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Project Noah Nature School
Anacardium occidentale
This tree currently has buds, flowers and even a nut. In a month time there will be a lot of cashew fruits. The fruits can be eaten, but the taste is a bit astringent. I have been told that it is good for cleaning the kidneys, but that is some local knowledge, and not scientific :) The fruit is also used for making moonshine here. The nut are green and attatched to the fruit. When the fruit is rape, the nut is separated, dried and roasted.
Laterit ground in a village. But it is found in most parts of Mozambique.
Here in Mozambique, the Cashiew trees seems to have a redish tone to the young leaves. This makes it easy to define, even from some distance. The nut is surrounded by a double shell containing an allergenic phenolic resin, anacardic acid, a potent skin irritant chemically related to the better-known allergenic oil urushiol which is also a toxin found in the related poison ivy. Properly roasting cashews destroys the toxin, but it must be done outdoors as the smoke (not unlike that from burning poison ivy) contains urushiol droplets which can cause severe, sometimes life-threatening, reactions by irritating the lungs. People who are allergic to cashew urushiols may also react to mango or pistachio which are also in the Anacardiaceae family. Some people are allergic to cashew nuts, but cashews are a less frequent allergen than other nuts or peanuts. (wikipedia)
Spotted on Oct 2, 2013
Submitted on Oct 2, 2013
9 Comments
Well, i ll try to write an article about it..When i write, i ll inform you :P
"'boore kalavu" is a a part of tradition in Deepavali festival in India, which is famous for stealing...People usually steal coconut and stuffs for fun (Sometimes seriously tv, computer also) :P
Hahaha! I hope you write a story about this sometime! It is so innocent and sweet, and I think all kids has done something similar :)
Well, i was caught in action once ! I was sitting on top of the tree :P
But uncle was very old..He was unable to catch me :P
Oh, :) That is just such a sweet story! You were quite innocent little brats back then! I hope you kids enjoyed the ice cream and that no one ever caught you "in action".
You know Tina? When we were small, we used to steal cashew and sell it to make money for ice cream!
Nice series :)
Oh, Ksc, Kel, Sckel... ha! You changed your name! :)
Thank you Suzanne! This tree deserves some attention. It is quite fantastic that one single plant can provide humans with both proteine, fat and carbs!
Ksc, floral stalk? So you mean that I could go there and nibble on them now? :)
Interestng that your cashew trees are the biggest ones, but on the other hand I read that they are native to South America... They are indeed very delicious!
The juicy part is not the fruit, is the floral stalk. We have the largest cashew tree in the world in Brazil. Cashew nuts are delicious. But it is very expensive here. Just eat it at Christmas.
Nice, Tiz ... all the different views are great.