Learn something new everyday...

So this week-end we went to the peanut shop got a big bag of peanuts as we are cracking them Miss Animal Right looks at me and asked why don't they sell cashews in the shell. Hummm I never saw a cashew in the shell. So we went on line to see what a cashew shell looks like.

We find this pepper looking things with what looks like the cashews on the bottom.... how cool is that. Not what we thought we find. Cashew apples or "marañón" what it is called in Panama.  The locals eat the fruit or make jams or wine from them.  It spoils too quickly to be shipped any where else. Many times the fruit is decaying  before the cashew falls to the ground. It is the seed for a new cashew tree.  So in the botanical sense it is a seed, like sunflower seeds... ok whatever I still get them from pea-nut shop!! Not the seed shop.

The oil around the cashew is very caustic. Workers can get rashes from the shell oil. Much like the rash we see from poison ivy.  But the research team from the Institute of Chemistry-CAS and Department of Forest Products and Paper Science-CFNR at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) re finding that maybe they could use this natural extract for pest control. Namely termites. The oil is also being researched as an additive to brake fluid to keep it from breaking down. Plus adhesives, paints and varnishes, insecticides, electrical insulation, and anti-microbials, I didn't find a site that said that this is for sure happening. But it could be possible, just don't quote it as that it is being used today.

So  cashews are roasted in the shell to help release the oils and make the shell brittle  keeping the oils from irritating the skin.

Never too old to learn something new..... gotta love the internet.....