became a prized export crop, the Bundjalung and other Aboriginal peoples of eastern Australia gathered its rich, oily kernels as an important bush tucker staple, cracking the notoriously hard shells between stones to reach the nut inside. The tree and its fruit carried real seasonal significance, gathered as they dropped in late summer and autumn and valued for their sustaining fat and flavor through leaner months. When European settlers and later Hawaiian growers encountered the nut in the nineteenth century, they adopted both the food and, eventually, the pressed oil, which was traditionally rubbed into skin and hair as a softening treatment. Today the macadamia carries its origins quietly, a rainforest nut turned worldwide favorite that still traces back to a handful of ancient Australian groves.