Spaghetti doesn't grow on bushes

[tarannau]

Continuing the 'Fascinating facts about cashews' series - apologies, I've recently been to a place where everything second souvenir is cashew related:

The cashew fruit is the yellow thing which you can see on Spanglechick's photo, whilst the nut's contained in the green thing at the bottom of the yellow fruit. The fruit's used for all sorts of things, including a pretty yakworthy fruit juice, whilst the little green noddle needs to be cleaned and then roasted to get the nut without poisoning yourself.

Taste bloody good though....

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

My grandfather used to tell a story from his days at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (as it was then). Somebody in the department drew up a new economic plan for one of the Caribbean islands, a major exporter of nutmeg, which fetches quite a good price, and mace, which doesn't. This recommended that said island should greatly increase its production of nutmeg and decrease its production of mace.

Mace is the outer shell of the nutmeg...

er, when I worked there a few years ago it was STILL the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Has it changed names since then?

 

[RubyToogood]

Is it not just the Foreign Office now?

Actually maybe it was whatever it was before then, because this was just after the war.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Continuing the 'Fascinating facts about cashews' series - apologies, I've recently been to a place where everything second souvenir is cashew related:

The cashew fruit is the yellow thing which you can see on Spanglechick's photo, whilst the nut's contained in the green thing at the bottom of the yellow fruit. The fruit's used for all sorts of things, including a pretty yakworthy fruit juice, whilst the little green noddle needs to be cleaned and then roasted to get the nut without poisoning yourself.

Taste bloody good though....

So what's the juice taste like? not sure what yakworthy is but I'm guessing it's bad from stories I've heard of people drinking yak milk

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Is it not just the Foreign Office now?

Actually maybe it was whatever it was before then, because this was just after the war.

Foreign & Commonwealth Office


Maube it used to be just the Foreign Office? I think Foreign Office is probably just less of a mouthful

 

[Biddlybee]

Mace is the outer shell of the nutmeg...

Now that I didn't know

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Now that I didn't know

I knew that, and also that's it's a bit dodgy and quite a few dangers associated with it

 

[nadia]

I got some cinamon oil in sri lanka. Its mighty strong stuff and can be used as an insect repellent. Not entirely sure you should put it on your skin

 

[tarannau]

So what's the juice taste like? not sure what yakworthy is but I'm guessing it's bad from stories I've heard of people drinking yak milk

I can't really describe it easily. I was feeling a little bit rough after too many caipirinhas and - like every morning - had a grand choice of fine juices. The cashew juice looked a kind of creamy yellow/orange colour and LQ and I took a glass each to try it out. LQ took a swig first, looked like she was about to upchuck, and subtly replaced her glass.

That didn't make me particularly keen to try it with an open mind if I'm honest. I remember a slight nutty whiff, a quick swig and thinking that it wasn't all that nutty...but it also wasn't that nice. I swapped for a pineapple juice fairly swiftly...

 

[gentlegreen]

A major EU scam involved Cochineal - which is made by boiling up a small red beetle that lives on the prickly pear cactus.
Apparently someone managed to get vast amounts (a couple of million I believe) of funding for a project to produce cochineal in Palermo ... only a token amount was ever produced, but by all accounts the project - if run at full capacity would have produced vastly more cochineal than the world needed.

.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

A major EU scam involved Cochineal - which is made by boiling up a small red beetle that lives on the prickly pear cactus.
Apparently someone managed to get vast amounts (a couple of million I believe) of funding for a project to produce cochineal in Palermo ... only a token amount was ever produced, but by all accounts the project - if run at full capacity would have produced vastly more cochineal than the world needed.

.

strange

 

[mrsfran]

Palermo, home of the Mafia.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

bumped for Wookey

 

[bi0boy]

I thought melons and pineapples grew on trees until recently

 

[selamlar]

Coffee beans grow in things that are called cherries. They are not actual cherries.
Peanuts, however, do indeed grow underground. The plant flowers, and the flowers are pollinated above ground, then the stalk curves round and pushes the developing fruit inderground.

Called 'yer fistik' (ground nut) in Turkish, btw.