They grow out from a "fruit" called the cashew apple, that is actually neither a fruit or an apple.
The surrounding parts of the cashew (the "fruit") contains some things that can be skin irritating and that can be used as an insecticide. Phenolic resin and anacardic acid among others, so you might wanna stay away from that.
When the cashew nut is detached, it is dried in the sun in its shell (the "fruit") and then steamed or roasted to remove the irritants similar to poison ivy. So raw recipes with cashews are not raw at all.
Nothing is what it seemed to me when it comes to cashews!
They are native to Brazil but were exported to India in the 1500s.
It was actually when I spent two months in India this year that I learned about how cashews are not just a nut.
I was there in the cashew nut season and there were cashew trees blooming everywhere!
This is my entry for the WorldWildFlora Contest
This is the first time I enter a contest here, and I thought it was a good place to start since I have such a huge facination for plants and flowers. The pictures were shot with my Samsung A3 2017. Hope you like it! :)
