It’s time to harvest peanuts in my garden and prepare for my fall garden. Peanuts grow under the ground so it’s a matter of digging, shaking, and plucking. Sound fun? My dog, Cody, thinks it is!
Not such a big help when it comes time to do the work to harvest peanuts, but he sure is nice company in the garden. Basically, the process calls for lightly digging the soil around your peanut plant about two months after the appearance of blooms. Similar to potatoes, you must poke around the soil GENTLY as you search for ripe peanuts. They are delicate at this stage, and their outer skin is papery and thin. If you find your peanuts are of nice size, then ease the entire plant from the soil and shake excess dirt.
Next, lay them out to dry in the sun to cure them for better storage. You can also use them right away for boiled peanuts. That’s the way my family prefers to eat them. For full instructions on how to grow and harvest peanuts, please check my How To Grow section.
This wagon full came from one bed of peanuts, about thirty feet long. Some plants produced more than others, but that’s to be expected. Now it’s time to prepare my garden for fall planting. I’ll follow one of the basic tenets of organic gardening called crop rotation, and follow this crop with leaves. In my case, those leaves will be broccoli. And lots of it!
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