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How To Grow Peanut
By Polly Hamilton
How to grow peanuts:
Peanuts are a great crop to grow; they are versatile, easy to learn how to grow and so delicious! Peanuts are also healthy because they contain all the good fatty acids (key word being good!). You need to have quite sandy soil to grow peanuts successfully, and a long growing season. If you have these two key ingredients your halfway there!
How to grow peanuts: sowing
When I say long growing season, I mean looong! You need around 135 days of growing season in order to yield a good crop. You can't plant your peanuts until all signs of frosts have disappeared. Remember to plant your peanuts in sandy soil. Make sure the soil is well turned before planting and is good for drainage, or the mounds are elevated. If you aren't confident that you will have a long enough growing season you can gently crack the shells of your peanuts. This helps them along with their stem taking root. Sow peanuts 2 inches deep and give them about 7 inches in between. Your rows should be around 3 feet apart.
How to grow peanuts: Tending
Give them heaps of compost and manure and they'll love you. Keep your peanuts moist, but don't over water them, especially if your soil is more clay-like than sand-like. Most peanut growers have found that flat ground is the best for growing peanuts. If your peanuts are growing on mounds, and are a bit lack-luster, begin to level them out when they are stable.
How to grow peanuts: harvesting
There are many different theories about when the best time is to harvest your peanuts. Some say to harvest them before the first frost, but most say the time to harvest is after the first frost of the autumn season. Pull the entire peanut plant out and leave it to dry. You can then shell them and prepare for eating as desired! If your crop has been successful, remember to keep some raw peanuts to grow next year!
How to grow peanuts: eating them!
Peanuts have many, many edible forms. In fact one website boasts a list of 105 ways to eat peanuts. They are a great snack, can be eaten raw, roasted, grated, pureed, steamed, in soup, in bread, and of course, the all time favorite: as a spread!
Here is a peanut recipe that many people would never even consider! But do think outside the square and try it. Peanuts don't have to be purely savory!
How to grow peanuts: baking
Peanut Pudding:
Ingredients for pudding: 1 cup molasses, 1/2 cup butter, 1 cup hot water or milk, 3 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 cup coarsely ground peanuts.
Ingredients for sauce: 1 tablespoon butter, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon flour, 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
Mix all the pudding ingredients together and steam for 2 hours (if you prefer to bake, do so at 150 degrees Celsius for 15-20). For both cooking methods, slide a non-serated knife in to the pudding. If it comes out clean it is done. Mix all the sauce ingredients together with boiling water. Add a little boiling water at a time until it is the consistency you want. Let sauce cool until it is cool enough to eat. Pour over the pudding and serve with vanilla ice cream. For a variation you can pour the sauce over the pudding before you put it in the oven. This makes peanut self saucing pudding.
See Also:
More info on how to grow peanuts, and 105 ways to eat them!
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