Peanuts originated in South America, but are now a global commodity and used in many cooking styles from Thai and many Asian dishes, to African Groundnut Stew, to peanut brittle in the South, and peanut butter eaten world wide. Not to mention peanut oil.
Sesame grows well here. If it rains too much, it usually survives just fine. If there is not enough rain, it can survive…not so with peanuts.
Coffee does pretty well in the higher parts of Nicaragua. It can be damaged with too early rains that then stop after the plants have produced blossoms. Volcanic ash can damage the blossoms and with too much rain at harvest the berries can swell and fall off the plant. The higher temperatures each year is slowly hurting the coffee productions, but coffee is still sturdier than peanuts.
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| Organic peanut inspection - photo Dave Landstein, Multiple Organics |
Peanuts grow in the ground. They are actually legumes, not nuts at all. Peanuts are healthy: high in protein and good fats.
The peanut plants are amazing at fixing nitrogen from the air and putting it in the soil, which is why they are a great crop for the earth to replenish the nitrogen that other plants absorb…but finicky! My heavens! They are finicky!
Because they grow in the ground, they are susceptible to fungi. Too much rain and they get all “fungus-y” which can develop aflatoxins…got that last part “toxins”….that’s right, "poison". Aflatoxin can cause cancer.
Vermin LOVE peanuts. Behind our property, someone grows a field of peanuts. After they harvest, our property gets the many mice and rats who no longer have peanuts to munch on.
Pests LOVE peanuts. If peanuts are not processed in a timely manner then they are infested with bugs, which requires freezing the peanuts to kill the insects.
And for the fungi that creates aflatoxins… one way to reduce aflatoxins is to blanch the peanuts. Now we have TWO additional processes added to the peanuts which gets really costly. Add to that we have YET to find a processor who will process the COPROEXNIC peanuts in a timely and correct manner.
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| Peanut processing - Once Again Nut Butter visit |
BUT when the rains are good and not overly heavy, peanuts grow well here. Organic peanuts processed well and on time are an excellent cash crop and they build up the soil's nitrogen.
Unlike the other crops that COPROEXNIC grows and markets, peanuts are like the little girl with a curl right in the middle of her forehead…when they are good…they are very, very good…but when they are bad, they are horrid.
Unfortunately, with climate change affecting Nicaragua so much, growing peanuts is getting to be a bit like betting on a roulette wheel and I am no gambler. But the farmers and the managers of COPROEXNIC keep hoping…at least peanuts help the soil.
-Kathleen
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