Judges at Australia’s most prestigious food awards have gone nuts over local macadamias
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Hand n’ Hoe Macadamias scooped gold and silver medals at the Royal Hobart Fine Foods Awards, as well as being declared champion in their class. Owner David Flinter is thrilled to have done so well in such a prestigious competition.
Hand n’ Hoe Organic Macadamias are grown on a farm between Comboyne and Elands.
“We have been here since I came up as a teenager in 1979,” said David Flinter.
”All of our produce is 100% certified organic. Our macadamias are grown in clean soil and fed by untouched rivers in remote, pristine rainforest on the Comboyne plateau.”
Hand n’ Hoe entered the Royal Hobart Fine Food awards last year and won a silver and three bronze medals.
“We were floored to win three gold medals, a silver medal and pick up champions in our class,” said David.
“We were up against a lot of very good products. It’s very tough to be judged in. The cottage industries in Tasmania are excellent. It’s been slow, small progressions that have got us here.”
The company is very busy, doing markets every weekend all around the Hastings, Wingham, Gloucester, Pacific Palms, Nabiac, Newcastle, Gosford and Sydney.
They also supply 200 organic retail shops around Australia.
“Wauchope is my local town, and it’s nice to get some recognition for this area,” said David.
The gold medals went to salted and roasted macadamias; roasted macadamia spread; raw macadamia spread, with silver for raw macadamia kernel.
In his early days, David lived in a tent for three years and built a solar-powered farm.
Two of his four children still help him on the farm.
“Everyone does their bit to make sure that we achieve this outcome. We also have great community support, and we get support from people who buy from us at markets,” he said.
“There are lots of challenges in our area. We are south of the traditional macadamia farming in Queensland and Northern NSW. We had to do lots of trials.”
Hand n’ Hoe have a variety which is more suitable for the southern climate.
They hand-harvest their macadamias, and have some trees that were planted over the past five years.
Letitia Fitzpatrick
Worked as a journalist and assistant producer for BBC news and current affairs in the UK, Ulster Television, Q Radio and the Irish News in Northern Ireland. Moved to Australia and joined Fairfax Media in 2016. Won a Rotary Paul Harris Fellowship award in 2018 for reporting the Pappinbarra bushfires and the subsequent Rotary appeal which raised $30,000.
Worked as a journalist and assistant producer for BBC news and current affairs in the UK, Ulster Television, Q Radio and the Irish News in Northern Ireland. Moved to Australia and joined Fairfax Media in 2016. Won a Rotary Paul Harris Fellowship award in 2018 for reporting the Pappinbarra bushfires and the subsequent Rotary appeal which raised $30,000.
