Harvesting the 2016 Peanut Crop

I marked the date on the calendar so that I would know the exact date when the peanuts that we planted in back in early May would be ripe.  A few years ago I waited too long and although we did harvest some peanuts, many of them had sprouted in the shell and were growing.  I learned my lesson and strictly watched the calendar.  When it was time - like it was last weekend - Benjamin went out and dug them up.

If the photo below looks like a jungle - it is.  It is a jungle of peanuts and sweet potatoes.  Digging up the peanuts without disturbing the sweet potatoes that had vined into the peanut rows proved to be quite a challenge, but we got the job done with a little patience.  I'll say this, the peanuts were planted on the northernmost part of the garden, which is the highest.  If they had been planted 15 feet to the south, they would have rotted in the ground during the August floods.

Sweet potatoes on the left, peanuts on the right

I think the blooms of a peanut are pretty.  True to the "pea" part of their name, the peanut bloom looks just like the bloom of sugar snap peas, except the peanut blooms are yellow.

So how did we do?  Well, we fared better than the first year we planted and about the same as last year.  Harvesting on time really helped.  There was only one peanut that had sprouted in the ground. We timed it perfectly this year.  I was, I must admit, a little disappointed in the yield and I'm not sure what to attribute that too other than perhaps I need to incorporate some additional chicken litter into the soil?

As Benjamin and I dug up the peanuts, we placed them between the pickets of our picket fence to allow them to dry out.

When rains threatened two days later, I moved them into the garage and hung them beneath "The Garfish," our canoe to continue drying.

Just looking through the soil, I rescued a few 'stragglers' that broke off of the peanut pegs when we pulled them up.  I left them on the lawn tractor in the garage to dry, but wouldn't you know it, a rat or some sort of predator ate this handful of peanuts!

That's okay, Benjamin and I still have a nice little bounty of peanuts.  We'll roast them and make our annual batch of homemade peanut butter.  Stay tuned for that project!