Not So Raw Cashew

I love cashews. I use it often in recipes for sweet dressings and sauces. At another time I will post this. A big amount of cashews come from Brazil. Being that this is a far away country, who is going to question it's rawness and probably most people do not even know what a cashew fruit/nut looks like, so we trust the label that says "raw". I visit Brazil often and this time I finally had the opportunity to know what this fruit/nut looks like. A beautiful, strange thing it is. The orange part is the fruit, it is used to make juice and jellies. I love the juice. On top of the fruit sits the cashew nut. The nut is protected by a toxic gray shell. In order to get the nut out, it has to be heated. I visited a cashew processing farm. It was not in use at the time. At another time I intend to go back to see how this is actually done. Not knowing that the shell is toxic, I was biting into the shell to try to get to the nut. This is almost impossible....the shell and the nut seem to be merged together. The worst part is that this shell has a caustic agent. Soon my tongue and upper lip was burning. My lip actually looked like it had been burned. I was worried that this might be permanent. I had my lavender oil with me, which I always carry. I applied it often with a lip balm to cover it. It took about 4 days for it to heal, forming a scab as in a burn. My lip is back to normal, the tongue recovered faster being that it is constantly moist in the mouth. Although the cashew is not raw because it is heated, the only way to get the nut out is by this heating system. I will still use this wonderful nut eventhough it is not totally raw.

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