Apr 21, 2014

Some Facts- 'True' and 'False' fruits of Cashew nuts!



Cashew nuts are so tasty huh? I love them! During my childhood days I used to walk through these cashew farms, pluck the cashew apples, try to open the shells to get the cashew nut out, and in the process burn my skin only to get my Mother scold me :) Burn- not in true sense, the skin turns black and peels away after few days with no pain but quite a bit of irritation. The hands used to look ugly with the scars left by the nasty juice of that hard shell. At times I got my cheeks burnt too! All these memories flashed back during my recent family trip to my own coastal Karnataka- on a pilgrimage and to visit family.

Cashew Apple and nuts
The true and false fruits of cashew

The cashew apple is a false fruit and has a kind of astringent juice. The Goan Fenny, a type of liqueur, is distilled cashew apple juice. This false fruit is used in many cuisines. The "true" fruit is the kidney shaped nut that is attached below the apple. The juice (or resin) from the hard shell is used for folk remedies especially for snake bites! This actually has the similar allergic chemical that is in poison ivy!! In our community, a mandatory side dish prepared of tender cashew seeds (in Konkani we call it  bibbo) and ivy gourd is served which is very yummy!

Cashew Apple and nuts

It seems the evergreen cashew tree (Anacardium Occidentale) is native to Brazil and was brought to Goa by Portuguese! Since then cashew is an integral part of Indian cuisine especially used in desserts! Since these nuts have starch their paste is used to thicken curries which gives a rich creamy taste.

Cashew nuts

Well, we drove from Goa to all the way down to Murudeshwar, visiting some relatives who live in small hamlets nestled in the forested areas. I enjoyed the whole scenary of ocean, backwaters, marsh, birds, fields, coconut and areca groves and cashew plantations. It was a fun trip indeed!
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This post is linked to Our World Tuesday and Nature Notes.

If you want pictures please ask me :)
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Scrapbook- A Travel Blog by Kusum Sanu is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

7 comments:

  1. Interesting to know about the Cashew and great shots of them.

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  2. Hi! Nice captures. I would eat casheu nets many times but I have never seen these photos. Very interesting post! Thanks for sharing.

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  3. Didn't know that about cashews, so you taught me something new, about one of my favorite nuts:) Thanks for coming by earlier!

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  4. A blog on the cashew nuts of the travel blog is awesome and superbly explain.Thanks for the blog post.

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  5. I love cashew thanks for this wonderful information.

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