Pando Brazil Nut, Slow Food, 2014, From the collection of: Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity - Ark of Taste
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The indigenous tribes of the Pando Plateau, a Bolivian region bordering Brazil, depend on harvesting Brazil nuts for their livelihood.

Pando Brazil Nut, Slow Food, 2014, From the collection of: Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity - Ark of Taste
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A view of the Pando area

The kidney-shaped nuts they harvest, ivory inside and covered with reddish-brown skin, have woody shells and are enclosed in a coconut-like fruit, or coccus.

Pando Brazil Nut, Slow Food, 2014, From the collection of: Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity - Ark of Taste
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Pando Brazil nuts, whole and peeled

The Brazil nut tree, Bertholletia excelsa, is a magnificent native species of the Amazon forest that reaches 40 meters in height and its thick canopy shields forest understory from the sun and rain. It can only grow in the primary forest, where an indigenous species of bee has evolved to pass through successive layers of foliage to pollinate the flowers on the highest branches.

Pando Brazil Nut, Slow Food, 2014, From the collection of: Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity - Ark of Taste
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A Pando Brazil nut tree

The nuts ripen during the months of November to February, and can be gathered once they fall from the tree. Native families enter the forest carrying handmade hooked sticks, which they use to pick up the nuts from the ground so as to avoid hidden snakes.

Pando Brazil Nut, Slow Food, 2014, From the collection of: Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity - Ark of Taste
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The coconut

The men have the job of opening the husks containing the Pando Brazil Nuts with a few well-directed blows of a machete. After opening the coccus, they tip the nuts into the large hand-woven baskets carried on each gatherer’s back (each coccus yields 15 to 20).

Pando Brazil Nut, Slow Food, 2014, From the collection of: Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity - Ark of Taste
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The collection

Processing, which is mainly done by hand, involves basic equipment: a homemade drier where nuts are selected depending on their dimension, and dried for about two weeks. After they are shelled with a mechanical nutcracker, the locals separate and package them according to size, or they use them to cook cakes and biscuits.

Pando Brazil Nut, Slow Food, 2014, From the collection of: Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity - Ark of Taste
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Biscuits with Pando Brazil nuts

Brazil nuts are eaten raw, but are also used as a base for traditional nut bars and brigadeiros, nuts covered in cocoa and sugar, or covered in cupuaçu, the sweet flesh of another fruit from the Amazon rainforest.

Pando Brazil Nut, Slow Food, 2014, From the collection of: Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity - Ark of Taste
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Making cupuaçu

Credits: Story

Photos—Archivio Slow Food

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The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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