Nudgel Nuts

The macadamias on Ian McRae’s farmers market stall, Nudgel Nuts, are so fresh; they’re barely out of the oven.

Unlike a packet of store bought nuts, which may have been sitting on the shelf for weeks or months, Ian’s are cracked and roasted fresh each week for market days.

It makes a big difference to the flavour, he says: “People notice the difference in the taste because of the freshness of it.”

What sets Ian and wife Leone apart from other growers is that they process their nuts on site. While most growers harvest, then send their nuts away to be cracked, sorted and roasted, Ian and Leone control every step from start to finish.

It means that not only can Ian decide when he roasts; he can also choose how to do it. His natural nuts are dry roasted at a temperature below 40 degrees, so that they are classified as a raw food, with all of their goodness retained. His other varieties are also slow roasted: “Our roasting oven never goes above 70 (degrees Celsius). It can take 24 hours, and that changes the flavour too,” Ian said.

The care and attention that Ian and Leone put into their products can also be seen in the way they manage and care for their land. Their Billinudgel property is insecticide and glyphosate free and they use biological controls to manage pests. All of the waste created from pruning the trees each year is chipped and put back into the farm as mulch.

“Leone and I have always believed we wanted to leave the ground better than how we found it and grow sustainably,” Ian said.

If there’s a downside to Ian and Leone’s do-it-all yourself approach, it’s that it is very labour intensive, but Ian says he wouldn’t want it any other way.

“I find it very rewarding doing it from go to whoa and being able to tell people how I do it, “ he said.

“I know what I’m doing is good and I’ve got pride in it.

” I think the product’s the best in Australia and I tell people that.”