This and That ... perhaps of interest ...

Didn't they stop selling the nuts around Christmas time for a few years.
Seem to remember some nonsense about having poison in them or something like that.
You could still buy the nuts but only shelled ones.

 

If they had poison in them wouldn't it be daft selling them shelled ? It's the inside one eats, not the shells ...

 

I'm not sure just remember not being able to get them in shell for a few years.

 

I remember that as well.

 

If I remember correctly it was aflatoxins on the shells that were the concern, the aflatoxins were formed by moulds growing on the shells if stored/transported in damp conditions.

 

While on the subject of Brazil nuts, here's some trivia.

In terms of nutrition, Brazil nuts are slightly unusual in that they are loaded with the essential mineral, selenium. In fact if you are nothing else at all for a full day except one Brazil nut kernel, you'd hit your daily requirements of selenium. You'd be pretty hungry and missing out on lots of other stuff but your selenium would be ok.

Being an element, plants can't synthesise selenium. They have to take it from the soil.

Here's the interesting part. Because it's hard to extract selenium from other sources, it's not routinely included in meaningful quantities in fertilizer, so over time, the selenium levels in the soil where Brazil nuts grow is diminishing, and at some point in the future there won't be enough for the trees to produce a decent crop.

 

I'm pretty sure they will have chopped it all down a burnt it before that happens.

 

Selenium is an essential element, but toxic at higher levels, makes tbhe breath and sweat smell like garlic (apparently).
Present in a lot of things other than Brazil nuts, reaches toxic levels in some plants (milkvetches).
Seems to be present in brassicas at a reasonable level as well; so eat your greens.

 

Yeah it's present in many foods. I didn't mean to suggest that it's only in Brazil nuts. Point is it's very high in Brazil nuts. On a normal balanced diet you will likely get all you need.

The toxicity is another aspect. I thought about mentioning that if you just grazed Brazil nuts all day every day, you'd likely drop dead from selenium poisoning, but I thought that might be a bit dark, especially considering nobody ever does that (I presume).

 

I shall go for a balanced Brazil nut diet.
I only eat them at Christmas, mostly covered in chocolate.

 

I hope the floor is in better condition than the rest of it

 

Setenil de las Bodegas - Wikipedia