ground nut day

we are in the middle of groundnut harvest season.
it is a 90 day crop. pretty fast in comparison to the grains.
so most farmers in this area have sown a good part of their winter crop as groundnut, which they planted in mid december to early january.

we love groundnuts and we were eagerly awaiting this period.
and boy did we jump in (and continue to do so) into groundnut harvesting with gusto!
first take a look at the pristine fields (picture perfect settings of our neighbourhood farms).





the day before the harvest, the field is soaked in water to loosen the roots.
and then, we just grab the stem and yank the nuts off their earthly cocoon. and shake them well to drop of the mud (and proudly display it to the camera-person for post-harvest blogging).


it is fairly simple, but of course, takes a toll on your back.
this yanking is done in the early morning to beat the sun.

now comes the fun part.
how do we dis-associate the nuts from the roots?
"beats me!", did you say?
well, "that's the right answer!"

you beat them. in the classic washerman method.



and the pile keeps growing like this.


we did all this in classic wendell berry's neighbourhood philosophy (and not as a blogging story philosophy).
read this while we enjoy the nuts of our labours over this weekend.