A mature tree produces more than 300 pods, which mature and fall to the ground from January to June. The pods are harvested from the forest floor and the seeds are removed, dried in the sun and then washed and exported while they are still in their shell. The brown shell is very hard and has three sides.
Brazil nuts
are walnuts that grow from tall tropical trees in the Amazon rainforest.They grow in large shells that look like coconuts. Inside the shell, you'll find 8-12" in Brazil nut shell. Those individual nuts have shells, which gives us the edible Brazil nut. Brazil chestnut trees can take up to 20 years to produce nuts, so this is a project that requires a lot of patience.
Growing your own Brazil nuts will require a little patience, and while difficult, it's a rewarding endeavor. Natives of the region have consumed Brazil nuts since at least the Upper Paleolithic period, about 11,000 years ago. The Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa) is a South American tree of the Lecythidaceae family, and is also the name of the commercially harvested edible seeds of the tree. At first glance, the Brazil nut looks like little more than an oversized and expensive nut that is passed in the supermarket.
Despite its name, Brazil's largest exporter of walnuts is actually Bolivia, where the nut is called Brazil nut. While some specialty grocery stores sell Brazil nuts, you can't beat the convenience of having them shipped to your door. But Brazil nuts don't fit at all; they're actually considered seeds, as they come in large baseball-sized pods in groups of 10 to 24. The Brazil nut is native to Guianas, Venezuela, Brazil, eastern Colombia, eastern Peru and eastern Bolivia. Now, my beautiful Brazil nut trees tower above my garden, providing shade and hundreds of pounds of healthy nuts each year.
In fact, they are more related to blueberries and persimmons than to walnuts or pecans. You may not have thought about it, but Brazil nuts are really a big problem, adding tens of millions to South American economies every year. If you don't end up with pounds of Brazil nuts, at least you'll have a gorgeous-looking tree tower that will last hundreds of years.