Cashew on the House

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Food & Drink

Sunday, 27 June 2010 06:55

By D. Francis

Antigua has its fair share of tropical fruits, especially in the southern sections of the island. From mango to citrus fruits, soursop, plums, sugar apple, cherries, tamarind... and the cashew fruit.

Speaking of cashew, I recently asked some young people if they knew what the fruits were, and they said, "Ah, not really.” When I was growing up, cashew trees were nearly everywhere, and were as commonly picked as tamarind or dumbs.

Research has shown that the cashew fruit has been cultivated for food and medicine for more than 400 years. During World War II, it became highly prized as a source of valuable oil, which was drawn from the shell.

To learn more about the cashew fruit, I asked one mature gentleman what he remembers about it.

He recalled, “We use to look cashew (plum) regularly when coming from school and our parents knew when we ate them, because due to their juicy nature, it would usually drip on your clothes or uniform and the juice would leave a permanent stain on your clothes, and you know it's usually blows you’ll get for that. Nearly everything you do back in the days you used to get licks for."

He said, "Also we use to roast that hard shell or what we call the cashew seed and get the real cashew nut inside. We use to do that a lot, sometimes it’s a whole pile we use to roast to get out the nut."

Although the succulent fruit looks mouth-watering and pleasing to the eye, with the bright reddish-yellowish colour, quite a few people say they are not crazy about the taste.

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