Macadamia nuts

[raw-al]

You gotta be a rich man if you want to be a raw, organic eater.  LOL

[KD]

It depends what ones goals are, but you can't expect to get ahold of any truly raw nuts either from a store or from an internet purveyor, even if they are labeled raw and are a 'raw' company. Even the cacao beans which are so famously sold as raw have been proved to be heat processed in next to all circumstances. nuts in shell are your best bet but even many types of in shell nuts are heat treated and many are just plain rancid.

The only surefire way to get truly raw nuts is to pick them off a tree yourself, or do the next best step, purchase them directly from a farmer that you trust. Ebay is actually a much more reliable source in buying from farmers than specialty websites, unless those websites have some kind of direct confirmation that they have a completely unheated product, which I don't know of any offhand. I have noticed organic pastures selling unpasteurized almonds, but I believe they are the same kinds that were around before all the lame legislation a few years back, and therefore are still potentially heat treated (albeit not high pasteurization temps) and shelled/probably rancid.

[edit: whoops meant nuts in shell, not shell nuts]

[Nation]

Nuts have nothing to do with raw food unless you pick em from the tree yourself, they're cooked paleo, not raw paleo. If you're gonna eat nuts, you might as well eat a well done steak with your nuts and a glass of pasteurized milk.

[RawZi]

yes, they are steamed... never found a truly raw source.

    Thank you.  I think you're right.  They had me make sprouted pine-nut "cheese" at Ann Wigmore more than 20 years ago.  I remember other nuts and seeds changing quickly (going to a bitter growth stage, greenness/chlorophyll developing, growing tails), but I don't recall the pine-nuts showing signs of life.  They got a little death-like mushy.  We never got macadamias. 

[King Salmon]

RawZi and Ioanna,check this out:

http://www.living-foods.com/articles/nuts.html

Tom Billings says that Pine nuts are dried & milled (not steamed).He has a bunch of other info about other nuts as well.Let me know what you think.Take care.

[NEUROSPORT]

  djr, check out these guys and let me know what you think:                     

http://www.rawguru.com/store/raw-food/organic-raw-pine-nuts-1-lb.html

As for me,I haven't eaten pine nuts for a while.My thing is pistachios now.I eat 'em with different varieties of raw organic raisins.I put 'em in a container and much on 'em all day long until I get to my seafood meal or egg smoothie.
Pine nuts are a little "sharp" tasting while pistachios are more mellow.Macadamias are somewhere in between as far as taste and texture.

i was at whole foods today and picked up some raw macadamias.  but the only pistachios they had were roasted and in those shell things.  now the shells might be fun if you're using them as a snack but i want to toss them in a blender.  where do you get yours ? ( raw of course )

[NEUROSPORT]

Nuts have nothing to do with raw food unless you pick em from the tree yourself, they're cooked paleo, not raw paleo. If you're gonna eat nuts, you might as well eat a well done steak with your nuts and a glass of pasteurized milk.

i disagree.  it is the dose that makes the poison.  it's one thing to have a glass of wine and another a bottle of vodka.  just because nuts are not 100% raw doesn't put them in the same category as barbecue.

i have to ask though - do SEEDS ( in particular hemp seeds and chia seeds ) undergo the same processing as nuts ?  because hemp seeds and macadamias are the same price where i get them.

[Ioanna]

it is the dose that makes the poison. 

no, it is the dose that makes a poison symptomatic

[King Salmon]

Neurosport:Well,depending on where you live and if you want just raw or raw organic,you can try Trader Joe's.The Whole Foods where I live has them without the shell so I'm surprised yours doesn't.

You can order raw organic from www.buyorganicnuts.com

I get mine from a specialty shop in Vancouver,so,too far for you I'm afraid.

But there's tons of pistachio farms in Arizona and California.I prefer organic of course and if I could find sun-dried I would be in heaven.

I agree with "Nation" to a point:A lot of nuts are heated in the drying process.But I agree with you that there are acceptable degrees and sacrifices/choices we need to live/die by.

Where I disagree with Nation is in the fact that there are raw nuts you can buy which will actually sprout.Obviouly,they weren't "cooked",or they wouldn't sprout at all,they would be dead.So,in a lot of cases,the heat used doesn't cause that much of a problem.Sun-dried especially being the best option.Even still,there are other problems with nuts such as rancidity...etc.....but what food doesn't have problems?Is raw meat/fish always perfect?

I'm actually not trying to convince anybody to do what I do.I come to this forum to learn and share information.However,I'm a raw gourmet kind of person,and I love pistachios' flavour as well as their nutritious aspect(Salmon also of course....haha).I've been doing well on them for over 10 years.Peace.

[RawZi]

RawZi and Ioanna,check this out:

http://www.living-foods.com/articles/nuts.html

Tom Billings says that Pine nuts are dried & milled (not steamed).He has a bunch of other info about other nuts as well.Let me know what you think.Take care.

    Thanks.  I still go by feel, but it's good to read that.

[RawZi]

i have to ask though - do SEEDS ( in particular hemp seeds and chia seeds ) undergo the same processing as nuts ?  

    Chia are raw.  At least they don't feel dead.  Hemp seeds bought in those resealable foil bags from health-food stores, online, Canada etc do not feel raw.  They're probably steamed.  I'd be curious to hear it from the horse's mouth though.  

    Not all nuts bought are processed, at least they didn't use to be.  I don't try to sprout nuts now, but I used to sprout almonds, hazelnuts etc and they started growing pretty long and (bright) green (crisp lively stem etc) sometimes by the time I got around to eating them.

[Ioanna]

i read that hemp seeds must be steamed to be allowed here in order to ensure people aren't going to grow it.

[NEUROSPORT]

i read that hemp seeds must be steamed to be allowed here in order to ensure people aren't going to grow it.

insanity ...

[King Salmon]

Neurosport (and whoever else is interested:here's a live demo on soaking and sprouting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmQvnL5AeZg    Natasha does the demo,she's very friendly.

Here's another one from Elaina Love: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rig3vF3WOwM   Enjoy!

[B.Money]

Neurosport:Well,depending on where you live and if you want just raw or raw organic,you can try Trader Joe's.The Whole Foods where I live has them without the shell so I'm surprised yours doesn't.

You can order raw organic from www.buyorganicnuts.com

Hey, I recently just emailed the owner of buyorganicnuts.com about the processing and he says "They are dried at 150 F for about 4 hours"

Does that make these pistachios still raw/worth eating?

[KD]

Hey, I recently just emailed the owner of buyorganicnuts.com about the processing and he says "They are dried at 150 F for about 4 hours"

Does that make these pistachios still raw/worth eating?

no/i dunno

your best bet for truly raw nuts other than going to the farms themselves is getting in-shell nuts from a grower on ebay or craigslist.