Hawaii | Page 17 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

July 3, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Reading of the Declaration of Independence

“I had, ‘marked a Nation’s birth,
And saw her Constellation rise
With radience glancing o’er the Earth.
Daring the Sun with steady eyes
I saw her Eagles mount the skies.’”
(Deborah Norris Logan)

“Deborah Norris was the only daughter in a prominent Philadelphian Quaker family that traced its lineage to the settlement of Pennsylvania, where her grandfather Isaac Norris was a merchant and provincial assembly member.” (O’Leary)

“The granddaughter of Isaac Norris, one of Philadelphia’s original Quaker settlers, Deborah Norris grew up in the heart of the city, where she witnessed momentous events in the history of the United States”. (Asleson)

“Apart from attending Anthony Benezet’s Friends Girls School (the first public school for girls in America), Norris essentially educated herself through reading.” (Asleson) In 1781, she married the physician, diplomat, and politician George Logan.” (O’Leary)

“In 1815, at the age of fifty-four, Logan began keeping a diary in which she resolved to record “whatever I shall hear of fact or anecdote that shall appear worthy of preservation.” (Asleson) On July 4, 1826 (the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declarations of Independence), she wrote:

“It is quite impossible on this remarkable day not to fall into a chain of thoughts inspired by recollections; and I have been much occupied in them – at this time. If I were able to set down what mine have been, with clearness and precision, they would perhaps go far to establish some of my own theories …”

“Setting aside the grand and almost overwhelming remembrances which the anniversary of the Independence of our country never fails to introduce to the mind, with all the train of events that at that time, and since that time, have agitated the political and moral world …”

“ … and thinking only of the tide of human beings that at that period lived and acted and looked forward, as we do now, but have since dropped … “

“It will be no doubt. As it is the anniversary that answers to the ancient Jubliee among the Hebrews, be celebrated with extraordinary zeal in many places, and many commemorative orations will be spoken …”

“My son went to town in the morning but returned to dinner, whilst at table he told us that it was currently reported in town that both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were no more, and that they had both died on the anniversary of the Independence!”

“It seems so strange a coincidence to be true, but we shall be resolved of out uncertainty in a very little time. Jefferson is said to have been ill for some days – the elder President to have died suddenly.”

“It seems as if it really was so, and that the 50th anniversary saw the estinction of both their lives – It is singular – and according to the doctrine of chances, what an odds would have been against it so occurring!”

“… we talked about the recent deaths of the old sages of Quincy and Montecello – that of the former was characteristic to the past of ‘A Glorious Anniversary!’ are said to have been the last words which he uttered. …”

“How things relative to these conspicuous characters now crowd upon the mind – mine had dropped every sentiment towards them but respect for their virtues and gratitude for their services to my Country. They were two of the most strenuous and efficient operators of our Independence.”

“Jefferson at that time was comparatively a young man, and not much talked of (at least where I had any opportunity of hearing), but the two Adams were designated as mark and determined men, who drove directly at that measure, and pushed on to commit this country, so that intercepion should be impossible …”

“… and to John Adams the tasks seemed to be allotted to him in and keep together the New England Delegation, so that no impulsion favourable to any thing short of that object should remain on any of their minds …”

“… the danger of a failure the power and resources of the Mother Country, our inadequacy for the contest, and total want of means, which startled more prudent and timid men, were totally overlooked in his enthusiasm.”

“I have heard from a source that I cannot doubt that Dr Franklin himself, who had then recently returned from England, was for putting off the Declaration, to gain more time to meet its difficulties …”

“How a little time spreads the vail of oblivion over the manner of the most important events! It is now a matter of doubt as what hour, or how, the Declaration was given to the people. Perhaps few now remain that heard it read on that day.”

“But of the few I am one: being in the lot adjoining to our old mansion house in Chestnut Street, that then extended to 5th Street …”

“I distinctly heard the words of that Instrument read to the people (I believe from the State House steps, for I did not see the reader) a low building on 5th Street (later the location of City Hall) which prevented my sight and I think it was Charles Thomson’s voice.”

“It took place a little after twelve at noon and they then proceeded down the street, (I understood) to read it at the Court House. It was a time of fearful doubt and great anxiety with the people, many of whom were appalled at the boldness of the measure, and the first audience of the Declaration was neither very numerous, nor composed of the most respectable class of citizens.”

“Though there is no mistake in saying that the Revolution itself was (I believe) in all the States, the worth of the best informed and most efficient men; but then they only looked, in general, to their resistance to the Tyranny of the Government, inducing an abandonment of its obsessious designs, as have been the case with the Stamp Act …”

“[I]ndeed the events of the 4th have caused such a train of thoughts that when I had time to write, I chose rather to set down what occurred to be of other day …”

July 2, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Makiki Christian Church

At age 29, Reverend Takie Okumura of Japan set sail for Hawaiʻi in 1894. He was initially appointed to serve as minister of the Japanese Christian Church, the predecessor to today’s Nuʻuanu Congregational Church.

Okumura left there and began his work in the section of Honolulu centering about Makiki district in November, 1902. The work commenced in a little shed on Kīnaʻu Street near a Japanese camp and without a single church member. (The Friend, November 1930)

Within a year, the shed became too small and a cottage across the street was rented which would accommodate about eighty people. By his untiring effort, Okumura was able to organize the Makiki Church with 24-members on April 8, 1904. The church continued to grow and was moved to the present building on the corner of King and Pensacola Streets in 1906. (The Friend, November 1930)

In early-1910, the Makiki Japanese Church (later known as the Makiki Christian Church) introduced the custom of one English sermon per month. The Church acquired property near McKinley High School (at the corner of Pensacola and Elm.) Then, in the 1930, a new, enlarged church was contemplated and then constructed. It was modeled after a Japanese Castle.

The “Makiki Castle” was the inspiration of the Reverend Okumura. Okumura asked Hego Fuchino to design the church.

Born and educated in Japan, Fuchino immigrated to Hawaiʻi at age 17 or 18 and worked his way through ʻIolani School and the University of Hawaiʻi. He worked as a land surveyor and engineer in Honolulu while he taught himself architecture, and became one of the first Japanese architects in Hawaiʻi.

One of Fuchino’s earliest works was the Kuakini Hospital, which he designed in 1919. He designed the Izumo Taisha Mission; commercial buildings; movie theaters such as the Haleiwa Theater; residences and apartments; and schools such as the Hawaiian Mission Academy.

Inspired by the early-Edo period Himeji Castle in Japan, the church is the only Christian church in the United States to be modeled after a sixteenth-century Japanese castle.

The Makiki Christian Church is a five-story redwood building whose main tower rises ninety feet above street level. A three- story parish hall and Sunday school, built four years after the tower, extends out from the tower to give the building a T- shaped floor plan.

“The castle-like edifice with its stone wall and high tower is after the style of the castle built by Oda Nobuuaga, famous Shogun, in 1577 at Omi. A number of years before that the feudal lord of Yaniato, Matsunaga, built a castle with a high tower and called his tower “Tenshukaku,” “ten” meaning heaven; “shu” lord; and “kaku,” lower or the place to worship the Lord of Heaven.” (The Friend, November 1930)

Rather than a building associated with war, Okumura indicated that the castle was a place of defense, meant to provide protection and peace, and that the earliest known building erected in Japan for Christian worship was Tamon Castle.

To the pastor, this design symbolized refuge, security and grandeur. Finally convinced it was not warlike, the congregation raised funds to build the tower, lobby and chapel in 1931. (Hibbard)

At the time of construction, China and Japan were at war; however, as a gesture of goodwill to show that animosity between the two nations did not extend to Hawaiʻi, Okumura specified that all building materials were to be purchased from City Mill, owned by KA Chung. (HHF)

Later, the castle became “A Place To Protect The Country” but it is true that the tower originated as “A Place To Worship God.” The Makiki Church erects its new edifice with its tower indicating the thought of the Psalmist who sang “Jehovah is my fortress—my high tower.” (The Friend, November 1930)

In November 1932 the tower was completed and in 1936 the Parish Hall was added to the church.

The churchyard is entered from the Elm Street side through a munekado (a gable-roofed gate supported by two pillars). The building’s entrance is fourteen feet high with a pair of massive solid wooden doors.

A large vestibule, thirty feet in height, runs parallel to the sanctuary and provides access to the church and the parish hall wing. The interior includes acid-stained concrete floors, columns with elbow brackets, and 164 ceiling panels depicting fruits, flowers, and vegetables painted by Yunosuke Ogura.

Before he died in 1951, Okumura also established the Okumura Boys and Girls Home, which provided young men and women affordable housing; he started the first Japanese-language school and the first AJA baseball league.

Makiki Christian Church is listed on the Hawaii Register of Historic Places (No. 80-14-9719, dated September 30, 1988;) it is one of the most photographed churches in the Islands.

July 1, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Dartmouth

“It is, Sir, as I have said, a small college. And yet there are those who love it!” (Daniel Webster)

The rolling hills and plentiful foliage of New Hampshire are home to over 20 colleges and universities. New Hampshire’s first school, founded seven years before the country, is Dartmouth College, an Ivy League institution along the banks of the Connecticut River in the small town of Hanover. (Messier, SeaCoastOnLine)

Dartmouth’s first classes, consisting of just four students, were held in a single log hut in Hanover in 1770. (LOC) The college was named in honor of William Legge, the British Earl of Dartmouth, a friend of Wentworth’s and an important benefactor.

Dartmouth College has its origins in More’s (later Moor’s) Indian Charity School, an educational enterprise established in the year 1754 at Lebanon, Connecticut, by the Reverend Eleazar Wheelock, a minister of the Congregational faith and a graduate of Yale. (Christopher DeLuca)

“Wheelock … first founded a private ‘Latin’ school, aimed at educating both colonists and natives in the classics, including a young Samson Occom, a Mohegan who became trained as an excellent minister.”

“In time, Wheelock realized his passion, founding Moor’s Charity School in Lebanon, Connecticut. The sole purpose of this small school was to prepare students to become Protestant missionaries, including Natives among their own tribes and colonists where Native numbers were lacking.”

“This school was open to male and female students of many ages and was free to attend, operating upon donations (both monetary and farm product-based). Despite English being the only language necessary to preach, Wheelock insisted upon teaching his pupils Latin, Greek, and Hebrew as well. “

“The Reverend also taught his charges farming and agricultural skills, despite complaints from some students’ parents, who were themselves farmers. Underlying the obvious paternal motivations behind these curricular choices, we can see the nucleus of what would become a liberal arts curriculum.” (Dartmouth Review)

“[T]he Reverend Eleazar Wheelock, of Lebanon, in the colony of Connecticut, in New England, aforesaid, now doctor in divinity, did, on or about the year of our Lord 1754, at his own expense, on his own estate and plantation, set on foot an Indian charity school …”

“… and for several years, through the assistance of well-disposed persons in America, clothed, maintained and educated a number of the children of the Indian natives, with a view to their carrying the Gospel, in their own language, and spreading the knowledge of the great Redeemer, among their savage tribes …”

“[T]he said Eleazar Wheelock thought it expedient, that endeavors should be used to raise contributions from well disposed persons in England for the carrying on and extending said undertaking …”

“… and for that purpose the said Eleazar Wheelock requested the Rev. Nathaniel Whitaker, now doctor in divinity, to go over to England for that purpose, and sent over with him the Rev. Samson Occom, an Indian minister, who had been educated by the said Wheelock.”

“… considering the premises and being willing to encourage the laudable and charitable design of spreading Christian knowledge among the savages of our American wilderness, and also that the best means of education be established in our province of New Hampshire, for the benefit of said province …”

“… do, of our special grace, certain knowledge and mere motion, by and with the advice of our counsel for said province, by these presents, will, ordain, grant and constitute that there be a college erected in our said province of New Hampshire by the name of Dartmouth College …”

“… for the education and instruction of youth of the Indian tribes in this land in reading, writing, and all parts of learning which shall appear necessary and expedient for civilizing and christianizing children of pagans, as well as in all liberal arts and sciences, and also of English youth and any others.” (Dartmouth Charter)

Fast forward … “Since 2012, the Native and Indigenous Pre-Orientation program has served incoming Indigenous students in their transition to Dartmouth.”

“As our community continues to grow, and increasingly represents more and more Indigenous communities, we are dedicated to building a Native and Indigenous Pre-Orientation program that meets the changing needs of Indigenous students.”

“The purpose of the Native and Indigenous Pre-Orientation is to connect incoming Native American, Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian, and Indigenous first year students with the key offices and resources that will guide and support them throughout college.”

“The Native American Program in collaboration with the Admissions Office, works with various campus partners to provide community-based resource structures and programs that holistically support our students, in their total academic, social, and emotional wellbeing.” (Dartmouth)

“Hōkūpa‘a is a student-led organization at Dartmouth greatly supported by the Native American Program (NAP). It was created by and for students who are from or are connected to the Pacific Islands.”

“‘Hōkūpa‘a,’ meaning ‘steadfast star,’ is the name of the North Star, Polaris, in the Hawaiian language. This particular star has great importance to traditional seafaring and navigation — Indigenous Islanders throughout the Pacific relied on this star to find their way about the ocean.”

“We bring light to the story behind the name Hōkūpa`a to reiterate our commitment to our pan-Pasifika family and our time-honored interconnectivity. Navigation, the ocean, and the stars are some of the main connecting forces of the Pacific Islands and its peoples. As an organization, Hōkūpaʻa aims to create a similar space for Pacific Islander students on Dartmouth’s campus.”

“The Dartmouth Lūʻau is an annual event that celebrates the existence and representation of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander identity on the Dartmouth campus. Since its initiation, the Dartmouth Lūʻau has brought together communities from across campus, as well as regionally, to celebrate, honor, educate, and share their Native heritage.” (Dartmouth)

The college as it stands today almost ceased to exist in the 1800s, when the state of New Hampshire attempted to change Dartmouth’s original charter to make it a state university.

The case of Dartmouth College vs. Woodward eventually worked its way up to the US Supreme Court, where Dartmouth College prevailed under the leadership of alumnus and lawyer Daniel Webster, who re-founded the college in 1819. (Messier, SeaCoastOnLne)

As of 2023 there were approximately 4,500 undergraduates and 2,200 graduate students enrolled in the four-year, private, liberal arts college.

The school has more than 40 undergraduate academic departments and programs in the arts and sciences. Dartmouth College is the home of one the nation’s oldest professional schools of engineering, the first graduate school of management, and one of the nation’s top medical schools. (LOC)

June 30, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Boki (Poki)

Boki (born before 1785 – died after December 1829) was the son of Kekuamanoha, a chief of Maui (but it was rumored that he was the son of Kahekili II.) His original name was Kamaʻuleʻule; his nickname came from a variation on Boss, the name of the favorite dog of Kamehameha I.

“I would just remark respecting the name of Boki that even according to our present rules it may be spelt with the B for the name is of foreign origin. His original name was Ilio-punahele, that is, favourite dog.”

“When the king became acquainted with a large American dog named Boss, he immediately changed the name of the young chief from Ilio-punahele to Boss, which in native language is Boki, pronounced by 99/100 of the people Poki.” (William Richards; Missionary Letters, Vol. 3, Page 725; December 6, 1828)

His older brother, Kalanimōkū, was prime minister and formerly Kamehameha’s most influential advisor. His aunt was the powerful Kaʻahumanu, queen regent and Kamehameha’s favorite wife.

Boki married Chiefess Kuini Liliha (born 1802 – died August 25, 1839,) daughter of Ulumaheihei Hoapili (Kamehameha’s most trusted companion) and Kalilikauoha; her paternal grandfather was Kameʻeiamoku, one of Kamehameha’s four Kona Uncles and a respected advisor; her maternal grandfather was Kahekili, high chief of Maui and later of O’ahu.

King Kamehameha II appointed Boki as governor of Oʻahu and chief of the Waiʻanae district. John Dominis Holt III said Boki was “a man of great charisma who left his mark everywhere he went.”

Boki was skilled in Hawaiian medicine, especially the treatment of wounds, as taught by the kahunas. He was considered very intelligent and a highly persuasive man.

His duties as governor of Oʻahu brought him in frequent contact with foreigners. He became one of the first chiefs to be baptized.

Boki agreed to the breaking of the tabus in 1819 and accepted the Protestant missionaries arriving in 1820, although he had been baptized as a Catholic aboard the French vessel of Louis de Freycinet, along with Kalanimōkū , the previous year.

In 1824, Boki and Liliha were members of the entourage that accompanied Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu on a diplomatic tour of the United Kingdom, visiting King George IV in 1824.

Less than two months after the royal group arrived in England, the king and queen were dead from the measles; it was Boki who lead the Hawaiian delegation to meet with King George IV and receive the King’s assurances of British protection for Hawai‘i from foreign intrusion.

Returning with Lord Byron on the Blonde, Boki brought to Hawaiʻi an English planter, John Wilkinson, and with him began raising sugar cane and coffee beans in Mānoa Valley.

Boki also encouraged the Hawaiians to gather sandalwood for trade, ran a mercantile and shipping business, and opened a liquor store called the Blonde Hotel.

In the late-1820s, Boki came into conflict with Kuhina Nui (Premier) Ka‘ahumanu when he resisted the new laws that were passed, and did not enforce them. In May of 1827, Ka‘ahumanu and the Council charged Boki with intemperance, fornication, adultery and misconduct, and fined him and his wife Liliha.

Just prior to Boki’s sailing to the New Hebrides in search of sandalwood, the lands of Kapunahou and Kukuluāeʻo were transferred to Hiram Bingham for the purpose of establishing a school, later to be known as Oʻahu College (now, Punahou School.)

These lands had first been given to Kameʻeiamoku, a faithful chief serving under Kamehameha, following Kamehameha’s conquest of Oʻahu in 1795. At Kameʻeiamoku’s death in 1802, the land transferred to his son Hoapili, who resided there from 1804 to 1811. Hoapili passed the property to his daughter Kuini Liliha.

Sworn testimony before the Land Commission in 1849, and that body’s ultimate decision, noted that the “land was given by Governor Boki about the year 1829 to Hiram Bingham for the use of the Sandwich Islands Mission.”

The decision was made over the objection from Liliha; however Hoapili confirmed the gift. It was considered to be a gift from Kaʻahumanu, Kuhina Nui or Queen Regent at that time.

The Binghams oversaw the early development of the land and Mrs. Bingham planted the first night blooming cereus, now a symbol of Punahou. The Binghams left Hawaii in 1840, before Punahou School became a reality.

Boki incurred large debts and, in 1829, attempted to cover them by assembling a group of followers and set out for a newly discovered island with sandalwood in the New Hebrides. Boki fitted out two ships, the Kamehameha and the Becket, put on board some five hundred of his followers, and sailed south.

Somewhere in the Fiji group, the ships separated. Eight months later the Becket limped back to Honolulu with only twenty survivors aboard.

Boki and two hundred and fifty of his men apparently died at sea when the Kamehameha burned, possibly when gunpowder stored in the hold blew up as a result of careless smoking.

Liliha then became a widow and governor of Oʻahu. She gave the ahupuaʻa of Mākaha to High Chief Paki. Chief Paki was the father of Bernice Pauahi Bishop. (Lots of info here from waianaebaptist-org; punahou-edu; keepers of the culture and others.) The image shows Boki and Liliha.

June 29, 2025 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

The Perfect Nut

If you have every watched the game being played, your first thought (question) is if there really are any rules associated with it.

The first publicly recorded Australian Football match took place between Scotch College and Melbourne Grammar on the rolling paddocks next to the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1858.

Each team selected its own umpire. Scotch College chose Dr John Macadam, Melbourne Grammar School Tom Wills. What qualifications Macadam had for the post, we don’t know. After three playing days, the game ended in a draw with each team kicking one goal. (University of Melbourne)

No, that is the basis of this story.

How about? … John Macadam, the man who on March 3, 1862 delivered the first-ever lecture at the Melbourne University Medical School and who went on to become Professor of Theoretical and Practical Chemistry at Melbourne University in 1865.

No, that’s not it either.

However, it’s the same John Macadam in each story … as well as the story that follows.

Given the variety above, it shouldn’t surprise you that John Macadam is the namesake for the macadamia nut. (Although, allegedly, Macadam had not seen a macadamia nut tree, or even tasted the macadamia nut.)

In 1857, German-Australian botanist Ferdinand von Mueller gave the genus of this plant the scientific name Macadamia – named after von Mueller’s friend Dr John Macadam, a noted scientist and secretary to the Philosophical Institute of Australia.

John Macadam, scientist, medical doctor, philosopher and politician, was born in May 1827 at Northbank, near Glasgow, Scotland. (His name has often been misspelled with a capital “A” as in “Adam.”)

Although in ill health by March 1865, he went to New Zealand to give expert testimony as an analytical chemist in a murder trial involving the use of poison. Along the way, he fractured his ribs in rough weather.

Subsequently, he developed pleurisy (inflammation of the moist, double-layered membrane that surrounds the lungs and lines the rib cage) and died at sea on September 2, 1865 (at the age of 38.) (CTAHR)

Let’s look back.

For at least 40,000 years, Aborigines have lived in macadamia heartland. As hunters and gatherers, they had an intimate understanding of their environment. The wild macadamias usually grew in dense rainforests, with competition from other trees and absence of light resulting in their producing few nuts.

However, trees growing at the edge of the rainforest or where the Aborigines had encouraged them by burning around each tree generally produced annual crops. Macadamia nuts were a treasured food but a very minor part of the Aboriginal diet due to their rarity. (McConachie)

In 1828, Alan Cunningham (explorer and botanist) was the first Western person to record the macadamia. Other names for Macadamia Nuts are Bush nut, Queensland nut, Queen of nuts, Macadamia, Bauple nut, Boombera, Jindilli and Gyndl.

Macadamia seeds were first imported into Hawaiʻi in 1882 by William Purvis; he planted them in Kapulena on the Hāmākua Coast. (Purvis is also notable for importing the mongoose – to rid his Hāmākua sugar plantation of rats.)

A second introduction into Hawaii was made in 1892 by Robert and Edward Jordan who planted the trees at the former’s home in Nuʻuanu on Wyllie Street in Honolulu. This introduction became the source of the principal commercial varieties cultivated in Hawaiʻi. (Storey)

The Macadamia Nut is Australia’s only native plant to have become an international food. Although an Australian native, the macadamia nut industry was started in Hawaiʻi (Australian farmers did not take advantage of the tree until 1950.)

In 1922, Ernest Sheldon Van Tassel organized the Hawaiian Macadamia Nut Company to produce and process macadamia nuts. Two orchards were established by this company: one (‘Nutridge’) on the Tantalus slopes overlooking Honolulu at an elevation of about 900 feet, and the other at Keauhou at about 1,800 feet elevation on the Island of Hawaiʻi. By 1934, there were about 25-acres planted on Tantalus and about 100-acres at Keauhou. (CTAHR)

Commercial processing of macadamia nuts began in 1934 at Van Tassel’s new factory in Kaka‘ako. The nuts were shelled, roasted, salted, bottled and marketed there as “Van’s Macadamia Nuts.” (Schmitt)

In order to stimulate interest in macadamia culture, beginning January 1, 1927, a Territorial law exempted properties in the Territory, used solely for the culture or production of macadamia nuts, from taxation for a period of 5 years.

Macadamia nut candies became commercially available a few years later. Two well-known confectioners, Ellen Dye Candies and the Alexander Young Hotel candy shop, began making and selling chocolate-covered macadamia nuts in the middle or late 1930s. Another early maker was Hawaiian Candies & Nuts Ltd., established in 1939 and originators of the Menehune Mac brand. (Schmitt)

The first major attempt at large-scale commercialization of macadamia nuts was made in 1948 by Castle & Cooke, Ltd., in their venture at Keaʻau on the island of Hawaiʻi. Later, another of the former ‘Big 5’ companies, C Brewer and Company Ltd, bought out C&C and changed the name to Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Corp. (Hershey’s later bought the Mauna Loa brand.)

Then, in 1962, MacFarms of established one of the world’s largest single macadamia nut orchards with approximately 3,900-acres on the South Kona coast of the Big Island of Hawaiʻi.

Today, about 570 growers farm 17,000 acres of macadamia trees, producing 40 million pounds of in-shell nuts, valued at over $30 million. Additionally, nuts are imported from South Africa and Australia, who currently lead the world market, with Hawai‘i at #3. (hawnnut)

The harvesting season for macadamia nuts runs from August through January. During Hawai’i’s cooling autumn months, mature macadamia nuts safely protected by sturdy shells and husks drop to the ground, and farmers hand-gather or mechanically harvest.

Under favorable conditions, a ten-year old tree can produce up to 150 pounds of in-husk nuts. De-husking is the first step needed. Next, a drying process decreases nut moisture from about 25 percent to 1.5 percent. Equipment that can exert 300 pounds of pressure cracks the shells. The raw kernels that emerge are now ready for grading, roasting, final drying and processing. (olsontrust)

Macadamias are a high energy food and contain no cholesterol. The natural oils in macadamias contain 78 per cent monounsaturated fats, the highest of any oil, including olive oil.

Macadamias are also a good source of protein, calcium, potassium and dietary fiber and are very low in sodium. The protein component of nuts is low in lysine and high in argentine. (BaupleMuseum) Horticulturalist Luther Burbank is credited with calling macadamias the ‘perfect nut.’ (NY Times)