Cashews

An overheard snippet of conversation from a few weeks back-

Two girls sitting at a counter eating trail mix:
Lily: "Maggie, do you know what these curved peanuts are called?  Cat shoes."

I've been thinking about cashews quite a bit lately.  First of all because we bought a bag of delicious roasted and salted cashews at the municipal market the other day.  Unlike most of the nuts, they were very inexpensive.  Turns out that the cashew, or caju as it is called here, is native to northern Brazil.  It was spread to Africa and India by the Portuguese.  The other thing that interested me was learning that the cashew isn't really a nut - it's techinically/botanically a fruit - and that it is attached to a big "pseudo-fruit" that is used to make a fruit juice that you can buy around here.  You can also by the fruit whole at the market.

Here's a pic

The part we call the cashew nut is in the "boxing glove" shaped green area at the bottom (I always love it when the same adjective pops up in all different articles about a subject on the internet. "Boxing glove-shaped" is one of those).  The larger part on the top is the "cashew apple."   

As I said, you can buy the whole thing at the market.  You have to be careful though, because the part around the nut has the same compound as poison ivy and can be irritating. 

You can also buy caju juice at the grocery store.  I think we're going to pick some up when we go tomorrow.

I know.  It's all very fascinating.  But the weather's been pretty yucky lately and I don't have a lot of pretty pictures to share.  And, if you're reading this, you probably already know that I can be a bit of a plant nerd.