headermask image

sugar cane arrows

This is where Brazil Nuts come from!

This is a brazil nut pod. I did not know we grew them here in Trinidad. I did not even know that brazil nuts were contained in pods the size of one’s head and grew in tropical rainforest, harvested by locals and sold on the side of the road. For TT$15.00, although Mom says North of the Caroni river and closer to Christmas, the price can skyrocket.

I suppose it’s only natural that we have them here in the forests of South Trinidad – after all, it’s found in Venezuela and as we all know, Trinidad used to be joined to the mainland (does Chavez still want us back?). Hence our ocelot and deer and myriad of other flora and fauna species in our tropical rainforest.

These were some interesting links about the brazil nut tree:
A Hard Nut to Crack
Wikipedia
PBS- Deep Jungle

Great pictures of the process here:
Brazil Nut Gallery

We’re waiting for it to be ready to crack open the heat up the nuts. There should be about 20 or so nuts inside I think. Adventure!!

If you liked my post, feel free to subscribe to my rss feeds

Post meta

This entry was written by Chennette and posted on November 4, 2006 at 2:47 am and filed under food, Trinidad and Tobago. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

Share with others

Post This is where Brazil Nuts come from! to digg. Post This is where Brazil Nuts come from! to Reddit add to stumbleupon Google Bookmark myweb bookmark on del.cio.us newsvine Tailrank magnolia Furl co.mments shadows simpy blinklist

8 Comments so far (Add 1 more)

  1. Wow I had no clue! You MUST take a picture right when open it. It would be fun to see.

    1. Atasha on November 4th, 2006 at 4:16 am

  2. Camera is all ready and waiting to photograph the whole process. I am indeed quite excited and Lilandra and I have been trying to think of something we could make with the nuts to celebrate.

    2. chennette on November 4th, 2006 at 4:23 am

  3. What do you use to open a Brazil nut anyway? May I suggest sledgehammer? Or blow torch…I think a blow torch would work.

    3. Mani on November 4th, 2006 at 7:42 am

  4. @Mani: They said we could cut it open. Also it should ripen. It’s been 2-3 days already.

    @Atasha: We want to make brazil nut baklava! :-D

    4. Lilandra, Empress of Chocolate on November 4th, 2006 at 1:16 pm

  5. A blow torch may also have the added benefit of roasting the nuts inside enoughto be able to open them up also.

    From my readings, it seems the usual way is to let the ripe pods fall from the top of the very tall tree. It then cracks when it lands. We’ll have to duplicate that environment.

    5. chennette on November 4th, 2006 at 2:11 pm

  6. We bought the $20 one. Mom decided on it instead of the $15 one. Easy when you’re not spending any money. And when we turned the corner…and saw the rest, she was like…we could’ve gotten a more expensive one!

    @chennette: We need a blow torch anywayz if we intend to make crème brûlée.

    6. Lilandra, Empress of Chocolate on November 4th, 2006 at 2:16 pm

  7. Wow! It’s huge! Chisel and hammer?

    8. ewe_are_here on November 4th, 2006 at 5:33 pm

  8. Wow I was curious as to how this nut grows etc. Thanx for the great pic. This is my lesson of the day. :)

    9. Arlene on December 30th, 2007 at 1:06 pm

One Trackback

  1. By ‘Id Mubarak! » Brazil Nut on November 4, 2006 at 2:18 pm

    [...] As commanded, Chennette took a picture of the Brazil Nut that I was talking about a couple posts ago! [...]

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *

*
*