Where your cashew nuts come from - and what cashew fruit looks like

Cashew nuts in Cashew Heights, Singapore. Photos by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Problem
Why are cashew nuts so expensive? Where do they come from? Can I grow them?

Answers
A cashew nut tree is in the Cashew Heights condo complex, on Cashew Road, leading uphill from Cashew MRT station. Many roads in this are are named after nuts.

What is a nut? A nut grows as a single item protected by a hard shell. Think of a walnut, a brazil nut, a hazel nut. Unlike seeds such as sesame seeds which are smaller and softer sand scatter.

I saw them lying on the ground. The nuts looked dark and dirty. I thought of picking one up, washing it off and eating it. But it was rock hard.

Looking at the cashew nut, what at first sight seemed to be a cashew nut hanging from a pear, turned out to be the hard shell of a cashew nut.

So you can grow cashew nut trees in Asia, in the tropics, in Singapore. The trees grow big. You need a lot of space. A smaller variety of tree produces crops faster, in three years.

Cashew nuts mainly come in quantity from Brazil, Vietnam, India and the Ivory Coast.

The fruit is also used in drinks and chutneys and jams. Both the cruit skin and nut casing can be astringent and cause allergic reactions, which is why the nuts are not sold in the shell. Now you know.

Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cashew
https://www.tropicalpermaculture.com/growing-cashews.html

Cashew nut and cashew apple, both of which are edible - with some warnings. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Cashew Road and Cashew Trees and Nuts

In case you are wondering, as I was, what a Cashew tree looks like and whether it would be fun to grow one, here's a picture from Wikipedia by L Shyamal. Singapore has Orchard Road in the middle, and mango trees on the main Upper East Coast road. But according to one of the websites about the history of Singapore place names, often roads in an area were on a theme such as fruits, or nut trees, not relating to the local vegetation. 

Going uphill from Cashew station on Upper Bukit Timah Road, along Cashew Road you will also find Chestnut Drive, Almond Street, Hazel Park, and Walnut.

The cashew nut grows under the edible cashew apple, but the nut is encased in a dangerously acidic liquid. So I was not surprised they don't risk growing little cashew nut trees in Cashew Road outside the schools.

Photo of cashew apple and nut: from Wikipedia by Abhishek Jacob.

Then I spoke to Mr Lau who is writing a book for his own satisfaction on the trees on the Cashew Heights estate. He assured me that Cashew Heights had and still has cashew nut trees, although the estate's symbol is a Raintree.

http://remembersingapore.org/2011/04/04/old-names-of-places/

http://www.tropicalpermaculture.com/growing-cashews.html