Going nuts: A lesson in peanut patience at Brookdale Gardens

Peanut harvest time is here, and The Gardens at Brookdale got in on the fun this year.

Our garden not only grows fresh fruits and veggies to support those experiencing homelessness at the Brookdale Resource Center, but it also serves as a living classroom through the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension.

Visitors often stop by with questions about different plants, and a popular topic is peanuts.

Since I’d never grown them myself, I wanted to be able to share from real experience.

In late April, we planted some peanut seeds and, months later, here’s what we learned.

Georgia is the No. 1 peanut producing state in the United States. More than half of the country’s peanuts come from here. Americans consume 5-7 pounds of peanut products per person each year, compared to 4.7 pounds of peas per person annually.

At The Gardens at Brookdale, we have 4-by-12-foot raised beds. That sounds like plenty of room, right?

Well, sort of. If you plant one neat row down the middle — sure, it works beautifully. But I like to pack in as much as possible, so naturally, I squeezed in two rows of peanuts.

Peanuts grow underground. After the plant produces flowers, it sends down little “pegs” into the soil. That’s where the peanuts form. The more pegs, the more peanuts.

They are a fairly easy crop in the garden — quick to sprout, tidy in the beds (at first!) and happily low maintenance compared to tomatoes.

The only thing we really had to do was keep weeds down, loosen the soil a few times and hill it up around the plants so their “pegs” could dig in.

Then August rolled around, and suddenly they were off to the races, vining every which way.

Our challenge? The raised beds sit on asphalt, so all those adventurous vines had loads of pegs dangling over the edges with nowhere to go.

Patience is the hardest part. Peanuts take around 110 days from planting to maturity, just like sweet potatoes. It was hard to wrap my head around the fact that a tiny peanut takes as long as a huge sweet potato, but I don’t make the rules.

My inner gardener was getting impatient, but we waited until the vines started to yellow before pulling a few plants to check for ripeness. Mature peanuts will have plump firm seeds that fill the shell.

Finally, it was harvest time! But the waiting game isn’t over — freshly dug peanuts need to cure. First, the whole plant dries for 5-7 days with the peanuts still attached. Then you cut off the pods, spread them out and let them dry for another 3-5 days.

After that? Boil, roast or even make your own peanut butter.

Is it worth it? Absolutely!

Growing peanuts takes a bit of space, loose soil and loads of patience, but it’s such a fun family project. And honestly, snacking on peanuts you grew yourself while watching the game just hits differently.

Susan Fisher is a garden manager for the Macon location of the UGA Cooperative Extension. Learn more at extension.uga.edu.