Going nuts: Local growers keep busy filling orders from around the world

By: LORELL FLEMING - Staff Writer | Saturday, November 19, 2005 10:37 PM PST ∞

FALLBROOK ---- Tom Cooper has spent the last 16 years in the nut house. And that's his business. Cooper's Nut House is a Fallbrook-based business that caters to fans of the exotic macadamia nuts.

What makes Cooper's business different than most others who grow macadamia nut trees commercially is the varying level of service that Cooper's Nut House offers. Many macadamia nut growers sell their crops still in the shell, or send the nuts somewhere else for processing.

Depending on the order, Cooper will de-husk, dehydrate, crack, sort and package ---- even create a personalized label for a customer's macadamias ---- all at the Cooper's Nut House site at 1378 Willow Glen Road. He even offers consulting to large-production growers.

"Over the years, it's been fun," Cooper said. "In addition to tending to my groves, I've set up orchards in places like Brazil ... and all over the world."

Macadamia nut trees are indigenous to Australia, but are grown in various parts of the world, such as Hawaii and Southern California.

Cooper has 400 macadamia trees on about 3 acres at the Willow Glen site. The annual yield at Cooper's Nut House is near 20,000 pounds in the shell, Cooper said. His business has been around since 1988, but he has been growing macadamia trees and offering consulting services since 1971, he said.

Among Cooper's biggest customer base are macaw handlers, a cadre of clients that has been building over the last couple of years, Cooper said.

"Their birds eat the nuts in the shells," Cooper added. "I have macaw handlers from Connecticut to Florida, and even some in Hawaii."

Occasionally over the last couple of years, Cooper has received calls from people overseas eager to make orders. Most of the callers are affiliated with restaurants, he said.

"I've gotten a lot of requests out of the Orient," he added. "But we can't fill those orders. We're not that large of an operation. The average orders from there are about 5,000 pounds of (shelled and dried) nuts."

For macadamias in the shell, Cooper charges $3 per pound, he said. For dried, ready-to-eat macadamias, Cooper charges $14 per pound. However, he said that he will charge $10 per pound for someone buying 10 pounds or more.

According to the 2004 annual crop report published by the county Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures, macadamia nuts produced in San Diego County decreased in value ---- falling to $286,440, from $305,283 in 2003. Production levels also took a dip, dropping to 168 tons produced in 2004, from 182 tons in 2003.

Macadamia shortage?
Jim Russell, president of the California Macadamia Society, contends that there has been a worldwide shortage of macadamia nuts. He also contends that the shortage will continue for an additional eight to 10 years.

He attributes the shortage to the basic economic law of supply and demand. Russell said the demand for the macadamia is increasing worldwide as more people try the nuts.

"There's only so much land with the right climate where you can put macadamia trees," Russell said. "And, there's only so many people willing to put in the work and capital investment into growing macadamia nuts."

Cooper said he does not have enough current information to support the contention that a worldwide shortage of macadamias exists.

But Cooper and Russell both say that it looks as if they will both have a heavy crop this harvest.

"I think I'm going to have an increase in my crop yield this year, in part because of the wet spring weather," Cooper said.

Russell, like Cooper a Fallbrook resident, is one of several macadamia nut growers in North County. He has 200 macadamia trees on about 2 acres of his Russell Farms, at 205 Calle Linda.

On average, Russell Farms produces about 10,000 pounds annually. He sells directly to customers at certified farmers markets, namely the ones in Santa Monica and Pacific Beach, he said. Russell also has some business through mail orders, he added.

Russell said this year's crop is the heaviest he has every had. Like Cooper, he credits the unusually high amount of rain the region got last winter for the heavy crop size. Another factor is the large number of native bees buzzing around his groves, Russell added. Bees take care of the trees' pollination.

Still another factor is the age of his trees. He planted them 28 years ago, he said.

Harvest and processing
Harvest season for macadamia nuts generally runs from October to February. But because Cooper grows and sells 38 varieties ---- some of which mature at different times ---- he is harvesting for about six months, going into March or April. There are at least 150 known varieties of macadamia nuts in the world, according to Cooper.

Cooper said his crop looks good in terms of nut size and the amount of nuts, although he does not have exact yield amounts for this harvest yet.

"I've got a pretty good crop this year so far, and I think it's because of last winter's rain," Cooper said. "The rain softens the soil, and the trees love that."

Once pulled from the thin tree branches ---- or gathered after they have fallen from the tree, as some macadamia varieties do ---- the nuts are easily removed from their hard, greenish-brown-colored husks. What's left are the nuts within their shiny brown shells that have a slightly bumpy texture.

Still inside their shells, the nuts are placed in a dehydrator, set at 110 degrees Fahrenheit, for 100 consecutive hours.

One way to sort the nut from the cracked shell parts is to immerse the nut-and-shell mix into water.

Because shells of some varieties are not heavy enough to sink in water, placing the nut-and-shell mixture in water will not work. That was the case Thursday, when Cooper was filling a special order he received for 50 pounds of shelled macadamias.

Oftentimes, he has a worker who helps with the nut processing. On this day, he was a one-man show. He put on a headset and cupped the large, cushy headphones over his ears.

"These come in handy," Cooper said with a slight smile.

He started with a small bucket of de-husked, dehydrated nuts.

To crack the nuts, he poured them into a machine called an electromagnetic vibrating feeder.

The loudness of hundreds of nuts cracking simultaneously and falling into a pail beneath the machine proved that the headphones were a wise investment.

Cooper scooped up the pail filled with mixture of macadamia nuts and crumbled, cracked-up shell bits. The next step was to separate the small, white, unblemished nuts from the shell bits. In some cases, the order calls for whole macadamias only, and the split ones are set aside.

To separate the good nuts, the bad nuts and the shell pieces, Cooper poured the cracked nuts/shell mixture from the pail onto a large screen. He rolled his fingers through the mixture to get rid of as many of the small shell bits as possible, and he gave the screen a good shake. From there, Cooper picked out ---- by hand ---- a few more of the best-quality nuts.

"Only about 49 1/2 more pounds to go to fill this 50-pound order," Cooper said, laughing while running his hand through the mixture of nuts and cracked shell parts.

Photography to farming
Cooper's path to macadamia growing was not a direct one. The Texas native, who came to California in 1946 after joining the U.S. Navy, is a photographer by trade.

He saw his first macadamia tree when he lived on Balboa Island near Newport Beach, between 1959 and 1970. He appreciated the uniqueness of it.

In search for a beautiful piece of property away from the beachfront, Cooper purchased his Willow Glen property in 1968. He decided to grow something there.

"I wanted something unique, and I got it," Cooper said about his decision to grow macadamias. "I went to Hawaii and spent every dollar I had learning from the Hawaiian macadamia growers. I think it paid off."

Contact staff writer Lorell Fleming at (760) 731-5798 or lfleming@nctimes.com.

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