You’d be nuts not to get excited about the Highland cows at Peta Maloney’s property Nuts End at Hogarth Range.

In the paddock, waiting for the feed Peta tosses over the fence are Halle Berry and Nicole Kidman — movie stars were the naming theme for last year — this year it is botanicals.

Peta has the cattle as an addition to her main farm business of macadamias.

The macadamia trees were planted 25 years ago.

Peta said you start to get nuts from the trees after about five years.

The busy harvest time is between March and September.

Peta waits for the macadamias to drop and then they are collected and put through the dehusking machine. Peta sends the macadamias off site to get cracked out of the shells.

When the macadamias return she sets about roasting them and flavouring them to sell at Casino Lions Farmers Market.

“I’ve got it down to a fine art,” Peta said.

“I have a registered kitchen in my shed.”

She coats the nuts in chocolate, does savoury flavours such as chilli and packages them into the Nuts End bags to sell them at the market. Peta makes toasted macadamia granola as well.

At Christmas time she does raspberry coated macadamias which make a great gift.

The chocolate macadamias are a big seller at Easter.

Peta started value adding on her macadamia products when processors dropped the price they paid for nuts in shells. The price drop made nuts in shells no longer viable.

“They had us over the barrel,” Peta said.

She decided to diversify her macadamia products and customers benefit from the range of nut products she sells.

Visit Peta’s stall every Saturday 8am—11am at Crawford Square Park, South Casino. The Highland cows won’t be there, but Nuts End tasty macadamias will be.

Nuts End products are also available at Clay by Smegg in Walker Street, Casino.

This article appeared on indyNR.com on 27 March 2025.