November 23, 2014 – NATIONAL CASHEW DAY – NATIONAL EAT A CRANBERRY DAY

 

                                            NATIONAL CASHEW DAY

 A popular snacking and party nut is celebrated each year on November 23 on National Cashew Day.

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The cashew nut is a seed that is harvested from the cashew tree. Northeastern Brazil was the original native home to the cashew tree however, it is now widely grown in tropical climates for its cashew apples and nuts.

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With leaves that are spirally arranged and leathery textured, the cashew tree is large and evergreen.  It can grow as tall as 32 feet high having a short and often irregularly shaped trunk.  The flowers are small starting out pale green in color then turning reddish with each one having five slender, acute petals.

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The largest cashew tree in the world covers about 81,000 sq. ft. and is located in
Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. 

• The cashew tree has a fruit called the “cashew apple”.  It’s fragile skin makes it unsuitable for transport.
• A fruit drink is made from the cashew apple in Latin America
• Cashews are less frequent allergen than other nuts or peanuts.
• Although native to northeast Brazil, the Portuguese took the cashew plant to Goa, India, between 1560 and 1565.  From Goa, it spread throughout Southeast Asia and eventually Africa.
• The shell of the cashew nut is toxin.
• Cashews are a good source of antioxidants.
• Cashews are a source of dietary trace minerals: copper, manganese, magnesium and phosphorous.
• Cashew oil is a dark yellow oil for cooking or salad dressing pressed from cashew nuts.
• Many parts of the plant are used for medicinal purposes.

Today, enjoy a handful or two of delicious cashews as you enjoy National Cashew Day.
NATIONAL CASHEW DAY HISTORY 
Within our research, we were unable to find the creator and origin of National Cashew Day, an “unofficial” national holiday.

National Eat a Cranberry Day – November 23
Image Credit: http://www.sheknows.com

NATIONAL EAT A CRANBERRY DAY

National Eat a Cranberry Day is celebrated each year on November 23.
Found in acidic bogs throughout the cooler regions of the northern hemisphere, cranberries are a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs, or trailing vines, that grow up to 7 ft. long and 8 in. high.  Their stems are slender and wiry and they have small evergreen leaves.
The cranberry flowers are dark pink with very distinct reflexed petals, leaving the style and stamens fully exposed and pointing forward.  The fruit of the cranberry plant is a berry that is larger than the leaves and is initially white but when ripe, turns a deep red.
CRANBERRIES:

• Have an acidic taste that can overwhelm their sweetness.
• Are a major commercial crop in certain American states;  Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin. 
  
• Wisconsin is the leading producer of cranberries, with over half of U.S. production.
• Are mostly processed into products such as juice, sauce, jam or sweetened dried cranberries.
• Cranberry sauce is considered an indispensable part of a traditional American Thanksgiving meal.
• Raw cranberries have been marketed as a “superfruit” due to their nutrient content and antioxidant qualities.
• There are three to four species of cranberry, classified in two sections.
• White cranberry juice is made from regular cranberries that have been harvested after the fruits are mature, but before they have attained their characteristic dark red color.
• Cranberry wine is made in some of the cranberry-growing regions of the United States.
• Laboratory studies indicate that extracts containing cranberry may have anti-aging effects.

The word cranberry comes from “craneberry”;  first named by the early European settlers in America who felt the expanding flower, stem, calyx and petals resembled the neck, head and bill of a crane.