The Cashew Fruit and Nut in Panama - it's not just nuts, it's fruity too!

It's a beautiful Sunday and you're thinking about how to spend your free time letting your hair down, taking in the landscape around you, and enjoying a day with nothing on the schedule when you say to your partner: "Fire up the Mustang and let's go for a ride."

Did you just visualize a hulking beast of an animal - ripped muscles, flowing mane and tail - as you ride her at full speed out on the open plains, snowy mountain peaks in the background and your face aglow with adrenaline as the cold air chaps your cheeks? Or, was it a classic cherry red car with white racing stripes, gleaming chrome, the top down, and a picnic basket in the back seat?

Now, what if someone said "Pass me a cashew." Do you think of the nut or the fruit? I, like many, never had any idea where cashews came from - other than a bag or in my Chinese food, until I moved to Panama and I most certainly never knew there was a juicy, colorful fruit a.k.a. apple involved either. The cashew grows on these beautiful trees all through the jungle with the nut hanging firmly from the bottom of the apple.

This time of year they are in season so, whilst on one of our hiking adventures, it's really fun to share with our guests. The fruit is delicious in it's own tannic, slightly sweet, slightly sour, juicy, with a mild burning sensation on the back of the throat sort of way. It's compelling enough to want to try it but just weird enough not to go back for seconds though it does make a delicious juice when mixed with some cane honey.

The nut however, is impossible to say no to hence the empty bag of cashews you paid a heck of a lot for. Once the nut is twisted off the fruit, it spews a dark nocuous, acidic liquid that is extracted for some heavy duty industrial uses like varnishes, lubricants, and resins. It can cause some pretty gnarly contact burns and allergic reactions on the skin so fair warning on that. The best treatment in this case is soap and water until the oil is removed from the skin.

To get to that tasty nut, the gray skin needs to be removed and the most common way here in Panama is over an open fire. If the skin burning liquid didn't get you, the smoke could so be sure to stay up wind when roasting! The nut is roasted until the shell turns dark brown to black in color and hard. It is then removed by bashing it off with a stone tool until you get to the tasty creamy nut inside. In its simplest form - slightly roasted with some tasty salt is pure-fection.

We look forward to sharing this and other jungle fruits with you on one of our many adventures during your stay with us. Much like leaving the hard work of harvesting, roasting, and packaging these tasty nuts to an expert, we are here to create an amazing all-inclusive package for you and your loved ones. Leave that planning and organizing work up to us so you can focus on enjoying your free time creating lifetime memories with those that you love.

With love from Panama,

Cari and Ryan Mackey

Owners and hosts