Cashew Apples - are you missing those fruits? (mundiri pazham, kollam pazham)

Hi Everyone --

I trust you and family are doing well.  I see that, we are coming out of COVID, everything almost opened up and we are almost there. Trust, things are getting better and better.

In this blog, I am sharing little about "Cashew Apples".  The season is coming, coming... :). It is a summer fruit.

When I was a kid, this fruit used to be there everywhere during summer. i.e. from April to May.  In our farm, we "had" many cashew trees, but all were gone during drought and some were infected. We used to produce around 2 tons of cashew shells during the peak and perfect season.

Now, I am maintaining ONLY 10 trees. But, these 10 trees do give lots of happiness during summer season, which I will share here. These fruits are in RED and Yellow colors.

See the fruit below, in a perfect fresh condition.

 

 

As of this week, tree is like below. i.e. Cashew apples will be ready in next two weeks. If weather turns out to be in-favor, then we will have a good yielding.

 

If you see the tree now, you will see lots and lots of flowers and honey bees.  You will miss the nature sound and smell here. I bet. Nature is always best.

Facts about cashew apples:

Cashew apples are an excellent source of vitamin C and magnesium, which can help promote tissue and bone growth, and contains copper, potassium, and iron. The fruit also contains fiber, earning it the reputation of a digestive cleanser, and the tannic juice is sometimes used to help soothe sore throats.

This fruit comes in different colors: Red, Yellow, Orange etc.

 

In old days, we took out the shell and gave the fruit to vendors who used to sell those fruits across all streets, roads and markets. 

Would you believe the cost that we used to sell in farm, 20 years back?

100 fruits - 3 (three) INR. :)

 But, it has to be sold in few hours. By evening this fruit will not be usable.

100 fruits - 3 INR - This was 20 years back...

Many people and kids do not try/eat this fruit because of it's taste and other reasons. This tree and fruits are also missing in many places. 

However, cashew is almost everyone's favorite snacks, where do we get that from? !!!

Do you know the current cost of this fruit? 

One fruit with shell = 10 (ten) INR...

I was shocked when I heard this in market. But, yes, it is very delicate to transport from farm.

If you are missing those fruits, should we plant this tree wherever possible?. It is time to plant these trees.... Good Luck...

Hope, you enjoyed this.  We will catch up in the next blog... Take care...

 

Some more references:

• https://hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/cashew_apple.html
  
• https://www.fruitsinfo.com/cashew-apple-fruit.php

Some more facts:

• In Goa, you will hear about "Feni", which is produced from this fruit:
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feni_(liquor)