They Don't Grow on Trees

I like ‘em boiled, roasted, raw, green, or dry. Heck, I even like peanut hummus! Peanuts are a great food and source of nutrition. I guess it is that nutty taste that I really like. Interestingly enough the peanut is not a nut at all. It is classified as a legume. Our most common legumes are beans and peas. A peanut doesn’t look much like a lima bean does it? Or does it? Both have pods in which the seed matures but the nomenclature is different. The bean has a pod but the peanut has a shell. Maybe peanut hummus is not much of a stretch since hummus is normally made of chickpeas. 

I love peanut butter too. George Washington Carver is given credit for inventing peanut butter, although there is some question as to the validity of this claim. But, no one can deny the fact that Carver created dozens of new products to be made from peanuts. In doing so he created a new cash crop for southern farmers. 

The peanut plant itself is quite fascinating in the way it produces its fruit, or rather nuts. The plant is bright green and about a one foot and a half high when mature. Before I get into the growing and harvesting of peanuts I must proclaim from whence my knowledge comes. 

I grew up on a farm in the Piedmont part of South Carolina.  We grew peanuts. The soil was first prepared by plowing and harrowing. Then it was “laid off “ in rows for planting. The mule drawn planter made a furrow and placed a seed in the furrow and covered it up with soil. The peanut planter could be adjusted to vary the depth  and space at which the seeds were planted. Our seed we saved from a previous crop. Often we would coat the seed peanuts with a chemical to deter the crows. It was not unusual to have crows digging up the peanuts as fast as we would plant them. Given the chance, Daddy or I would shoot a crow. We would hang a dead crow up in the middle of the peanut patch to let the other crows know the fate of those that dug up our freshly planted peanuts.  We would hang string up criss-cross fashion over the patch too, and maybe add a shiny old pie tin. Once the plants pushed their green leaves through the soil the crows lost interest. 

We would cultivate the peanut plants twice. Soon the plants would be covered with tiny yellow flowers. These flowers would burrow into the soil and the peanuts would form.  At the proper time we would plow up the plants. I would follow Daddy piling up the plants after shaking the dirt off them. After Daddy had finished plowing up the crop, he would exchange the plow for a small sled to haul the peanuts on. The peanut plants would be piled high on the sled and I would get to ride right on top. During the days of late summer my sister and I could be found under a big oak tree picking off peanuts. We picked only the fully developed peanuts from the vines. A harvested plant would have nuts in all stages of growth. We looked rather like ragamuffins in our dirty clothes and dirty faces. After we removed all the peanuts from the plants we would wash and  put them out in the sun to dry a bit. Later that night with Daddy’s help we would weigh up five pound brown paper bags of peanuts. Daddy would then sell the peanuts where he worked. Harvesting the peanuts would take a whole week or longer. My sister and I were frequently the but of jokes as farm kids. But one day we got to laugh at the city kids when a family came to the farm to buy some peanuts. My sister and I nearly died of laughter when the boy wanted to know what kind of tree did peanuts grow on!