It is often left to rot, but can be eaten raw, cooked, or used to make a liquor called feni. The false fruit (called cashew fruit or cashew apple) is edible, but it is very perishable. When ripe, the whole thing falls off the tree, and the bottom part is gathered for processing. The false fruit attached to the false nut looks like a pear with a little boxing glove hanging off the bottom. In the cashew, the ovary develops outside of the fruit, which really makes it a false fruit, since by definition fruits have seeds inside. That’s pretty weird, but it gets weirder. After that, the hardened lining must be removed by hand. They are usually roasted to release the fluid, which is collected for other uses, such as varnish. He has some pictures of the local “caju” fruit here.) The cashew stores this icky stuff in the lining around the seed, which makes cashews very difficult to process. (Our friend Dan had not been told about this when he came across them in Thailand Brazil, and burned his mouth on a fresh cashew. Many plants in this family produce Urushiol, an oil that can cause a nasty, painful rash. Cashews instead have a lining around the seed that is filled with a nasty fluid.Ĭashews are in the same family ( Anacardiaceae) as mangoes, pistachios, sumac, and poison-ivy. True nuts develop a hard wall around the seed (e.g. Weird looking, isn’t it? And caustic, too!Ĭashews, like many of the culinary nuts listed above, are not true nuts in the botanical sense. When we found out, we knew more people should see it. However, that raised the question of what a cashew looks like in its shell. Why? It turns out that the cashew shell is toxic. But, come to think of it, you can get almonds, walnuts, pistachios, brazil nuts, hazelnuts, peanuts, chestnuts, pine nuts, pecans, and even macadamia nuts in a shell, but not cashews. These things should carry a warning label: “CAUTION: MAY BE HABIT FORMING.”Īnyway, while we eating them, we were asked if we knew why you can’t get cashews in the shell. They are highly nutritious, with high amounts of vitamin C, calcium, iron, and vitamin B1.Ever since we discovered them, we have been enjoying (and eating far too many of) the highly addictive Thai Lime & Chili Cashews from Trader Joe’s. You’ll want to don gloves and a long-sleeved shirt for protection, and maybe safety glasses.īoth the cashew apples and the nuts are good for you. One method to separate the nuts from the caustic shell is to freeze the cashew nuts and separate them while they are frozen. The shell of the cashew nut contains a caustic oil that causes burns and skin irritation on contact. The nuts grow in shells at the bottom end of the apples. These develop into edible red fruits, called cashew apples. The tree produces rose colored fragrant flowers in panicles. Additional Cashew Nut InformationĬashew nut trees grow flowers during winter, not summer. If insect pests, like the twig borer, eat the tree foliage, treat the trees with an appropriate insecticide. Trim the young cashew trees every now and then to remove branches that are broken or diseased. Be sure to use a fertilizer that contains nitrogen and phosphorus, and also possibly zinc. Provide fertilizer during the growing season, especially when the tree is flowering and developing nuts. If you have planted cashew nut trees, you’ll need to provide your young trees with both water and fertilizer. Well-draining sandy soil is best for growing cashew nuts and trees. The trees are drought resistant, and they can thrive on marginal soils. In fact, with a little irrigation, they grow like weeds. In this temperature range, growing cashew nut trees is easy. It is also possible to grow the trees in any frost-free area. Ideally, your temperature should not drop below 50 degrees F. You can start growing cashew nuts if you live in the tropics, whether the climate is wet or dry. Read on for more information about how to grow cashews and other cashew nut information. If you want to grow cashew nut trees, keep in mind that it will take two to three years from the time you plant until the time you harvest nuts. Cashew nut trees ( Anacardium occidentale) are native to Brazil and grow best in tropical climates.
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