Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Plenty of white nuts in the '60s.

It would be interesting to the range of years where white nuts are suspected of being original.

My '69 Burgundyglo 370 has a white nut.

"It would be interesting to the range of years where white nuts are suspected of being original."

And I'm not gonna go near that one.

Brazil nuts are a delicacy among nut lovers....

My 1969 365 OS has a white nut as well, Bob.

That white nut is not original, Elys.

We know "brazil nuts" come from Brasil, where they are called castanhas do Pará and are not as easy to get as in the USA, but there are more shipped to the US from Colombia. They have an odd set of conditions required to grow: the trees only grow in virgin forests, require a certain type of bee to pollinate, and these bees in return require a certain type of orchid in order to live and make honey.

Much more common to Brazil are cashews, which are called just plain "castanhas" or more often "cajú. In case you haven't sussed it yet, Portuguese is a rather unspecific language when it comes to descriptors.

Cashews require an amazing amount of waste to separate just one nut. Each nut grows in a hard case as the stem of a fruit the size of an apple. The fruit itself has a very sweet/tart flavor, and being tropical an extremely short shelf-life; what doesn't get made into jams and doces (sweet pastes) for human consumption, is destroyed or left to rot. Imagine discarding a whole fruit and saving the much smaller nut.

Termites love cashew trees; we own a plot of land in Brasil that has producing coco palms and lots of cashew trees; the cashews are overrun with termites, which Brasilians call cupim. Doesn't seem to affect the fruit or nut production, but destroys the structure after a couple of decades.

Just my luck....

Was it a white nut when you got it, or did you replace it? Do you think it was white when it left the factory in 1969?

I have seen the raw cashew apple before, and the true "fruit" underneath in the form of the hard case containing the "nut". The trees are a hardy perennial that can live 50 to 60 years in deep sandy soil (without termites around). They make a cashew wine in West Africa that I have tasted before. Kinda dry, with a strong sharp citrusy bite. The apple is high in vitamin C. The oil even had a military use back in World War II. Too bad that anyone just leaves the apple to rot

One bit of lore I have heard is as follows: "The nut is high in protein, mineral salt, iron and fiber; while the tart apple provides vitamin C, calcium and iron. The root has been used as a purgative, and the leaves are used to strengthen fishing lines and nets, and as folk remedies for calcium deficiency and intestinal colic, as well as a vitamin supplement. The water-resistant wood is used for boats and ferries; while the resin, in addition to having industrial uses, is used as an expectorant, cough remedy, and insect repellent."

So how's THIS for thread drift, folks?

Nuts and thread drift just seem to go hand in hand.

And drifting back... my '66 330 had a white nut when I got it, but it had replacement tuners, so who knows if the nut was original.

I think you guys spend far too much time studying your nuts

We're just nuts about Ricks, let's face it. Cheers, Graham, your are one of my favorite Rick nuts indeed !!!