Going Nuts -- Rich, Buttery Brazils And Cashews Bring Crunch To Delectable Foods - And Help Save Rain Forests

I've been nuts about cashews almost since I learned to chew. And Brazils also rank near the top of my nutty favorites.

So you can imagine my delight when I learned that if I ate enough candy and ice cream and butter made with these two rich nuts, I might save a tree or two in the tropical Amazon rain forests. Now that's my style of political activism!

One year ago, Community Products Inc. of Montpelier, Vt., began manufacturing Rainforest Crunch, a buttercrunch candy using Brazil nuts and cashews purchased through Boston-based Cultural Survival, a nonprofit organization working as an advocate for the world's native peoples.

Community Products distributes 40 percent of its profits to rain-forest preservation groups and international environmental projects. Another 20 percent of the profits go to 1% For Peace, a nonprofit organization supporting legislation to re-allocate 1 percent of the U.S. defense budget to fund programs promoting peace through understanding.

Martha Broad, a manager of Community Products, says it's a ``nice feeling'' to have customers telephone with comments about how much they enjoy the candy, but also how much they appreciate the opportunity to try to save a bit of the rain forests from logging and ranching.

The crunch makers have begun to feel the crunch this month as they hurry to fill candy orders for the holiday season. ``We're working two shifts a day now, our staff has grown from three to 30, and we're producing one ton daily,'' Broad says.

Much of the candy is purchased by Ben & Jerry's for use in their Rainforest Crunch ice cream. ``Business and economics have been the root cause of destroying the rain forests,'' says Ben Cohen, cofounder of the ice cream company. ``What we're doing here with Rainforest Crunch is using business and the marketplace to turn things around and help preserve the rain forests.''

Broad estimates that profits this year will be at least $100,000. The goal is to help people of the Brazilian forest start a nut-shelling cooperative that they'll own and operate, showing that the forests are more profitable when the nuts, fruits and medicinal plants are cultivated for traditional harvest than when the trees are cut and burned for short-term gain.

Moon Shine Trading Co. of Winters, Calif., is another business trying to help save the rain forests by marketing Tropical Crunch, a nut butter made with cashews, Brazils, almonds, walnuts, pistachios, macadamias and pineapple. Moon Shine purchases the Brazil nuts through Cultural Survival. And it also is selling Lehua Honey to help benefit the rain forests of Hawaii. Twenty five percent of profits go to rain-forest advocate groups.

These products are available here at many supermarkets, specialty food stores and department stores.

Linda Rosetti, on the staff at Cultural Survival, estimates that about 3,500 tons of Brazils and cashews will be imported from the rain forests during the next year. She says six companies in the United States and Canada are testing products using the nuts, and another 10 have expressed interest in developing products. Eight other companies don't use the nuts, but advertise the work of Cultural Survival and donate some of their profits to the cause.

Rosetti says more than $1 million has been invested in resident projects in Brazil during the 15-month existence of the organization.

While most research indicates that the rich, buttery, crunchy Brazil and cashew nuts got their starts in tropical rain forests, explorers passed them along to other countries hundreds of years ago and much of products sold here come from other parts of the world.

India is the world's largest producer of cashews. George and Susan Paulose, owners of AMES International of Federal Way, import them from there, marketing them plain and chocolate covered in supermarkets, health food stores, duty-free shops at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and at the commissary at Fort Lewis.

As a boy living in Kerala, India, the world's largest cashew-processing center, Paulose climbed the tall nut trees near his home to pluck the juicy,

sweet fruit when it ripened in March and April. Today, after living in the United States for 22 years and working as an engineer and planner for Weyerhaeuser, he is importing the cashews grown in his home town, cashews that he claims to be from the best natural hybrid trees, producing especially large and flavorful nuts.

Through a joint venture, the nuts are processed and vacuum-packed in India, then shipped directly here for distribution. The chocolate dipping also occurs here. Paulose, facing a deadline from his lawyer to name his business, awoke at 3 a.m. one day nearly two years ago and announced that it would be called AMES - a combination of the names of his daughters, Amy and Emily, and his wife, Susan. His cashews are sold, in various gift packs and containers, as those three product lines - Amy's, Emily's and Susie's.

Paulose says 1.5 million people are employed in the cashew industry in India, including three generations in many families. AMES has begun exporting to Hong Kong, with plans to enter the Japanese market next year. The demand for cashews is increasing 11 percent a year in Asia, but world production isn't keeping pace, he says. For that reason, he's exploring the possibility of growing cashews on Maui or other islands in Hawaii.

The dominant theory is that the cashew is native to Brazil and was distributed by early Portuguese and Spanish explorers to their own countries and to India. The competing theory is that the Portuguese found the cashew in Asia and brought it to Brazil.

The kidney-shaped nut is the seed of a tropical fruit, called the cashew apple or pear cashew, which grows on the large (20- to 40-foot-high) evergreen cashew tree. From the flower end, the kidney-shaped cashew nuts hang pendant fashion. The fruit itself is pear-shaped and soft like a peach, and may be white, red or yellow.

The Pauloses say their favorite way to use the nut in cooking is in a basmati rice casserole with curried chicken or beef, garnished with raisins, fried onions, fresh coriander and whole cashews.

Chopped or whole cashews also make good ingredients for cakes, cookies, pies, vegetable sautes, fruit chutneys and relishes, rice pilafs, breakfast cereals, dumplings, lamb curry, beef stew, rice with prawns, vegetable dishes and stuffings for chicken. Health food stores, some supermarkets and specialty stores often carry raw, unroasted cashews in bulk. Because of their high fat content, cashews are somewhat perishable. You can keep roasted cashews in airtight jars or cans at room temperature for up to one month. Refrigerate or freeze for longer storage. Raw cashews should be refrigerated or frozen if not used within a few days.

Brazil nuts grow on an even larger tree than the cashew. The bertholettia tree is huge (even its lowest branches usually are at least 100 feet above the ground), and it's native to the Amazon forests in Brazil and Paraguay.

In most South American countries it is known as the Para nut or the cream nut. Bolivia and Peru also produce large crops. Clusters of the three-sided, ivory-colored nuts - 12 to 30 per cluster - are nested, similar to segments of an orange, inside pods with hard casings about 1/2 inch thick. When the nuts ripen, the pod crashes to the ground and sometimes breaks open. The triangular shape of these nuts gives them a modern, geometric look.

The flavor of Brazil nuts is reminiscent of hazelnut and coconut, making them especially good to use in candies, cakes, stuffings, chicken salad and grain dishes.

Brazil nuts are sold in plastic bags in the nut section of many supermarkets, but they're also available in bulk at some supermarkets and many health food and specialty food stores. Refrigerate or freeze the bulk shelled nuts if you will not be using them within a few days.

Today's recipes provide several creative ways to use these tropical treats, and in two of them, Old-Fashioned Oat Cake and Falafel Burgers in Pita Bread, you can use either Brazils or cashews.