The Nutty Thing About Peanuts: They’re Peas
Along with walnuts and citrus in the early 1900s, central Orange County farmers harvested an unlikely crop: peanuts.
Once called double-jointed goober peas--they’re peas, not nuts--peanuts were big business for some local growers. In October 1901, 12,000 40-pound sacks of peanuts were harvested in the Tustin, Santa Ana and Orange area, according to information on file at the Tustin museum.
Tustin entrepreneur C.E. Utt grew a majority of the county’s peanuts, says Tustin area historian Carol Jordan, whose book “Tustin: City of Trees,” will be released this summer.
“In 1903, 10 railroad cars full of peanuts left the county, and five of them were Utt’s,” she says. “Utt ran a peanut dryer to prepare his crop for market. Boys and girls of the community harvested the peanuts for him.”
By the 1930s, peanut farming in Orange County had died out, due in part to competition from Japan. Today, although peanuts aren’t grown here commercially, they still thrive thanks to our nonacidic soil and long, warm growing season.
You won’t find peanuts growing on trees; they grow underground. The plants resemble small sweet pea bushes that are 10 to 20 inches high. After bright-yellow flowers on the plants fade, pegs--stemlike shoots--develop at each flower’s base and then burrow into the soil and create peanuts underground.
Peanuts planted now will be ready for harvesting in July or August. If conditions are favorable, one plant can yield 50 to 60 pods.
To have success growing peanuts, Sunset suggests keeping the following tips in mind:
* Order seeds, which are unroasted peanuts, from a mail-order catalog. Or you can try planting unroasted peanuts from the store.
* Plant peanuts in a full-sun location.
* Your soil must be light textured so that the pegs can penetrate and develop peanuts underground. Although sandy soil is ideal, clay soil can be generously amended before planting with homemade or bagged compost.
* Sow shelled peanuts, but leave the skins intact. Plant them 2 inches deep in rows that are 3 feet apart. Jumbo Virginia peanuts should be placed 10 inches apart, and smaller Spanish peanuts 4 inches apart.
* Improve plant growth by using an all-purpose fertilizer at planting time.
* Water regularly, making sure to keep the soil moist but never soggy. Stop watering two weeks before harvest.
* About 110 to 120 days after planting, the peanut plant foliage will yellow. Loosen the soil and then remove the entire plant, keeping the peanuts intact. Cure the peanuts by hanging the plant in a warm, airy place out of direct sunlight for two to three weeks. Then strip the peanuts from the plants and eat.
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Seed Sources Besides Market
These mail-order companies carry peanut seeds:
* Burpee Gardens, 300 Park Ave., Warminster, PA. 18974, (800) 888-1447.
* Gurney’s Seed & Nursery Co., 110 Capital St., Yankton, SD 57079, (605) 665-1930.
* Park Seed Co., Cokesbury Road, Greenwood, SC 29647-0001, (864) 223-7333.
