The tree can grow up to 40 feet high, though there are cultivar shrubs that are smaller and easier to harvest. It's native to Brazil, but has been exported as a crop tree to Vietnam, India, and Africa. You see, a cashew is really the seed of the cashew tree ( Anacardium occidentale), which is an evergreen tree that grows in tropical and humid environments. This is also the shortened French word acajou. All of these are the terms for the actual tree which produces the nut. The word cashew comes from the derivative of Portuguese for the cashew tree caju, and the South American term acaju. CASHEW "NUTS"Īll of this brings us to the cashew nut. Other famous examples of drupes include coffee, mango, and olives. Yes, they also have a hard outer covering that requires cracking, but there's an extra step to get get to the stone fruit of drupes, namely removing or fermenting the outer fleshy bits covering the inner seed. Examples of this would be a peach, the fleshy hull of a walnut, or the fleshy covering of a pecan. Yes, drupes are seeds, just like nuts, but they come from the ovary wall of a flower and are surrounded by fleshy goodness. This is because they are technically DRUPES or stone fruits. These are not really, botanically speaking, nuts. The term nut is confusing because cooks and laymen have often use the term "nut" to refer to any edible kernel inside a hard shell, such as walnuts, almonds, and pecans.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |