The Cashew Project Wellspring has supported a Cashew Project to provide economic development to southern Senegal.  The project is based on the premise that the power of business can be harnessed to alleviate poverty, provide jobs for people and facilitate the transformation of communities.  A cashew processing facility has been established to implement this strategy.  This facility processes the raw cashew nuts that are grown in the community and sells the processed cashew nuts to a regional distributor for domestic consumption.  Efforts are also underway to export cashews to American companies that sell the nuts to U.S. companies including Costco.  This enterprise operates on a completely non-profit basis directing all proceeds to the payment of wages, re-investment into the expansion of the facility to increase capacity, and a fund to implement various development projects in the community including a literacy training project, clean water projects, and health and sanitation projects.  The tree The cashew nut tree is found throughout West Africa. It has often been planted to stabilize sand dunes and prevent the desert from advancing. It also acts as a windbreak to protect crops. The tree can reach 4 or 5 meters in height and requires considerable sunlight to bear a good crop. The cashew nut tree can often be recognized by its umbrella-like shape, since it should not be pruned. .   The fruit Today, a number of farms are specialized in the production of "cashew nuts". In Senegal, the nuts ripen sometime in May and production continues into July or August. The start of the "rainy season" puts an end to pollination and the trees stop producing fruit. The fruit must be harvested when it falls from the tree. This is the sign that the nut is ripe. The nut is attached to an "apple" known as a "false fruit". The first thing harvesters do is to separate the nut from the apple and then put the nuts to dry in the sun. Sorting the unprocessed nuts The nuts are then brought back to the village where they are sorted by the women in function of their size. This facilitates the different stages of the shelling process which follows.  Inside the shell is the cashew kernel (improperly called the cashew nut) which we often enjoy as a snack. But let's get back to the village where the women have just finished sorting the nuts in function of their size. Steaming The nut shell must be "weakened" before it can be cracked and to achieve this, it must be steamed. Traditionally, women either roast the nuts or cook them in oil. Both these methods can be dangerous and leave the kernel with an unpleasant taste. Wellspring processors use neither of these techniques. In order to preserve the full natural flavor of the cashew nut, Wellspring processors steam cook the nuts before putting them out to dry in the sun for several hours. Shelling Once the nuts have been dried, they will be taken one by one and placed in a shelling machine to be opened. Using a small stylet, the operator will then carefully extract the kernel. It will still be covered by a fine skin, which must also be removed.These two steps of the operation are performed wearing gloves to avoid the burns which may occur when touching the cashew nut shell liquid, a highly corrosive product lining the shell walls. Decortication To remove the bitter skin still protecting the kernel, the nuts must be dried in an oven and then taken again one by one to "peel off" the skin. This painstaking task is often performed by the village women. Sorting the kernels No longer protected by the skin, the kernel is now very fragile. It can easily break into small pieces or "splits". This would represent a major loss in added value for the processors of the nuts. The nuts are promptly re-sorted to remove any bad kernels which might have been overlooked and to separate any chips or splits from the whole nuts. On the international market, nuts are put into one of eight different "grades" or categories according to their size.