buy your seed from the IKURU co-op. you'll probably be planting the same variety you've planted for the past eight years and you'll be planting in already-poor soil that has grown only peanuts for the past twenty.
and then 120 days later, they're ready for harvest. this is a particularly good lookin' plant.
this is a new technology we are trying to spread in the countryside. drying peanuts on A-frames before shelling brings down the rate of aflatoxin infection rates dramatically.
then you pick the peanuts off the plants, one by one. it takes a lot longer than you'd expect. good thing farmers with lots of land also have lots of wives...
i found these instructions for this peanut stripper online from thailand and brought it to the blacksmith - a week later, this little gem showed up.
it is bewildering when things happen quickly here.
picking peanuts off the plants with this thing should be 80% quicker than by hand. thanks, thailand!
the farmer is paid by the co-op when he brings his crop to the intermediate warehouse.
here's one of the intermediate warehouses in sorry shape from last winter's cyclone. whole villages are still in shambles.
then it'll be shipped to the co-op's big warehouse in the city. 20% of the crop is gonna get eaten by rats and this is where the mycotoxins go to town.
and in the end you are left with teensy little peanuts that are good for only peanut butter, but the mycotoxin levels are too high to be exported.
peanut farmers average about $100 USD a year.
1 comment:
this is an amazing set - thanks for the story of the peanuts!
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