I remember Luke Huber talking about the Amazon, before we ever became missionaries…”then we would to this beach area, where there were many cashew fruit trees. I could eat 5 of these super-juicy fruits”. And there is nothing better than when you are walking along a deserted stretch of beach, and you are hot, and tired, and hungry, and then you come across a cashew tree, full of sun-ripened fruit. They have such a strong, citrusy, flavour, and they kind of make your mouth dry, like the choke cherries up in Northern Canada. Sun ripened, open air, fresh…these are the secrets to really enjoying the actual cashew fruit.
Luke told us cashew fruits contain 5 times as much vitamin C as an orange. We found out for ourselves they will stain your shirt brown if the juice drips on you. And the seed contains some toxic elements that will burn your leg if you put them in your pocket. The smoke is also toxic, as I found out when I tried roasting some in a frying pan inside the house, and the house filled with smoke, and our eyes were burning. The seeds will spit burning oil that leave a blister wherever they land on your skin, and they will be flaming, burning bits of oil if you roast them over a fire. We learned to stir them around with a long stick. For flavour, home-roasted cashew nuts taste the best.
If you come for a visit at this time of year, you can see for yourself what I am talking about.
