The Macadamia Nut (Native Delicacy From Australia)

The nuts are a valuable food crop. Only two of the species, Macadamia integrifolia and Macadamia tetraphylla, are of commercial importance. The remainder of the genus possess poisonous and/or inedible nuts, such as M. whelanii and M. ternifolia; the toxicity is due to the presence of cyanogenic glycosides.

Botanist Walter Hill watched his young assistant in horror. The boy had just eaten nuts from a newly discovered species of tree growing in the subtropical rain forests of southeast Queensland, Australia. Hill had heard that the nuts were poisonous. But the lad neither became ill nor dropped dead. Instead, he found himself agreed. Soon thereafter he began distributing macadamia seedlings to friends and botanists around the world.

Today, some 150 years later, macadamia nuts are popular worldwide – and for good reason. The journal Chronica Horticulturae explains: “The macadamia is considered one of the world’s finest gourmet nuts because of its unique, delicate flavor, its fine crunchy texture, and rich creamy colour.” Little wonder that macadamia nuts are Australia’s most successful indigenous food crop!

Macadamia trees flourish along the subtropical coast of Australia. Among nine of the species, only two produce edible nuts, which consists of a fibrous outer husk; a tan, spherical shell, and a marble-size, cream-colored kernel.

The shell is however really tough to crack and is also used for making excellent industrial abrasive. The Aborigines used rocks. Pioneer orchardist John Waldron used a hammer and anvil to open about some eight million nuts over a period of 50 years. Machines were also used to crack open the nuts but they damaged the kernel which were not acceptable and soon better designs were made with more effective results.

The macadamia tree also had a problem of reproduction. When planted, nuts from good trees produced poor quality offspring. And all efforts at grafting failed. And faced with this difficulty, cultivation for commercial use stopped almost came to a stop until the Hawaiians found a way to solve the problem. They made the needed breakthroughs. And soon enough were supplying about 90(%) percent of the world’s macadamia nuts. And later on the nuts soon came to be known as Hawaiian nuts.

Later on, Australian growers in the 1960’s took the macadamia nut as a commercial crop, using the methods the Hawaiian people, and soon enough the local industry yielded in growth which then increased Australia’s production to about 50(%) percent of the world’s macadamia nuts. These nuts also grow in Central America, Asia, and Africa.

Are macadamia nuts healthful and healthy? A government fact sheet on macadamia-nut culture says “that the oil content of the nut which is (largely monounsaturated oil, or good oil) exceeds 72%, which is makes it the highest of any oil-giving nut.” Actually a modest consumption of the nuts can reduce harmful low-density cholesterol and lower high blood pressure.

Macadamia nuts is a a very good food source for everyone, some people prefer macadamia nuts simply straight from the shell, roasted, or salted. And some people just prefer it in chocolate candy, premium ice cream, and gourmet cookie.

ENERGY FOR YOUR HOME: NATURAL GAS

NATURAL GAS supplies more than 20% of the world’s total energy requirements. What is the source of natural gas? How clean is it? And how much is left?

Many scientists believe that eons ago natural gas was formed from the decay of plant and animal remains, including plankton. According to this theory, over long periods of time, microbes, together with pressure from the accumulating sediment above and heat from deep in the earth below, converted the organic debris into fossil fuels – coal, gas, and petroleum. In time, much of the gas found its way into porous rocks, sometimes forming vast reservoirs, or gas fields, that were sealed beneath a layer of impermeable rock. Some gas fields are huge, containing trillions of cubic meters of gas. How are gas deposits found?

Remote sensing satellites, global positioning systems, reflection seismology, and computers have taken some of the guesswork out of gas exploration.  Reflection seismology is based on the principle that sound reflects from layers of rock within the earth, thus giving scientists an acoustic picture of what lies below. The sound sources are man-made, usually involving small explosives or vibrators fitted to special trucks. The resulting shock waves travel into the earth’s crust and are reflected back to waiting instruments, which help scientists generate three-dimensional computer models of rock formations. These models in turn, may indicate potential gas deposits.

In offshore exploration, sound waves are made by special guns that shoot compressed air, steam, or water into the sea. The resulting pressure waves penetrate the seabed and reflect back to hydrophones attached to a long cable towed behind the survey ship. Here, too, researchers use the signals to form computer models for analysis.

To justify the cost of extraction, a field must have sufficient gas. Hence, geologists have to ascertain both the pressure and the volume of a reservoir. The pressure can be measured quite accurately with gauges. The precise volume, however, is harder to determine. One method involves reading the initial pressure, releasing a measured amount of gas, and then taking another pressure reading. A small drop in pressure indicates a large reservoir; a large drop, a small reservoir.

After being extracted, natural gas is piped to refineries for the removal of unwanted chemicals, such as carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and sulfur dioxide, as well as water vapor, which can corrode pipelines. Natural gas is then distilled at very low temperatures to remove incombustible nitrogen and to recover valuable helium, butane, ethane, and propane. The final product is essentially pure methane, which is colorless, odorless, and highly combustible. Because the methane is a natural product, it is also called natural gas.

To make natural gas safe for domestic use, manufacturers add tiny amounts of pungent sulfur-containing compounds so that leaks can be readily detected and safely stopped before an explosion occurs. Nevertheless, natural gas is a much cleaner fuel than other fossil fuels, such as coal and oil.

To facilitate transport, some natural gas is chilled to very low temperatures and converted into liquefied natural gas. Butane and propane often end up as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which is well-known to those who like to cook on gas barbecues with bottled gas. LPG is also commonly used as fuel for buses, tractors, trucks, and other vehicles. On the chemical front, butane and propane have found their way into plastic, solvents, synthetic fibers, and other organic products.

Like all other fossil fuels, natural gas is also a finite resource. According to estimates, about 45% of the world’s recoverable gas remains to be found. If the estimate is correct, with the present rate of usage, the supply may last about 60 years. But in many land, energy consumption is increasing, so present predictions may be highly inaccurate.

To be sure, the almost frenetic rate of industrialization in some lands could lead people to believe that the earth’s resources are infinite. Granted there is also nuclear power as well as renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power. But will these meet the growing energy needs? And will they prove to be environmentally clean and safe? Only time will tell.