Nuttyforyou

 

We were up bright and early next morning and took the link bus to the rental car place. We managed to negotiate the roads with only one small unintentional detour. The Macadamia Orchard we were heading for is in Waipu. Just like our property it is a matter of things we did right and thinks we did wrong. They planted their trees very close together and will probably have to cut some down. Their solution is to hire Philipino ladies who are used to crouching to help with the harvesting.

They also run sheep through their property which leads to high nitrogen levels which means very dense vegetative growth, and lots of poo too!

Eric now struggles to get machinery down the rows at all. They also had a paddock were nearly all the trees had died or were stunted. I didn't feel I should take a picture of this.

One of the reasons we had travelled all this way was to see the machinery because as Vanessa is relocating all her processing to Opotiki - which was not what we had anticipated when we started this venture. The nuts should be husked within 48hours, and then kept in a dry environment. So we need to get a dehusker and a drier. The shell is still on the nut at this stage, and we sell NIS Nut in shell.

This is the dehusker and it will be arriving late April. The engineer comes down and installs it for us.

A lot of the growers there were from the far North where they have stickers - nuts which don't drop off the trees, which means you have to have a hydroladder to pick them. These growers are generally very critical and opinionated, but this may be because who wants to replant an orchard. The trip was very worthwhile in showing us what we need and helped us firm up our decisions.

We managed all the correct off ramps on the way back and got a link bus back to the hotel. Just time for a nap before going out with the Marinos. But No! there is a rally for "Be kind to Asians" complete with megaphones and chanting just a block away.

We walk down to the Viaduct and go to Giraffe for dinner - so much to catch up on, that I hardly noticed what we had to eat. Christine, who is Lead Family Welfare Worker for one one of the wards at Starship Hospital had just had a gruelling week with the little girl who got run over by the 77year-old driver in the school carpark. So she was ready for a wine or two, and I felt duty bound to keep her company. They have both had health issues and I think it is time that they retire to Gisborne. By about nine o'clock the restaurant was empty - apart from us, and the usually bustling viaduct was near empty. Peoples habits have changed!