Western anacardium (lat. Anacardium occidentale) or cashews - in nature, a spreading and rapidly growing tree, the height of which reaches 10 meters. It has a dense crown, wide leathery leaves and amazing fruits.
Flowers and fruits
Small, pinkish-yellow flowers of western anacardium have a fragrant aroma, are collected in long elegant twenty-centimeter brushes and begin to appear on the tree in late spring. At the beginning of summer, fruits are tied, which ripen 3 months after flowering.
Cashews are delicious, healthy and widespread in the tropics. It is not only a food product, but also a source of cashew nuts, which are valued all over the world for their beneficial properties and unsurpassed taste.
Walnut-apple
This is the name of the cashew fruit because of its characteristics. The cashew fruit consists of two parts: a large peduncle called an apple (although it looks more like a small pepper in shape and appearance) and a nut that is inside. The apple is rather large, 10 cm, covered with a dense yellow-orange or orange-red peel. The pulp of the fruit is juicy, with a sweet and sour taste, slightly astringent, but with a pleasant aroma.
The inside of the fruit - a nut - grows in length about 3 cm. It has an interesting shape - in the form of a comma. The walnut is covered with a hard green shell, which changes color to greenish-brown after ripening. Between the top shell and the nut is another shell that contains a poisonous oil that causes burns. Therefore, the cashew "apple" is opened and taken out by specially trained professionals for cutting cashews. But it is impossible to get poisoned by cashew nuts, even with careless cutting, because before selling the nuts, they must be fried and the residues of the poisonous oil completely evaporate.
The benefits of cashews
Cashew nuts are oily, tender, slightly sweet in taste and are among the ten most useful. They contain starch, fats, proteins, carbohydrates, natural sugars, dietary fiber, rich in vitamins B, PP, E, iron, copper, calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, manganese, selenium, zinc. A great advantage of cashew nuts is their content of unsaturated fatty acids Omega-3.
Japanese scientists recently discovered a substance in cashew nuts that fights harmful bacteria in the mouth. Therefore, cashews are used to kill bacteria that destroy tooth enamel, treat gum disease, and even relieve toothache.
Cashews can be grown in an apartment from unroasted seeds. The plant feels quite comfortable on the windowsill, requires minimal maintenance and begins to bear fruit in the third year. To form and slow down the growth of the crown, the cashew nut needs formative pruning.
