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 diversity 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)
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Peter…Great piece… Thanks for filling in lots of useful details. As an aside, in 2012 we digitally mapped the footprint of ag on Hawaii island from current aerial imagery and came up with about 21,100 ac. in Macadamia on Hawaii island alone (1,100 in N Kohala, 788 in Hamakua, 3,166 in South Hilo, 3780 in Puna, 5,032 in Ka’u, 5,600 in South Kona, 750 in North Kona and another 2,266 in Kona that were planted jointly with coffee). Our numbers don’t add up exactly but it does point out that the 17,000 ac figure in the State ag statistics annual report have some inherent inaccuracy. They gather their numbers from sample surveys and seem to hold on to old numbers and repeat them yearly. They then use them to calculate yield and return numbers that get repeated in lots of venues. We found the same to be true with other crops like coffee, banana, papaya etc.
We are currently working on digitizing the entire state ag footprint for DOA in a dozen or so crop categories. It will be interesting to see how the numbers fall and how they compare to HASS/NASS numbers. I have a meeting next week with Kathy King, who now heads the NASS office here and conducts most of the ag surveys, to dig into their process a bit and help to better understand the differences.
As an inquiring mind, just thought you’d be interested.
Aloha Peter and Jeff- Peter, mahalo for your detailed and passionate work to document and share the rich history through your vibrant storytelling style. It’s a treasure for anyone who reads it! Jeff; I am developing a circular economy project in Honoka’a, focusing on agricultural sustainability. I’d love to check out the data you are collecting and talk story. I’m developing a software program that will utilize hundreds of data sets to help improve the accuracy and depth of information that can be used to develop models that can help farmers find the best and highest use of inputs and outputs. As you note; the existing data is often outdated and incomplete. My Ohana is working with the aloha challenge program as well to improve these systems. Would love to connect: jonny@ohanasphere.com mahalo!