Hail the peanut! Except that it's a bean. You probably already know that peanuts are not nuts; they are legumes, part of the pea family. That goes for Spanish peanuts, Valencia peanuts, Virginia peanuts and other varieties. They are all beans!
So what qualifies as a nut? Merriam-Webster tells us that a nut is "a hard-shelled dry fruit or seed with a separable rind or shell and interior kernel." Think acorns, chestnuts, and hazelnuts. Ah, okay! So if it's got a hard shell that you have to crack open, then it must be a nut, right? Uh, not necessarily.
Cashews, almonds, pistachios and several other “nuts” are not true nuts. they are "drupes." (See image below of Pecans maturing on the tree)Merriam-Webster clarifies "drupe" as "a one-seeded indehiscent [i.e. closed at maturity] fruit having a hard bony endocarp [inner shell surrounding the nut/seed], a fleshy mesocarp [softer material surrounding the endocarp], and a thin exocarp [the outer skin] that is flexible (as in the cherry) or dry and almost leathery (as in the almond)," walnut, black walnut, or hickory nut.
Whereas the exocarps and endocarps of black walnuts and hickory nuts are inedible, that is not the case with other drupes. Consider plums, peaches, cherries, and mangoes for example. They are also drupes with luscious meso and endocarps that we love to eat as much as we love Don Quixote bean and drupe butters.
