Nutty Words

Fun Facts About Edible Nuts

• Peanuts are not nuts at all. They are actually legumes and grow underground, making them more closely related to beans and lentils than to tree nuts.
• Almonds have more in common with peaches, cherries, plums, and apricots than with acorns and walnuts. The former group are drupes (stone fruits), while the latter group are classified as true nuts.
• Macadamia nuts are famously expensive because they take so long to mature (7–10 years). Each nut also has an extremely hard shell that requires about 300 pounds of pressure to crack, necessitating specialized, costly equipment.
• Cashews uniquely grow attached to the bottom of a juicy fruit called a cashew apple. It is technically a "false fruit," while the kidney-shaped "nut" is the seed inside its toxic shell, requiring roasting to become edible.
• Pistachios naturally split their shell when ripe. It's a sign they are mature and not the result of the packaging process.
• Pecans are North America's only native nuts that became a major commercial crop. There were cherished by Native Americans, grown by Jefferson and Washington, and even sent into space by astronauts.
• Walnuts are one of the oldest tree foods humans intentionally grew. There's evidence of human cultivation in ancient Persia and Mesopotamia going back 9,000 years.
• "Hazelnut" and "filbert" both refer to the same type of nut. The first term is the common English name and now the standard for commercial marketing in the U.S. While the second term is used in Europe (and some growers in Oregon).