Steven Ulmer, age 8, of San Diego, California, for his question:

How do cashew nuts grow?

The cashew nut tree is a relative of poison ivy and poison sumac. It is just as hard to handle as either of its cousins. What’s more, its stinging oils are right around the delicate little nut. Every bit of danger is removed when the nuts are roasted. This is a lot of trouble, but the delicious nuts, everyone agrees, makes the work worthwhile.

The tree is an evergreen, sometimes 4.0 feet tall. The nut sprouts from a sizeable pear shaped fruit called the cashew apple. It looks as though someone left a thumb stuck in the orange colored fruit.

The nut is wrapped in two packages. The outer coat is smooth and elastic. The inner coat is an ordinary nut shell. Between the two coats is the blistering oil. The nuts are picked and dried, then roasted. The roasting process bursts the shell and removes the oil.

The cashew is a native of South and Central America. It has been persuaded to grow in damp, fertile regions throughout the tropics.