Covid Innovation – Gone Nuts!

We all know how good nuts are for us and that nuts ain’t just nuts either. So, which nuts are good nuts, and why does quality really matter. More important than that, it’s what you do with the nuts that brings them to the fore as a yummy, tantalising, and healthy treat.

Take the humble pecan nut for example. Pecans are a bit of a forgotten jewel in the nut department. Everyone carries on about cashews, dry-roasted almonds, walnuts, and, of course, the macadamia nut as some of the nuts that come to mind when you say ‘nuts’.

No, and don’t start me up on peanuts, they are actually not a nut, but a legume, so let’s leave them out of this conversation.

Pecans are actually a unique and special nut that is not only healthy and yummy but brings a stack of benefits to the body, from magnesium, phosphorus, copper, and unsaturated fats to Vitamin B1, but as that famous line from the classic Aussie movie –  The Castle, ‘It is what you do with them…’ that matters.

For Ash and Matt from Barefoot Farm located in the Byron Bay hinterland, everything they do has always, and will always be, about flavour. Both are trained chefs with over three decades of designing menus and creating tantalising culinary magic between them. They bought and stepped onto their 20-acre Pecan orchard in 2015 to combine their love for nuts (Pecans of course) and their talent for creating unique flavours.

The Pantry Cafe was opened and soon became a hot spot for day-trippers, weekenders, and locals alike brimming with a wide range of healthy treats and delicious meals, Pecan pie (of course), great local coffee, and their range of seasoned and chocolate-covered home-grown Pecan nuts.

Then Covid stopped them in their tracks, bringing their happening cafe to a standstill and turning it instantly into a financial liability with lockdowns, restrictions, and no demand in sight. Next, they lost three years of Pecan crops, first to the fires and drought, then to the massive unprecedented floods that hit the area – not once, but twice – placing half their farm underwater and costing them this year’s crop.

For Ash and Matt, this would have spelled disaster, if it was not for their ingenuity and innovation, driven by wanting to inject their love for unique flavours into their challenged pecan nut business and the cafe that has sat empty over the past two years. Under the Barefoot Farm brand they have released a range of scrumptiously flavoured pecan nuts; from Maple Roasted, Texan BBQ, and Rosemary Garlic Pecans to the classics of rich white, milk or dark chocolate dipped Pecans – all served in a beautifully labeled glass jar.

The flavours are simply magical and to ‘live’ for, they are the perfect healthy treat and make for a great gift for any occasion. And, for just $12.95 plus postage for a 100 – 130 gram jar, they are not only affordable, healthy, and yummy but support a regional flood-affected business and young parents to Nigella and Florence (3 and 2 years).

Order online at www.barefootfarmbyron.com – I promise, you will LOVE them…