The House In Kendal
an excerpt

To the right, a little further away from the driveway than the Poinciana tree, was an almond tree. Jamaican almonds are not really like the ones one might get in bags in the supermarket. First of all, they come in a most protective green casing; the skin of this casing can be eaten when it turns yellow, but I've only always seen children try to get out the tiny nut inside when the casing is green.

Secondly, the almond-nut is small and buried deep inside the casing. To get out the flat nut, one has to maul the casing with a few stones. I don't think there's any other way. If you're skilful enough, which means striking the almond shell with enough force to sort of shave off the protective layers, but not crush the nut to a thousand bits, then the little bit of nut is yours. If you're not really the dextrous type, you can always still manage to get some bits and pieces of almond-nut when you've finished demolishing the whole thing (and maybe your fingers) with a rock-stone.

I think the fun is mostly in trying to get the nut out than having the nut itself.