The cashew and its fruit

This is a cashew (Maranon (the first n has the ~ over it but I can't make that work yet, I'm still in the process of learning this stuff). Actually it's the cashew in it's shell and the fruit that it grows on. This is actually a really awesome picture because it shows almost all of the stages, except of course when it is rotting and stinking on the ground. We'll be thankful not many of you have experienced that. This right here is one of the reasons that cashew's are so expensive. Only one seed grows per fruit and there actually aren't that many fruit per tree. They grow in small clumps randomly throughout the tree. People here will pick the fruit and eat it like and apple or make juice out of it. I have tried the juice and did not like it at all. It is kind of tart and bitter, well, generally nasty. The seeds themselves (semillas) are harvested by hand. Then they are hulled (which is a dangerous process that causes acidic burns on their hands (so they tell me here) and then they put the raw cashew in the fire and burn it. The smoke is poisonous. It's generally a nasty, slow, expensive process that produces my favorite nut. Lucky for me they sell them at the intersections here while you wait for the light to change. Sorry I don't have a picture of that. So next time you eat a cashew be thankful for the people who work hard to process them for you.