Hello Homestead Family!
We have now started groundnut harvest, and here is what they look like. Most of the groundnuts are well developed, and the seeds inside are fully mature. Although this is not the one from our own farm yet. We started the harvest from our neighbor's farm as he needed some urgent money and wanted to harvest and sell them off immediately. It was actually because of the emergency needs that we suspended our own work to help him harvest his own nuts first.
Like I said earlier, the harvest of groundnuts is a very slow process where you pluck off the nuts from the plant one after the other.
Unlike the corn we have shelled with a machine, I don't know if there is a particular machine for groundnut harvest. Although it is possible that the machine that shelled our corn can also peel these nuts from the cover whenever we wish to use them.
It was at the point of harvest that I realized that we have different species of groundnuts. When I looked at their own nuts, the seeds seemed quite smaller than the ones I have plucked from our farms.
This particular type of groundnut is grown for oil production. When making groundnut oil, it is preferred as a small quantity of it can produce so much oil compared to the other one I had planted.
I can't really say if the life cycle of their life cycle also differs unless I choose to plant the two species side by side in the coming year. We have actually hoped that after harvest we will be processing some of our groundnut to produce oil from them but with the recent discovery, we have learn about the quantity of oil that will be produced from our groundnuts at Harvest.
After harvest, the next process is the hardest part, which is the drying of the nuts. It takes plenty of time and sunshine for groundnuts to dry, and you have to dry them properly in order for them not to spoil when in storage.
In order to avoid this stress, some farmers prefer to sell their groundnuts immediately after harvest. I can't say if this is profitable for them, but our neighbors here need the money for emergency needs, which is why we are working together to help him out.
What do you use groundnuts for in your country aside from making groundnut oil?.