The hard shells or hulls of whole nuts are effectively cracked and separated from the nut meat by propelling and impacting the whole nuts at a predetermined trajectory velocity against an adjustable impacting plate set at the appropriate impacting angle. By controlling the manner in which the whole nuts impact against the impacting plate, the fracturing of the hard shell may be controlled so as to optimize the whole nut meat recovery while minimizing the production of split nut meats. A variable speed impeller in combination with adjustability of the impacting plate optimizes the nut cracking and nut meat separation for any type of whole nut. An orderly sequential feed of whole nuts to an off-set feed zone of rotating impellers equipped with vanes having a catching section and an accelerating section at a regulated rotational speed effectively propels the whole nuts against the adjustable impacting plate.
