source for cashews

[virginia]

anyone still carrying the really raw indonesian cashews? had some from another country and didn't like them as well

[Charybdisjim]

Yeah the "truly-raw" indonesian cashews, the ones where the nut is seperated by specialized hand-tool rather than steaming, can be tricky to find. The last places I saw that was listing them were naturalzing.com and eatraw.com

http://www.naturalzing.com/catalog/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=cashews+indone sian&x=0&y=0
http://www.eatraw.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=ER011

I've never ordered from any of them myself though so I'm not sure how quickly they deliver or how reliably they keep their items in stock. Maybe someone can chime in if they've had any experiences with them as a distributor. Raw guru doesn't appear to have the Indonesian WHOLE raw cashews in stock but does have the halves. These should just be the ones which, for whatever reason, split in the shell or when shelled.

http://www.eatraw.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=ER011

They're pretty cheap, but I'd be slightly hesitant at ordering them because I'd be concerned about how they were split. The hand shelling process has to be done pretty delicately to prevent contaminating the flesh with the the toxic resin from the shell. I would worry that some while most of them may have split after being successfully shelled or were split in the shell that perhaps some of them were split due to improper handling without the worker realizing it. That's probably not very likely; what is likely is that, since the seeds are dead, they will be significantly dried out and less fresh when compared to the varieties which are still able to be sprouted.

[walnutty]

These are the ones that I use and they are hand shelled, raw and organic! (Plus an amazing price!!!):


http://www.amazon.com/Navitas-Naturals-Really-Cashews-16-Ounce/dp/B001EQ5HRU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345338129&sr=8-1&keywords=navitas+cashews

[Charybdisjim]

Oh I forgot, you can order those Big Tree Farms hand-shelled cashews direct from them.

http://www.bigtreefarmsstore.com/product.php?productid=12&cat=0&featured=Y

At $40/lb they are more expensive than the Nativas ones though. The nativas ones are heated to crack the shell and seperate the red skin and from Tanzania (I've never had a problem with Tanzanian produce, but you did specify Indonesia.) They do use a low heat process involnving blowing hot (but not steam-hot) air to crack the shell and dehydrate the skin-like coating. I have had them before and they are one of the better quality brands out there. I don't think the low-heat process they use cooks the nut from what i could tell. Anyways the Big Tree Farms ones, despite not being heated by convective heat transfer, are put in solar dehydrators to remove the red skin. That doesn't get above 100F/40C but they're in it for several hours whereas the Nativas ones are heated for shorter time and have the shell on for most of that time; it's reasonably possible that the internal temperature ends up relatively similar during either processes.

[virginia]

thanks, i will try these resources, the rawguru and some other sites say indonesian but when i received them they were from somewhere else and i didn't like them as well, will keep looking, apparently a supplier changes sources and some rawfood websites haven't updated their info to reflect the source yet...i just tried eatraw.com and they said they are not in stock and have been waiting a long time, and suggested trying back in about three weeks

[walnutty]

I have sent an email to Navitas Naturals as they state that their cashews are organic, raw and that all enzymes are intact. I have asked them to explain their exact process for shelling them. I will post here when they have responded.

[Charybdisjim]

^Their website states they use a low-heat as opposed to no-heat shelling method. The only low-heat shelling method that doesn't involve actual cooking is the hot-air cracking method I described. Of course the no-heat process for removing the shell still requires similar temperatures in a solar drier to remove the reddish skin from the nut inside the shell. So they're probably roughly equivalent in terms of the final product. I have heard of both products being sproutable to so extent so this is probably the case.

[Raw Angel Mom]

Great info, i didn't know about the cashew, lol... hey you always learn.