Please read this article about raw nuts!

It is impossible to sell “really raw” nuts that are outside of the shell. Do not trust so easily those online companies selling “really raw nuts” like rawguru or sunfood. Shelled nuts contain phthalates which cause cancer (from the plastic packaging) and some contain aflatoxins.

http://www.13.waisays.com/nuts.htm

This article is not accurate as far as heating goes. Sure, most nuts on the store shelves are heated to pastuerize and or/shell, but you can certainly get truly raw nuts. You need to contact the processors and ask. For example, most pecans are heated to clean the shell before shelling. However, some people use bleach water on the shells first, and therefore the nut is raw. Of course, I never, ever trust a store just because they claim “raw”, not even a raw store. I think most slide by because “raw” in the nut industry just means it is not roasted and has nothing to do with the heating for cleaning and shelling.

Probably the best bet is to buy direct from a farm and contact them first, to ask what their shelling and processing procedures are.

Where do you buy your raw nuts? I do, agree, TomsMom, that it might be possible to buy raw nuts out of the shell, but shelled nuts are toxic if you read that article and many others. As far as almonds go, it is illegal to sell truly raw almonds in California, so that’s where it all starts with the “truly raw” claim. If a truly raw company claims to sell truly raw almonds from California, isn’t that plain old lying? It must be because they would not be legally allowed to sell raw almonds in California. This kind of sets a question out “If they lie about the almonds, could they lie about other nuts?”. Just a thought, I’m not trying to push it, but it is something to look into.

Nuts out of the shell are, to some degree, toxic, even if they are raw, and therefore I am going to purchase nuts in the shell.

I’ll keep my research up and see what I find.

It is not illegal to sell raw almonds in California. You can buy up to 100 pounds of raw almonds per day directly from the grower. The catch is that you have to physically go to the grower and buy them/pick them up as if buying from a road-side stand. You can read more about this on the following site: http://www.dansranch.com/

newbie, I understood from growers themselves that they can ship them without you having to physically go to California. Man, I’ll be pissed if I’ve been lied to. The lengths we go to to make a buck never ceases to amaze me. Oh, well, if it’s raw, I’ll eat it, mold and all:P

http://realrawfood.com is apparently the only source for raw nuts. It is located in Canada and if you look at the post about sprouting almonds you’ll see one person purchased these almonds and actually sprouted them. Still curious to hear a reply. Other than that, I think unshelled nuts are the only raw ones.

Where do you get unshelled nuts? I have never seen them.

TomsMom – just go the link I provided and it explains about shipping: http://www.dansranch.com/

newbie, thanks hon!

Hey RawKidChef, yes, http://www.realrawfood.com is a great source. I live in Canada and order from them. They are a raw family that take their food really serious and do their research and only buy from reliable sources. We buy nuts, seeds, dates, and other things and I sprout my nuts with no problem.
They are really to recommend, but when you are in the US maybe it is worth to google a bit around, maybe you can find some of their sources so you dont pay customs and the shipping…
Otherwise it is a great ‘one-stop’ shopping place :)) I love it!

I live in NY and have ordered from realrawfood.com a few times. I believe their products are truly raw. I can taste the difference between, say, their raw cashews and the supposedly raw cashews I have purchased elsewhere.

RAWCure: I saw a couple items for unshelled nuts/seeds on sunfood.com, and a couple on realrawfood.com. :)

RAWcure – in England we only seem to see unshelled nuts at Christmas time. I don’t know why, or where else you could get them during the year.

Fee and other Uk-ians: sainsburys have just put out their bags of christmas nuts, they are selling large bags of walnuts, pecans etc in the fruit and veg section at the moment. I bought the walnuts the other day and they are/were yum.

Usually we see unshelled walnuts in late fall/winter at our health food store.

Here’s the source for unshelled nuts of many kinds: http://www.nutsonline.com

However, I don’t know if they are truly raw. Based on the comments I see it sounds like they are.

beate64, thanks. Have you ever sprouted the almonds/cashews from them? Did they grow tails? I want to know because I have to spend a $100 minimum and before I do that might want to hear other opinions. Thanks :)

Hi RawKidChef, I have sprouted their almonds but only soaked the cashews as I usually buy the broken cashew pieces, they are cheaper.
I am just putting my order together and as I like to order bulk it is rather hard to stay below $200 for me… I have to figure out what I really need and what I can miss… but there are many wonderful things… dates, sunflower seeds. pumpkin seeds, sesame to make tahini… and then the nuts… not easy to pick… and stay reasonable…
What I would love is going to BC for a few days to chill out and get the stuff right there… :))
Anyway, I have to find a way to still be cost effective and have the things we need. But for their nuts and seeds I can really recommend RealRawFood.

ok so let me get this straight….I should not be eating nuts without a shell on them? All the nuts I have (walnuts, cashews, brazil nuts, pecans,) do not have a shell on them, so this means I’m gonna get cancer or something?

p.s. the article said that brazil nuts should be ivory white, well mine are sorta darker than that and still have a brown part (i guess from the shell) on it, help me understand please

The Brazil nut needs to be ivory white on the inside. If it’s more yellow, it’s not raw.
You won’t get cancer, but there are toxins in anything not raw. The main issue is that almost all shelled nuts are not raw. Apparently realrawfood.com is an exception.

PS Thanks Beate. Did the almonds actually grow tails? Which almonds did you buy? They seem to have a lot of different types.

ok great, i bit one of my brazil nuts and it is ivory on the inside! but as far as my other nuts, i was promised by my sources (that I trust) that even though they have no shell that they are raw. Now is this concept absolutely impossible?

Thanks for that Springleaf – looks like a trip to Sainsburys for me then! Or hopefully Asda won’t be far behind as it is a few miles to sainsburys but Asda is only a mile away. When is the best before date on them? I wonder if we could stock up now for next year?

Well dreasraw, I can assure you the nuts from Sunfood, One Lucky Duck, Raw Guru, and Natural Zing are not raw. I have tried to sprout them with just mold as a result. You can tell if they are raw by their ability to be sprouted. If you can’t sprout them, they’re not raw. It looks like Trader Joe sells some raw cashews that can be sprouted, and realrawfood.com sells almonds that people have sprouted. Not sure about their cashews though.

isn’t it illegal to wrongly label food? Trading Standards Authority anyone???

honestly stuff like this is discouraging! I’m trying my best to do the right thing and now another problem. I have already reduced my diet to nuts, seeds/grains, fruits and veggies and now there is a problem with nuts. It just seems like in a minute I’m going to be eating nothing but melons, but then knowing my luck, something will be wrong with them too!

Hey RawKidChef, I ordered these almonds and they started to sprout, but I did not wait until there was a long tail…
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#2 Almonds – Certified Organic, Unpasteurized, from California
I might go for the wild ones the next time as I really would like to try them…

i would not trust trader joes for raw nuts…their cashews are NOT raw. if they dont sprout then they are not raw and you DONT need long tails on nuts. i have never gotten any cashews from trader joes to sprout.
i am very familiar with realrawfood. they are serious about their quality but remember they get some of their almonds from california. THEY are pasturized. i dont know how they can get unpasturized almonds when its a law but maybe being in canada…that makes a difference.

i havent had the wild ones from spain but some people like them and some say they dont taste good.
so i guess its an individual thing.

anyway… i have been eating raw nuts my whole life. if they were toxic i would be dead….and so would alot of other people. LOL
thats the funniest thing i have read yet on these boards !

MemberInGoodStanding-I have bought cashews and almonds from Trader Joe’s and they both sprouted for me.

I’ve bought a big bag of Cashews labelled ‘Raw Cashews’ from Julian Graves, now I dont necessarily expect that to be 100% true having read throught this, shall I assume theyre labelled that because they’re not roasted, rather than because theyre raw..?

Yep, I wouldn’t trust a place like Trader Joe’s so easily because they are a chain store and I’m guessing many of their nuts come from different sources

I’ve actually called the guy at Real Raw Food and he said the almond growers from California he picks “sneakily”. He called it his “secret”. He said individual farmers from California sell him really raw almonds, but I don’t trust them as easily as the wild ones from Spain. I’ve placed an order with Real Raw Food:

2 lbs wild almonds from Spain

1 lb pistachios

1 lb Brazilian cashews

1 jar sprouted almond butter

1 lb raw cocoa powder

1 lb Halawi dates

1 lb pecans

Shipping to Maryland was only $18! My order was like 6 or 7 pounds. Can anybody tell me how long it takes to get orders from Real Raw Food? It says mine will ship today.

rawkidchef said: Well dreasraw, I can assure you the nuts from Sunfood, One Lucky Duck, Raw Guru, and Natural Zing are not raw.

I am sorry, but I respectfully disagree. I have not heard that this is the case from any raw fooders. I have always heard that these sites are the source of high quality, raw nuts.