Cashew - The Wonder Nut

What is the wonder about the cashew? Normally we see seed inside a fruit, but in a cashew fruit, its seed is an outside entity attached to it.

Brazil is the native home to the Cashew Tree. In the sixteenth century, the Portuguese explorers brought the cashew seeds and planted them to offshore nations such as India and South African. Today, the popularity of Cashew Nut has grown worldwide with its trade volume among the highest among the nut crops, the wonder nut of the world. Cashew came, conquered and took deep roots in the entire coastal region of India. Cashew found the Indian soil more homely than its homeland. Later it spread as a popular crop to other parts of India. Cashew cultivation now covers a total area of 0.70 million hectares of land, producing over. 0.40 million M.T. of raw cashew nuts annually.

Cashew Tree

Cashew trees are attractive trees with large leaves and pretty, pink flowers. It grows to a height of 12 m. Blossoming takes place between November and January. Seedling trees flower in the third year after planting. The fruit ripens fully within 2 months.

Cashewnut -- A fascinating sight of nature

The nuttiest feature of Cashewnut is that it is attached to the lower portion of the cashew apple which looks like a fruit, but in reality it is the enlarged stem of the cashew tree. The Cashewnut can be seen sitting smugly under the soft belly of the cashew' apple. Together, it is one of the fascinating sights of nature.

The Cashewnut seed has within itself a whole kernel and this delicate kernel is covered by a testa membrane and a thick outer shell which effectively protects the tasty kernel from the ravages of nature from the time of harvesting to processing.

TIn its raw form, the cashew kernel is soft, white and meaty. When roasted it changes color and taste. The cashew kernel turns from a creamy white into a golden hue and the mellow pulp becomes crisp. Salted, it appeals to the palate as the most delicious nut

Cashewnut Processing

India is the largest producer, processor and exporter of cashews in the world.

The raw cashew nuts collected from the growing areas are moved to the factories for processing.. It is ensured that the raw nuts are thoroughly cleaned and are free from all foreign matter before they are taken for processing. The processing of cashew is done by any of the four methods -- Sun Drying, Drum Roasting, Oil Bath Roasting and Steam Cooking.

Sun Drying

The raw cashew nuts are simply dried in the sun for a few days and shelled with out temp.

Drum Roasting

In Drum Roasting, the nuts are heated at high temperature is a rotating drum and then shelled.

Oil Bath Roasting

In this method, the nuts get roasted in a bath or cashew shell liquid and also the cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL) is extracted.

Steaming

It is another improved method adopted in Cashew processing. The nuts are steamed so as to make the shell soft and then cut open to get the kernel.

The roasted /steamed rawnuts are opened by cutting or by using mallets and the testa is then removed after drying in a borma. The peeled kernels are then graded by size, shape and color and packed for exports.