With things being far from perfect financially, a sudden loss of direct income, and the farm still recovering from a severe drought it has become somewhat challenging to keep the pot cooking, put my daughter through university and care full-time for my elderly parents. But in diversity lies strength, or so they say.
At the moment I am dabbling with a few ideas that can lead to a more sustainable income in the long term, but in the meantime, I am grasping opportunities as they arise and making the most of them.
One of the sideline hustles that has proven very successful this year was selling macadamia nuts on the side.
South Africa is a large producer of Macadamia nuts, however, the majority of these nuts get exported. This means that although the province I live in grows an enormous amount of nuts, it is still not cheap buying them from supermarkets and such. This of course then opened the opportunity to get nuts directly from the local nut factory where farmers send their produce to be deshelled and exported. I buy up all the nuts that did not make the export requirements (nuts that might be too large, too small, or cracked), roast and package them, and then market them directly to the local community at an affordable price.
So far this has been a good run, the local support has been great so far, and today I dispatched my first order to the city of Johannesburg where fresh fruits and nuts are not as readily available as it is here by us. (600km from me).
The nutty season only lasts a few months every year and sadly we are almost at the end of that cycle, but I do have enough refrigerated stock to get me through another month or so before moving on to the next seasonal thing.
The macadamia nuts are hand-sorted and placed in large mixing containers. The nuts are then lightly drizzled with oil and approximately 5ml (1tsp) of salt for every 1.2kg of nuts is sprinkled over and then the batch gets mixed through thoroughly by hand.
Batches are spread out on large baking trays and then baked at 150 degrees C (302F) for 15 minutes in a thermal fan oven. The nuts are then removed from the oven, mixed around with a spatula, and then returned to the oven for a further 15 minutes of baking.
But the utility of these nuts stretches beyond the sales of plain or roasted nuts, I also use them in the production of many farm-made items that I have for sale on local markets such as delicious chock-chip macadamia nut cookies and sundried tomato pesto.
