the history of a nut (and no i am not talking about me!)

in the line for the grocery store, i bought a tasty treat that is quite possibly the best snack ever...not chocolate, but cashews.

ever since i was a little girl, i remember going grocery shopping with my mom and she would always somehow manage to pick up a container of cashews when we entered the store and then open it to share between me, my sister and her (never fear, she did pay for the empty container at the end of the shopping trip). this was her attempt at keeping us quiet in the store and nine times out of ten it worked.

flash forward to a trip that i made to brazil about 3 years ago. again shopping at a market, i come across cashews, but this time not in a seal fresh container. hundreds of cashews sit in front of me, individual perched on the top of what looks like a pear. one little nut on top of one little fruit....something to be said for that combination

a person noticing my amusement with this discovery pointed out the obvious....this is why cashews are so expensive. you have to grow this whole fruit to get ONE cashew....amazing but true. never really thought about the price of a nut, but that would be a logical reason behind the price difference. if you can't make it to brazil to witness this phenomenon for yourself then you can visit the web site www.nutfactory.com/kitchen/facts/facts-cashew.html , a full history of the cashew (from it's brazilian roots) to an illustration of cashew apple and cashew nut and if you are jonesin' for your own cashews, i think you can order some too.

who would have thought that an innocent grab for a check out line snack could take me back to childhood and my wonderful trip to brazil and lead me on the hunt for the history of the cashew!