“Windows down, cool fall weather and the smell of fresh dug peanuts makes for a good morning,” shared lifelong North Santa Rosa resident Kayla Wilson.
The peanut may have originated in Brazil, but its presence and smell is currently in the air in North Santa Rosa County.
It is peanut picking time.
Found in a wide variety of popular recipes, peanuts are a very important crop to many Southern states. Goobers, as peanuts are sometimes called in the South, are actually legumes rather than a nut.
It is harvesting time for area farmers and time to see the quality of peanut they have been dealt this year. One local farmer reports some places south of the Allentown area production is down 25% as a result of the dry spell during the last part of the growing season.
There might be too much rain. There might be too little rain. It is all a gamble that the farmer takes.
Peanuts require an estimated five months of warm weather and an annual rainfall of 20 to 39 inches to grow and produce.
If a crop is harvested too early, the pods will be unripe. If harvested too late, the pods will snap off at the stalk and will remain in the soil.
They are particularly susceptible to contamination during growth and storage.
A local farmer who has been farming for 23 years decreased his peanut crop substantially this year. Normally he plants 530 acres but this year as a result of a new Farm Bill implemented in February he had to reduce the acres he planted drastically.
Farming is not for the weak at heart, it is a risk that never seizes. Harvesting is just a small part of the route that provides peanuts products to the public.
Farmers must have a relationship with a local buying point to sell their peanuts. Contracts between the farmer and the buyer are created early in the planting process. The farmer has to take into consideration every financial investment he has put into his crop; the cost of equipment; diesel and labor. He must calculate his acreage and projected sales versus expenses all the while hoping that his contract at least helps him to break even.
Not all peanuts are contracted for early in the season. The farmer can sell those without a contract to the area buyers at time of harvest. Currently the going rate is $ 425.00 per ton plus a $25 per ton seed premium. Higher grade peanuts have a greater return for the farmer.
Peanuts are used principally as food for humans and livestock. They are very nutritious and are rich in iron, niacin and protein.
In the United States about one-half of the peanuts threshed from the plants are used to make peanut butter.
North Santa Rosa County has a particular smell right now. It smells of fresh tilled dirt and newly dug peanuts. For those raised in the business of peanut picking the smell represents hard days and long nights. For others the smell creates a hunger for delicacies such as boiled peanuts, Jif Peanut Butter and or Planters Peanuts.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: What is that smell in the air?