Almost all Brazil nuts are gathered from the wild rain forests of Brazil, with small amounts from Venezuela, Columbia, the Guyanas, Bolivia, and Peru. The trees that bear them are huge—150 feet tall with crowns up to 100 feet in diameter. The fruits, called ourico, are spherical pods that weigh from one to five pounds and grow in the tree canopy far out of reach of pickers. So the pickers wait for them to fall. But a five-pound weight dropped from 150 feet can kill a person—and has—so pickers wear large protective wooden hats and avoid gathering the ourico on rainy or windy days.

 

When hacked open by a machete, each ourico reveals ten to twenty-five nuts packed inside like orange segments. Each nut is covered with the very hard shell we’re familiar with. Brazil nuts are related to the sapucaya nut, also called the paradise nut, supposedly one of the best-tasting nuts in the world. That treasure is available only in Brazil and the Guyanas, grown locally by property owners.