Aren't you supposed to roast them and the shell pops open?
Don't quote me on that, though!

How big is your tree and how long before it produced? Mine's about 2 years old.

Yeah, that's what I read too, but it also said that it's pretty dangerous because a caustic substance can spit out of the shells as they heat up, so that's why I was wondering if there's a better way. Cashews are/were in the same family as mangos, and i think it may have originally also included poison oak and poison ivy, but the taxonomy has been reshuffled. At any rate, they all have certain irritants in the sap.

I'm ashamed to say this tree is still in a pot, but the roots have gone into the ground (that happens a lot at our place, we always think we're going to move it or plant it later, then-- uh-oh, too late!) I can't remember how old it is, 5 or 6 years at least, maybe more? It probably would have fruited earlier if we had put it in the ground. We grew it from seed. It had one or two fruits a couple of years ago, maybe a dozen last year, but this year it looks like there'll be plenty. We started one from one of last year's seeds, it's in a gallon pot about 2-3 ft. high now.

You can eat the fruit too-- the part at the base swells up and turns yellow, but supposedly it's not that great. The birds mostly get to them before we do anyway. I just like looking at them, it's the only fruit I know that wears its seed on the outside!

Lisa: Actually that swollen thing next to the actual fruit (the nut and the nut shell) it is not a fruit, it´s just the swollen peduncle (if this word exist).

Actually, strawberries is a fruit as the one you intended to describe.

I also like to look at them, and planning to plant some seeds and see what happens.

for what it's worth, i really like cashew juice (popular at brazilian restaurants here.) i understand the fruit is astringent so brazilians add sweetening.

That's interesting, Patusho, I never really thought about the things on the outside of strawberries as being their true seeds, but I guess they are. Can you think of another "fruit" that is actually a swollen peduncle?

They seem pretty easy to grow from seeds. Just soak them in water for a few days first.

P.S. Gary- thanks for the link, I'll check it out.

Lisa that's amazing! Thanks so much for sharing that photo. I have never seen a raw cashew that close up before. They look like mango seeds.

Lisa: I don´t recall any other like cashew.

If I remember, Kameha, I'll take another picture when the "fruits" ripen, it's even weirder-looking.

Okay that will be very interesting to see. Thanks!

My housemate grew up in El Salvador, where Cashew fruit (Maranon) is as common as apples are to us.

The fruit is really delicious, but I've only had it in combination with a bunch of other tropicals, in a juicy drink (with small chunks of fruit and sometimes vegies) called Salad (Ensalata).

Jose says the nuts are roasted over an open fire outdoors, and that everyone hits the road till it's over, as the smoke is as irritating (bad!) as contact with the fresh seed itself.

No wonder cocktail nuts are so expensive.

PansySoup I thought raw cashews were poisonous...I guess they mean only the seed. What does the fruit taste like? Anything like its cousin the mango?

Lisa: Here´s another fruit like cashew(Hypocarp), also in the Anacardiaceae family.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Muy lindo, Patusho, pero no se come! Looks like an attractive tree though. According to the info on this link, there's one growing at Ho'omaluhia, so I'll have to go take a look.

Lisa: Nunca dije que se comiera.

Bueno, verdad que no.

I've got several cashew trees on my farm here in India. Roasting the nuts can be quite a job and not for the faint-hearted! First we sun-dry the nuts and then roast it in a big iron wok-like thingummy. You've got to to do this outdoors if you dont want to be smoked out and quite possibly, set the whole neighbourhood on fire. Cashewnuts have this really potent oil in them which can sting on contact so you've got to be careful.
When they're done, the nuts start flaming themselves(so you've got fire in the wok too). You've got to dump it immediately on the ground, preferably in a patch of sand to cool them down. When cool you must crack the shell gently with a small hammer / pestle or whatever. Unfortunately the shell doesnt pop open as someone on the forum guessed . I really wish it would, though. Would save a lot of time and blackened hands.
Incidentally, the tender cashewnut (removed from the shell to get a white tender kernel) is used here to make a very tasty curry. And in some parts of India a very potent alcoholic drink called 'feni' is made from the cashew fruit.
I'm really curious about that Brazilian cashew juice which was mentioned here. Does anyone know how its made? Every year hundreds of kilos of cashew fruit go into the compost heap because I dont know what to do with it. I dont much like the taste of the fruit though my kids like them sliced and coated with salt. But you cant have more than one or two a day. Here even the crows stop eating them after a while!
Lisa, if you're planning to plant it in the ground make sure you've got lots of space for the tree. Its humongous! Each tree of mine has a canopy that can easily cover a tennis court. But the tree is really beautiful with twisty trunks that take on all kinds of interesting shapes. And when they fruit, I think they look like summer-time Christmas trees (sort of).

Thanks Sunita. Hmmm... I think maybe I'll eat them raw! But still, no easy, safe way to get them out of their shells? What if I put the nuts in a bag and run over them with the car? :-)

I didn't realize it was going to get that big. Unfortunately it's already pretty much planted itself where it is (there's only the remnants of the plastic pot around the root), which is right next to our shade house-- not exactly where I want a humongous tree. Also it seem to have some kind of disease problem now, there's a black ring where the "fruit" attaches to the nut, and then the fruit part all shrivels up and turns black. It doesn't seem to affect the nut production, but it doesn't look good. Maybe we should cut that one down and start with a seedling somewhere where it has more room to spread out. There's some cannonball trees that have rooted through their pots right there too, and I know how big (and trash-producing) they can get. Yikes!

If we could clone ourselves about 30 years younger, we might have the time and energy to deal with stuff like this. In the meantime, I should probably get offline and go do some actual work! :-)

What? All that work for a nut? I am not that nut.

I just received 3 cashew seeds...perhaps I will just plant out 1 of them, if they ever sprout.

Patusho, why do you think they're so expensive?: )
Lisa, use gloves if you're trying out the kernel from the tender, green nuts.Or you'll be called Lisa Wax-hands!
Its possible there may be easier ways which are used in the big cashewnut processing plants but as far as I know, this is the way its done here on a small scale.

The thing is, I don't even like cashews all that much! We just grew the tree because a friend gave us the seeds, and I like the way it looks. Maybe we could sell the nuts in their shells and let people figure out how to get them out. I've seen macadamia nuts sold that way to unsuspecting tourists. :-) We have a couple of mac nut trees too, and have never been able to crack them, I think you need a jackhammer!

It's fun to think about growing your own foods, but often there's so much processing involved that it's just not worth it on a small scale. We also have cacao trees, coffee, vanilla, tamarind, allspice.... do you think we've ever eaten any of them? So much easier just to go to the store and buy it already processed!

Mango and pistachio AND poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac are in the cashew family! Urushiol is a very irritating oil in these plants. If you get the oil on skin or clothing, it can get on other areas that touch the oily spot.

Oh com'on Lisa,when you aren't making new clothes for the entire family, milking the cows, planting the corn........... I'd expect you out there roasting coffee beans and making fresh spices!

If you are going to consider using them for seeds, they are better planted fresh. I planted several 6 month seeds from a vendor, & got about a 15% germination rate. I donÂt think they were stored properly, however.

Okay, I'll get right on the spices, Karen, just as soon as I finish churning the butter, stomping the grapes, and running in the treadmill to produce our own electricity!

Lisa, what you are growing is so much like what I grow myself and what I used to have in my childhood home.
By the way, what are macadamia nuts? Never seen them... I dont think they're available here in India.

Macadamia nuts are probably one of Hawaii's best-known crops, after pineapple and Kona coffee. Of course they aren't native to here (neither is coffee or pineapple) but people associate them with here, and they are HEAVILY marketed in all forms: roasted, salted, unsalted, chocolate covered, macadamia nut-flavored Kona coffee, pineapple and macadamia nut cookies, chocolate-dipped Kona coffee-flavored macadamia nut shortbread (those are good!!), the permutations are endless... No tourist is allowed to leave unless they are carrying at least a half-dozen cans of mac nuts to give all their friends back home a "taste of Hawaii". :-)

Here's some more useful information:

Here is a link that might be useful: Mac nut facts

More cashews:
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The "fruit" turns completely yellow, but it seems like as soon as that happens they fall off the tree or the birds get them.

Lisa, thanks for the info on macadamia nuts. Hmm... maybe I should try growing them : )
By the way, in the photo you just added, the nut on the extreme right is in the right stage for a great cashew curry. By the time the fruit fills up, the stage is past. Try it, its really great (but it can be murder on your hands)

The green nut? How do you make cashew curry, Sunita? Which part do you use?

That is awesome Lisa! Thanks for posting more pics of the cashews. So that's what they look like when they start to ripen.

Hello from Brazil, home of the cashew, or caju as commonly called here. As to the juice, you can take the swollen stem, or fruit as called here and beat it up in a blender with water and sugar if you like. As to the nuts, the non commercial way to get the toxic coating off the nut is to roast, or better said burn them. The key is to make sure you don't burn the whole seed up. The oil in the seed shell catches fire quite easily. Actually cashew fruits are quite good when consumed as apples in slices with shots of cachaça, the brazilian national liquor. Sort of like tequila and lime. A dash of salt is good as well. I live here in the Amazon and our humidity limits fruit production to the dry season of 3 months from August through October. The rest of the year the flowers get attached by fungus and the the fruits do not set. The tree is native to northeastern Brazil which is quite dry during most of the year and they fruit very well. In the northeast the tree is known as sort of a tree of life. The bark of the tree is also used as a remedy and colorant. It is a very important tree in Brazil.

dk

In México we call it Marañón, it is cultivated mostly in the south. Great nut.

Lisa, you've got to split the green nut (make sure you're wearing gloves) lengthwise so you get the tender white kernel inside. Discard the green shell as well as the thin coat that the kernel has. Yeah, its a bit of work but very, very tasty when cooked. I'll dig up some recipes for you.
dk, thats so interesting! The cashew tree was brought to India by the Portugese missionaries from South America. I'm really interested in finding out new recipes for the fruit. The juice sounds interesting but does it retain that after-taste that seems to cling to the fruit ? How do you get rid of that?
Here the cashew fruits from March to June when our monsoons start.

Sunita,

That's right the Portuguese took a lot of plants both directions. We got mangoes and a lot of other things from India. The Portuguese crown actually started the Rio de Janeiro botanical garden to a large degree as a plant introduction station. To make the juice just take the pulp and put it in the blender and sweeten to taste. You will get a bit of tang, but that is part of the taste. I guess something you like or not. Our maid is from Ceara which is the home of cashews and she confirms what I mentioned as far as getting the nut out of the toxic covering. Take a piece of sheet metal and place it over hot coals outside. As the nuts heat up they get black like charcoal. Take them off the sheet metal and then crack them open to get the seed. They are delicious to eat when still hot. I have also had the cashew fruit baked in the oven.

dk

I've been toying with doing just that. I wondered what would happen if I shoved them into the oven or microwave but held back coz I dont want to have a burnt out house and no explanation for DH!

I would not put the seeds in an oven or microwave, they are real flamable. But, baking the fruit, swollen stem does work. It was a long time ago since I at one this way. But, it was good. I guess I will try it during cashew season this year.

dk

For Sunita. The Macadamia is M ternifolia and my reference notes that it "thrives and bears fruit at Peradeniya, Ceylon, where it was introduced in 1868". Yes, it is an ancient reference but it is very likely that information about the plant is available through the Agriculture Dept./University System of either India or Shri Lanka.

I'm sure looking forward to the next picture! I found the following document which discusses commercial shelling (and all other aspects of cashew culture)

http://www.fao.org/ag/ags/agsi/Cashew/Cashew.htm#_Toc509920332

Here is a link that might be useful: Small Scale Cashew Nut Processing