Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Visitor Center - Keaau, HI
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denben
N 19° 39.424 W 155° 00.556
5Q E 289335 N 2174775
Mauna Loa offers visitors self-guided tour of the processing plant and a large shop with natural, flavored and chocolate covered macademia nut products.
Waymark Code: WMR2DE
Location: Hawaii, United States
Date Posted: 05/02/2016
Views: 4
Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Plantation invites visitors to witness the growing, harvesting and processing of Mauna Loa Macadamia Nuts into many Mauna Loa products. Hundreds of rows of macadamia nut trees line Macadamia Road on the 3 mile drive leading to the visitor center and processing plant. Visitors can view the plant where the nuts are husked and dried. An array of macadamia nut products are created and processed here, and are available for purchase directly from the shop.
Mauna Loa harvests some 35 million pounds of macadamia nuts a year for use in cooking, making confections, and for sale to the public at visitor centers and stores throughout Hawaii and internationally. The mature macadamia nut trees create wonderful shade with their dark green foliage and white, raceme blossoms in Winter and Spring. The main harvest is in Summer and Fall.
In 1881, the first macadamia tree was brought to Hawaii from Australia, and the first pioneer plantation began in 1921. It was in 1922 that the University of Hawaii embarked on 20 years of testing and research. Some 60,000 trees were observed and tested in a painstaking process of selection and grafting. Eventually nine strains were developed that could consistently produce a high quality nut. That was the beginning of a long partnership between Mauna Loa and the University of Hawaii, which continues today.
The original plantation of what was to become Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Corporation was established in 1946. The very first macadamia nut trees were planted early that year near Kea'au on the Big Island of Hawaii, where that plantation continues to thrive today.
In 1956, the first commercial crop was harvested. Macadamia trees take seven years to produce a commercial crop, and 15 years before they are producing consistently. By 1976, the sugar plantation business in Hawaii was waning. Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Corporation began converting five old sugar plantations to macadamia plantations at the rate of 1000 acres a year. Most of those trees are still producing the premium macadamia nuts that they use to produce the commercial nuts today.
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