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This seemed like a simple enough question, so we asked around the office first. Trouble is, the only answer we seemed to be getting was, "Mmmm. Cashews." Discouraged by the hunger-driven droning of our colleagues, we turned to the Web. Call us nuts, but we started with a simple search on "cashews." This yielded several results from the regional India > Business and Economy category. There we found some produce companies in India that deal exclusively in what they call "cashew kernels." And while our visit to the Western India Cashew Co. didn't yield an answer, we did notice a photo of a really
weird-looking cashew-bearing fruit. We took our Yahoo! search out onto the Web, and discovered an informative entry on the cashew tree, Anacardium occidental, from the California Rare Fruit Growers' Fruit Gardener magazine. Then, at the Purdue University's Center for New Crops and Plant Products we found a complete source of cashew answers. Apparently, there's no effective method of mechanical shelling, so the nuts have to be harvested carefully by hand, using wooden hammers to avoid breaking the kernels. First, they're roasted in the shell to make it brittle and easier to open -- this also reduces the
toxicity of the cashew oil. You see, it turns out the cashew is not only related to the mango, but to poison ivy and poison oak as well. The skin and fruit surrounding the kernel (the nut-in-the-nude you find on your supermarket shelves) can cause skin eruptions just like those produced by its well-known cousins. Even the smoke from roasting the cashew can cause severe reactions. Frankly, we're getting a rash just thinking about it.
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