It was my responsibility to pluck the cashew fruits each day from our garden since I was a middle school boy. We had about twenty trees, with a yield of about 100 kilograms of the fruits during the season. I looked forward to it each morning during the two months of summer recess of the school. I was not allowed to climb the trees, but I gave excuses to do so sometimes. Otherwise a long bamboo pole with a hook at the end was good enough to drop the fruits. The pulp was given to the cows and the nut was dried in the sun. It took a week or so for the nuts to dry!
It was my mother who roasted the nuts in the fire and I used to help in shelling them. It was a daily activity in the evening. We had enough supply of the nuts to last for almost nine months!
All the trees had a natural death or were cut down when the land had to be used for other purposes.
Four years back, when we returned to stay in our cottage, we planted one tree, which seems to be too slow to grow!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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