For the past several weeks, we have been talking about How to start a more self-sufficient lifestyle, and about How to grow a more self-sufficient food supply. We have been sharing and will continue to share some of the new growing projects we have started here on the farm. Today we will give you the step by step on growing your own peanuts at home. Growing peanuts is actually very simple.

Peanuts like full sun, sandy soil, and regular water. Peanuts have a long growing season, approximately 140 days to produce. Be sure to start your plants early but after frost. If you are in an area that does not have long growing seasons, you can start your peanuts inside. You can then transplant to the garden when the frost has passed. Be careful with the baby sprouts, they are easily damaged and die.

As with many seeds, peanuts have a certain way they like to be handled. Peanuts need to be planted 2 inches deep and about 6 inches apart to give them enough growing room.

Peanuts also like good compost and mulch to keep them moist but not soggy. They will also need regular watering in dry weather.

As we said before, we started growing peanuts for the first time this year. Our farm has not grown peanuts before so it was something new for us.

We bought seed from the local farm store as we did not have any on hand from last year, as we did not plant any last year. If these do well, we will save some to plant next year and not have to buy seeds again.

After there was no worry of frost, we set to getting the rows ready.

We have been farming this garden for several generations so we have great dirt and it is easy to work. We are sure to add mulch and compost regularly so the dirt is good quality. We also till often to keep weeds and grass out of the garden. Regular tilling also keeps the dirt soft and workable.

When we have the ground ready, we plant and wait.

As we said, peanuts have a long growing season but you can see the baby plants as they do their thing.

Be very careful if you need to weed around your peanuts. Peanuts have shallow roots and are easily damaged and will die of shock.

When your peanuts start to put off flowers, they are getting ready to make the peanuts. The plant will drop a peg into the ground. This peg is how the peanut grows from the plant. Each peg will make a peanut. Well, technically they are legumes, not nuts. But you get the idea.

At the end of the growing season, the plants will start to brown or yellow. This is when it is time to harvest your peanut crop.

The chicken seemed to know when it was time to harvest. It is always good to have help digging and sage advice from the fowl troup.

Carefully dig around the plant. It is best to dig out past the leaf spread to be sure to get the entire plant dug up and not leave any of the peanuts behind. This was not as fun as we were hoping it would be. As it was our first time, we had to get into the swing of things and there is a learning curve to digging peanuts. But we got it done, and we got a very respectable mound of peanuts.

When it comes to drying peanuts there seem to be two ways of thinking.

The first way is to leave the peanuts on the plant and let them dry upside down like you do herbs.

Pull the plant and leave it upside down with the roots and peanuts on top. Be sure it is not going to rain or you will have to bring the pulled plants inside. Do not leave the newly pulled plants with peanuts to get wet, it will spoil them.

After a few days of drying, you can pull the peanuts off the plant. The peanuts will be at the base of the plant but there may be longer runners that have peanuts also. Be sure to dig up the whole plant, runners, and all to get all your peanuts.

The second way is to pull the peanuts off the newly pulled plants and dry the peanuts off the plant.

We went with the second way. We dug our peanut plants and pulled the peanuts off the plants. For our first peanut harvest, with only three short rows, we did fairly well. We ended up with more than two gallons of peanuts.

As you have seen in our other talks, we like to save and use everything possible. After we pulled the peanut plants and pulled off the peanuts, we saved the plants to feed to the animals. The goats, donkeys, and chickens had a great time with the tender greenies.

To dry properly, lay out your new peanut crop to dry for a month or so. Be sure you have them separated and spread out. If you do not lay them out to dry properly, they will mold and spoil.

Also, note, critters love fresh peanuts so be sure to have a secure place for your peanuts to dry out.

Here you can see we used some of our unused dog beds to dry our peanuts. As we always do, we used what we had on hand. The mesh, off-the-ground dog beds worked well. That is not the standard way to dry peanuts but it worked.

Once your peanuts are well, good and dry you can store them in an air-tight container. Peanuts properly dried and stored in the shell can last for several years.

Be sure to keep some peanuts separate to use for planting next season. As always, a dry, cool, and secure storage will ensure they will be viable for the next planting.

You have now grown your own peanuts. You can feel good knowing you have grown your own food supply and will be able to do so again and again. Next time we will talk about some of the things you can now make with your homegrown peanuts.

We hope you have enjoyed this talk and that you will try peanuts for yourself if you have the space to do so. But you can always start with a few peanuts in large pots if you do not have a garden area large enough. As we said, start small and add, any amount is a start.

Thank you for visiting and please come again for another edition of Out Standing in the Field.