One of my favorite nuts are cashews. I love the buttery taste and smooth texture. I assumed that the shell must look like a walnut or pecan or maybe a macadamia nut.
Imagine my surprise when I saw this in the Star Advertiser a while ago!
I would never in a million years have imagine a cashew coming from something like that. Apparently some people were considering raising cashews in Hawaii because they can survive on marginal farmland.
That top part is called a cashew apple and is juicy and sweet. Apparently they even make juices from it in Latin America.
Wouldn't it be fun to see a grove of these trees in Hawaii?
You know how tourists sometimes don't realize that pineapples don't grow on trees?
Imagine how awesome they would think the cashew is.
POSTSCRIPT: Ugich Konitari wrote a fabulous post/poem about the cashew which I found truly fascinating. In fact, her post does link to the thought I had that the cashew looks rather like an embryo or fetus.
Imagine my surprise when I saw this in the Star Advertiser a while ago!
I would never in a million years have imagine a cashew coming from something like that. Apparently some people were considering raising cashews in Hawaii because they can survive on marginal farmland.
That top part is called a cashew apple and is juicy and sweet. Apparently they even make juices from it in Latin America.
Wouldn't it be fun to see a grove of these trees in Hawaii?
You know how tourists sometimes don't realize that pineapples don't grow on trees?
Imagine how awesome they would think the cashew is.
POSTSCRIPT: Ugich Konitari wrote a fabulous post/poem about the cashew which I found truly fascinating. In fact, her post does link to the thought I had that the cashew looks rather like an embryo or fetus.
Kay,
ReplyDeleteOur coastal state of Goa in India grows a lot of these and they make a very popular alcoholic drink called Feni from it. A friend of mine once did a post about the benefits of cashews, and i wrote a poem when i discovered the way they grow. Just thought you might enjoy it.
http://kavitalihi.blogspot.in/2012/04/primigravida-musings.html
Thank you for the link, Ugich. I've added it to my post. This is fascinating. Your poetry is so beautiful and insightful.
DeleteKay, Thank you!
Deletethat looks familiar-while living in Brazil in 1971, I bought one of those fruits and tried to get into the cashew nut to eat it or taste it. Unfortunately my lips got some of that acid that surrounds the nut and started to swell. I didn't know what to do and as my lips swelled, my anxiety increased. Finally found a doctor who gave me some medicine to counteract the problem...be CAREFUL!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThis will happen to everyone as the acid around the nut is a toxin similar to the oil in poison ivy, but killed during the roasting process. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cashew Therefore the people who harvest and roast these nuts must take precaution not to ingest the acid and all burning/roasting must be done outdoors. This added effort likely explains the extra expense.
DeleteI just heard about this for the first time last night, but luckily I'm not a fan of cashews.
wonderful photo, cashews grow on trees? Great fact!
ReplyDeleteI never heard of a cashew apple, and never saw a cashew growing before. Very interesting, when I think of a bin of cashews all coming from these things! No wonder they are so expensive. :-)
ReplyDeletethwy are such an oddity, we love them too!!!
ReplyDeleteFascinating. I wonder if that means that cashews are not true nuts?
ReplyDeleteThanks for this revelation, Kay. I had no idea how they grow. So strange.
ReplyDeleteWow! Looks like a pumpkin nesting on top of a cashew "egg." Sounds a little dangerous. You could plant one next to your papayas. Wonder if bees fertilize them.... DrumMajor
ReplyDeleteDoesn't the cashew look sort of like a fetus? Or is it embryo? Anyway, it conjured up all kinds of symbolic images to me.
DeleteNever would have imagined such a thing, and if I didn't know you, I wouldn't believe it. I know pineapples don't grow on trees, but I didn't know cashews grew out the bottom of a fruit.
ReplyDeleteI had to write a "surrealist" poem for Imaginary Garden with Real Toads this week, and I wish I had known about this!
Hi to Art, and best wishes to your mom.
Luv, K
Kay, I didn't know they grew like that either! I love cashews too! I just bought a bag of them at the Farmer's Market-they are sooooo good!!
ReplyDeleteI think that is pretty awesome. I had no idea cashews grew like that.
ReplyDeleteThat's amazing! I've always wondered how cashews grew. And I'd love to see a grove of these!!
ReplyDeleteI recently watched a show on TV (while exercise bicycling, in fact I also crochet while watching TV and bicycling to incentivise exercising) about the cashew production in hmmmm Thailand was it?...one of the southeast asian countries for sure. But they elaborated how messy and difficult it was to extract the cashew from the shell. They showed the workers hands blackened from the stripping. So despite the nut looking like a low hanging fruit lol, it is not!!
ReplyDeleteL. from W.
Wow! You are a multi-tasker, L!
DeleteI guess this explains why cashews are so expensive. I was just over at Costcos a couple hours ago and saw that pine nuts and pistachios prices had gone up dramatically. What the heck? Drought related? I love pine nuts, but now it was $20.00 a bag. Sheesh!
DeleteBizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, Season 3, 2008
This is what happens when I'm not really paying attention to the program lol...but the setting is Phuket, Thailand. I just saw it recently on Travel Channel.
L. from W.
Great post, Kay. ANOTHER interesting one....Yes, forward with Hawaii Cashew farming!
ReplyDeleteWarm Aloha from Honolulu
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I get called a weird nut all the time. ;-)
ReplyDeleteAwwww... You must be a fun guy, Scotty.
DeleteOne hilarious cinematic moment is in Christopher Guest's satire of the dog world: "Best in Show." The guy who owns the Bloodhound says he knows how to "name all kind of nuts," and he proceeds to do so with a straight face. He's so clueless he makes his dog look like Einstein compared to him. Now that I think of it, I'll try to post the scene on my Facebook.
ReplyDeleteA fascinating post. I would never have known this. Thanks Kay!
ReplyDeleteIts a very informative one..never knew about it before..
ReplyDelete