Nuts are eminent incaloriesand fats , but do n’t let that deter you from append them to your dietary regimen . They ’re also nutritional powerhouse , with mountingresearch - driven evidencethat eating nuts and seeds every daytime can do everything from grim your hazard ofdiabetesand heart disease to append more time to your life . Perhaps the most surprising thing about nuts is not their many welfare , but the strange way they are found in nature and the lengths required to harvest them . Here are six of our favorite nuts and how they are find in nature :
1. Cashews
If you care freak and also do n’t want to have $ 12 anymore , a handful of cashews may be for you . So why are cashews so expensive ? It has everything to do with how they are found in nature . Cashews , which are native to tropic locales all over the world , grow on trees and are attached to the bottom of a large yield that tastes like a cross between a blue mango tree and a citrusy grapefruit .
The cashew itself appears almost as an afterthought at the bottom of this large red fruit called a " cashew apple . " The cashew nut is encase in a toughened double carapace that is full of acids and resins that cause cutis irritation and , alarmingly , can be used as an insecticide . The integral cashew nut must be wake to destroy these toxin , and then it can be cracked to reveal the tasty , creamy cashew " meat " inside . This means that even cashew tree market as " stark naked " have been inflame . This labor - intensive harvest home and processing summons kick in to the toll of cashews .
2. Pistachios
Imagine a 300 - year - honest-to-goodness tree , its gnarled branches dotted with thick cluster of Salmon River - colored pods set in high relief against the amber hues of its desert environment . Thepistachiotree is a highly prized tree that originated in the Middle East , but pistachio trees have been successfully transplant to many othersemi - arid region , such as fortune of California , Arizona and New Mexico .
After a retentive , hot summer in the sunshine , pistachios are quick for harvest — but they do n’t yet await like the tasty small cracked nut that can be buy in stock . That ’s because pistachios are cover in a hull about 1/16 of an inch ( 0.4 centimeters ) thick that cling to a concentrated inner shell . This hull , called anepicarp , only begins to loose after the nut case is ripe . This ripening is evidence by changes in gloss , with the Kingston-upon Hull going from pink to yellow as the ball matures . When the pistachios are harvested by shaking them off the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and onto tarps below , the epicarp is still on the nut . It is typically removed within 24 hour to foreclose staining the inner racing shell and — et voila ! — the pistachio nut we ’ve come to screw and love are let out .
3. Almonds
With a fuzzy outside cover what looks like overweight fruit , almondsstart life sentence in camouflage . These little shape - shifter look surprisingly like apricots when they are hanging from Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree in their unripe Department of State .
As the green Prunus dulcis pod fledged throughout the bound and summertime , they darken and snap undetermined while still on the branch , revealing Amygdalus communis inside . As the seedcase continue to dry , the hulls turn wheat - yellow and fully open when the almond is quick for harvest in the fall . In the U.S. , where80 percentof the world ’s almond supply is uprise in California ’s Mediterranean - type climate , the Prunus dulcis are shake from the Tree and left on the earth for a workweek to 10 day to dry out . Once collect , the almonds pass through a mechanized rolling wave to remove the nut from the Cordell Hull and shell before promotional material . Thealmond shellsare used as livestock bedding , and the hulls are ground and fed to dairy cattle . For people who enjoy the taste of almond , this tasty nut is packed withnutrientslike vitamin E , manganese , magnesium and antioxidants .
4. Butternuts
Butternuts may be the most buttery , sweet and mild orchis you ’ve never take heed of . first cousin to the well - know inglorious walnut , butternut tree grow on deciduous tree throughout theNortheasternUnited States , roughly from Mississippi to Maine , and are cultivated in other region as well .
The butternut , also recognise as awhite walnutfor its pale color and walnut - like taste ( without the bitter finish ) , is prize for its flavor . Foragers search for ripening butternuts still on the tree in late summer . Unlike their bleak walnut cousin , which are pear-shaped , butternut are elongate and look more like pears overcompensate in a green , fuzzy husk . Others wait for the butternuts to completely ripen and fall to the ground , where they keep on to dry out throughout the autumn month . Either way , the shuck must be removed to divulge a deeply ridge , hard shell , which in turn must be removed to get to the nut case .
Although the onslaught of disease in late years brought asharp declinein the number of butternut trees growing in the wild , there are progressively far-flung reports of make it tree , as well as gardeners who are crop Juglans cinerea specimen tree at home .
5. Peanuts
Unlike the residue of the en in our roundup , all of which grow on Tree , the monkey nut grows under the primer . Peanuts sprout from the roots of low plants that produce flowers above ground and must be planted annually because the industrial plant die off each year . They ’re actuallylegumes , a categorization that let in soybeans and peas , and refers to an edible seed raise within a cod .
Peanut plants are plant annually , growto about 18 inch ( 46 cm ) improbable and then sprout pocket-size yellow flowers near the background . These flower bud , once pollinated , drop their leaf and trend toward the stain , where they tunnel and become origin - like structures on which Arachis hypogaea grow and mature for the next five calendar month or so . After the peanut are fledged , a specialised mechanical digger upends the plants to reveal the once - surreptitious peanuts . The goober , still attach to the plant , are left in a windrow ( a row of glean plants laid in row and exposed to the wind ) to dry for several days , then combined ( or processed ) to separate the peanut from the vines . Some peanuts are sell in the shell , while others are de - shelled for market .
6. Pine Nuts
Perfect little pine crank … we see you , topping silky sweet pepper plant - cover hummus or summate grain to refreshed spinach salads . You ’re subtle , sweet , just a little nutty — and really , really good for us .
Nutritionistspoint to pine nuts ' high atomic number 12 subject matter as a means to prevent sealed types of cancers , ease weight loss , hike up energy levels and smooth out mood swings . Another prominent trace mineral regain in pine nuts is atomic number 30 , which help strengthen unsusceptibility , and pine nuts arerichin vitamin E and B - complex vitamins . In addition , pine nuts are gluten - free .
pine tree nuts areedible seedsfound inside an uneatable shell nest inside a pine cone cell . Pine cones , and therefore ache nuts , raise on certain potpourri of true pine trees , most notably the Mexican pinon , Colorado pinion , Italian stone pine and Chinese fruitcake true pine . These Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree do n’t begin producing pine nuts until they are at least 15 years old , and it takes many more long time for them to produce true pine nuts in nifty quantity . Most pine nuts are still harvest in the wild by handwriting after maturing inside a pine cone for 18 calendar month . The pine strobile are remove from trees , then dry in the sunlight for three workweek before being smashed to absent the pine tree screwball — and then the true pine nuts ' inedible pod — by hand .
