Perfectly edible, the apple is rich in vitamin C, containing around 5 times more than an orange, as well as iron, vitamin B1, and calcium. The pear-shaped pedicel is the swollen stem of the fruit, commonly known as the cashew apple. The shell houses the familiar cashew nut. If you look at the fruit of a cashew tree, you’ll see a pear-shaped fruit with a kidney-shaped shell attached to it. Interestingly, both are part of the same fruit. You may know the cashew tree for its nuts, but it also produces the cashew apple. Interested in growing your own? Read on! sarangib / Pixabay Introduced into India in the first half of the 16th century to aid afforestation efforts, these distinctive trees produce clusters of fragrant, rose-coloured flowers that grow into edible fruit. Today we update that earlier page with a completely new page focused on more emphasis on the "apple" part of the cashew fruit.The Cashew tree (Anacardium occidentale) is an attractive, flowering evergreen that native to Brazil. Our original page, a general introduction to cashew nuts, has been on this site for several years. it's the cashew nuts that I definitely enjoy the most: taste-wise and because they are not tough or hard as almonds.Īnacardum occidental, fruit nut, and plant, Photography by Nicholas Hellmuth Although I also like walnuts, almonds, etc. When someone offers me a bowl of mixed nuts at a cocktail party, my fingers can detect the cashew nuts and separate all cashews from all other nuts: so most of the cashew nuts get devoured out of the bowl. By treating the entire nut "pod" and then prying the kernel out afterwards, you get a clean cashew nut which you can enjoy at home or at your next social event. The fruit you can eat as-is the nut is surrounded by chemicals which are slightly poisonous. This turns into the large mango-sized and mango-soft fruit (but taste is distinctive definitely not mango taste). Then the stem above the nut starts growing. The nut gets bigger and bigger, with a bright green outside. What is the Development Cycle of Cashew Nuts from the flower? Here we show a range of flower sizes and colors.Īnacardium Occidentale Flowers, Photo by Nicholas Hellmuth. The flowers vary in color (as do the resultant fruits: yellow, yellow-orange, orange, reddish). But I have never had the patience to do this since it is so easy just to buy the nuts already finished. You can easily get rid of the poisons by heating or otherwise treating the nut. The nut is encased in plant chemicals which are poisonous. The cashew nut is also a member of the same plant family as the pistachio nut (same Anacardiaceae family as the mango).īotanists have specialized jargon for all of this, which we will show in our photographs and renderings. The enclosure of the nut is simply an outer layer in precisely the same curved typical cashew nut shape. Furthermore the cashew nut is not encased in either a round or oval shell. The cashew nut is not a seed inside a hard shell the cashew nut sticks out far below the fruit. What is a Cashew Nut, from the Anacardium occidentale tree? It is definitely not hard like an apple.ĭigital render of Anacardum occidentale, Copyrigt FLAAR 2014, by Melanny Quiñonez But I will admit that in 50 years in Guatemala I have never eaten a cashew apple nor have I drunk its juice. We often pick the fruits direct from trees or we buy the entire fruit in a market so we can photograph them. The chemicals which have to be removed from around the nut are evidently not noticeable inside or around the soft fruit. But actually the cashew apple is completely edible and does not need to be treated or processed (the nut has several unpleasant chemicals on its outside which have to be removed by treating and then the remains physically scraped off the nut kernel). Plus it rots very quickly (especially if scrapped or otherwise damaged). Kind of ironic that the cashew tree is a member of the same plant family as mango, the Anacardiaceae.īecause the cashew apple is so soft, it is easily damaged when it falls from the tree, or when handled after harvesting, and especially susceptible to damage from being packed and shipped. The cashew apple is fully edible but is usually thrown away.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |