The thought occurred to me out of nowhere that I'd never seen a cashew in its shell and had no idea what they looked like or why they were always shelled.
Turns out there's quite a lot of chatter on the www about why cashews aren't sold in their shells, and the reason isn't just because they're big and bulky. I've learnt that the cashew is actually related to Poison Ivy and there's a toxic liquid found both in the leaves of the plant and between the shell and the nut itself. It seems if you get this liquid on your skin it can cause an itchy, painful rash the way poison ivy would if you rolled about in it.
I wasn't expecting that!
