Cashew, the fruit

So one of the things that I found shocking when I first came to Brazil is cashew trees. I remember my first trip to the Amazon in 2004, going to Alter do Chão with a couple of the women from the office with whom I'd made friends and stopping along the road to fill a bag with cashew fruit. They are sweet and tart, and drip with juice like any overly ripe fruit should.

In reality, the fruit are false fruit from the biological perspective, since they don't contain seeds. The seed is actually the cashew nut, and must be roasted properly to remove the oils. Wikipedia says its the same oils that are in poison ivy, so you can imagine that you would not want to bite into the unroasted nut.

But the cashew trees here in the yard are fruiting, which is both gorgeous and delicious. So today in the heat, I picked some cashews and made some juice. tasty tasty juice.