Cashew Day

What the day is

Cashew Day is observed on November 23. The cashew is the most misunderstood item in the nut aisle, beginning with the fact that it is not a nut and that you have almost certainly never seen one intact.

Origin and background

The cashew tree is native to northeastern Brazil. Portuguese traders carried it to India and East Africa during the sixteenth century, and those regions now dominate the trade. Vietnam has become the largest processor and exporter, with India and West African growers supplying much of the raw crop.

The plant's arrangement is unusual. What grows on the tree is the cashew apple, a soft red or yellow fruit, with the kidney-shaped seed hanging beneath it on the outside rather than sitting inside. That seed is the cashew, and botanically it is the kernel of a drupe rather than a true nut.

The reason cashews are never sold in the shell is the shell itself. It contains anacardic acid and related compounds closely related to the urushiol in poison ivy, and contact causes serious burns and blistering. Every cashew that reaches a shop has been steamed or roasted to neutralize that oil and then shelled, which is why even nuts labeled raw have in fact been heat-treated.

A great deal of that shelling is still done by hand, and it is genuinely hazardous work. Conditions in cashew processing in India and Vietnam have drawn sustained criticism over caustic burns, low pay and inadequate protection. The shell liquid itself is an industrial commodity, used in brake linings and resins.

The cashew apple rarely travels, since it bruises within a day of picking. Where it grows it is pressed for juice, and in Goa it is fermented and distilled into feni.

How to take part

• Toast raw cashews in a dry pan until golden. The difference from pre-roasted is substantial.
• Use them where they work hardest, blended into a sauce, where their fat makes a convincing cream.
• Try cashew apple juice if you are anywhere that sells it.
• Look for certified or fair trade sourcing, which in this crop addresses a real and documented problem.
• Store them in the freezer. Their fat content makes them turn rancid faster than most nuts.