G-nuts

Harvest time!!  We planted Ground Nuts a few months ago and were finally able to harvest them! I have to take a moment and admit my ignorance.  G-nuts the nut of choice in making peanut butter, so for a very long time, I thought that the name, "ground nut" had something to go with the fact that the nuts are "ground" in to a paste for peanut butter.  It was only recently that I looked at the name "ground nut" and realized that the name probably comes from the fact that the nuts are grown in the "ground" as opposed to a tree.    Go ahead and shake your head in wonder and shame....

 The kids that live in our neighborhood have been weeding the g-nuts, and so when it was time to harvest they were the first in line to help.

 Harvesting is quite simple..... just up root the plant.  That is also how they harvest beans.  After they have been up rooted and have dried a day or so, you remove the nuts from the roots.  Then you let them dry some more.  Then you shell them.  You can shell by hand, which is what we should have done, or you can take them to the sheller.  We obviously took them to the sheller, but because we had let them dry for too long a lot of the nuts split and it was hard to get all the dirt out of them....

Next time, we will know better.  But here's to a TON of yummy nuts to snack on this "winter".