Most of the edible nuts have long been known and used as food.  The Almond was highly esteemed by the ancient nations of the East, its native habitat, and is frequently referred to in sacred history.  It is grown extensively in the warm, temperate regions of the Old World.  There are two varieties, known as the bitter and the sweet almond.  The kernel of the almond yields a fixed oil; that produced from the bitter almond is much esteemed for flavoring purposes, but it is by no means a safe article to use, at it possesses marked poisonous qualities.  Fresh, sweet almonds are a nutritive, and, when properly eaten, wholesome food.  The outer brown skin of the kernel is somewhat bitter, rough, and irritating to the stomach but it can be easily removed by blanching.

Blanched almonds, if baked for a short time, become quite brittle, and may be easily pulverized, and are then more easily digested.  Bread made from almonds thus baked and pulverized, is considered an excellent food for persons suffering with diabetes.

Brazil Nuts are the seeds of a gigantic tree which grows wild in the valleys of the Amazon, and throughout tropical America.  The case containing these seeds is a hard, woody shell, globular in form, and about the size of a man’s head.  It is divided into four cells, in each of which are closely packed the seeds which constitute the so-called nuts, of commerce.  These seeds are exceedingly rich in oil, one pound of them producing about nine ounces of oil.

The Cocoanut is perhaps the most important of all the shell fruits, if we may judge by the variety of uses to which the nut and the tree which bears it can be put.  It has been said that nature seldom produces a tree so variously useful to man as the cocoanut palm.  In tropical countries, where it grows abundantly, its leaves are employed for thatching, its fibers for manufacturing many useful articles, while its ashes produce potash in abundance.  The fruit is eaten raw, and in many ways is prepared for food; it also yields an oil which forms an important article of commerce.  The milk of the fruit is a cooling beverage, and the woody shell of the nut answers very well for a cup from which to drink it.  The saccharine juice of the tree also affords an excellent drink; and from the fresh young stems is prepared a farinaceous substance similar to sago.

The cocoanuts grow in clusters drooping from the tuft of long, fringed leaves which crown the branchless trunk of the stately palm.  The cocoanut as found in commerce is the nut divested of its outer sheath, and is much smaller in size than when seen upon the tree.  Picked fresh from the tree, the cocoanut consists first of a green outer covering; next of a fibrous coat, which, if the nut is mature, is hairy-like in appearance; and then of the woody shell, inside of which is the meat and milk.  For household purposes the nuts are gathered while green, and before the inner shell has become solidified; the flesh is then soft like custard, and can be easily eaten with a teaspoon, while a large quantity of delicious, milk-like fluid is obtainable from each nut.