Peanuts

I love peanuts but I have never seen a peanut plant growing and I have certainly never consciously observed a field of peanuts. I love roasted peanuts, monkey nuts in their shells, chocolate coated peanuts, satay sauce, peanut butter, peanut oil. Given half a chance I would become a peanut addict but I have trained myself not to pop bags of peanuts in my trolley each time I go to the supermarket. I understand that they are quite fattening so I view them as a guilty pleasure to only be enjoyed once in a while.

Peanuts originated in South America in the north western region of that continent. There is evidence of their consumption in that area - going back over 7500 years. The Spanish conquistadors brought peanuts back to Europe in the sixteenth century  and now they are grown widely in sub-tropical zones across the world. The biggest commercial harvests are grown in China and India followed by Nigeria (4.5 million tonnes per year) and the USA (2.8 million tonnes per year),

The plant itself is quite unusual. Amidst the greenery of a healthy knee-high plant grow yellow flowers which will wither, leaving behind buds known as pegs in America. Ultimately. they send out thin descending shoots to the soil below and that's where clusters of peanuts star to form. In fact they are not really nuts at all - they belong to the legume family.

I think we should know as much as we can about the things we eat - where it is grown or how it is raised. Excessive use of pesticides and fertilisers, irrigation systems, farm workers' involvement, transport etc..

Almost fifty years ago I spent three weeks picking raspberries by The Cromarty Firth in Scotland . In a weedy field by the campsite I found potatoes growing so I picked some to boil on my camping stove. Ore day a Londoner asked me where I was getting the potatoes from. I said, "That field over there!" and he said, "Yes, but where are they?"

I took him over to the field, located a potato plant and slowly yanked it out of the earth with its creamy white spuds still attached. The Londoner's eyes widened with amazement. He had never seen a potato plant before and he had no idea that the tubers grew like that. That memory has always stuck with me - the idea that someone might eat potatoes most days and yet not know anything about how they grew.

from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/psNvegR