Tiyoo!!

Tiyoo!

Pronounced “tee-YOH” Peanuts!!

Its peanut harvest time, and like the corn harvest, there is much to be done. Men and boys pull up the peanut plants, and dangling from the roots are all the peanuts. They then haul them home in big bundles and in wheelbarrows. The women’s job is to pull the peanuts off the roots, a job that takes several days to get through the harvest. It’s dirty work in both departments, but I’ve enjoyed sitting with the women. It’s a good time for chatting, and the old women are downright hilarious. Many a pleasant afternoon has been spent this way.
Later, the nuts will be shelled. Some will be pounded raw for use in rice porridge, some will be ground into peanut butter, and then made into “durango” a peanut sauce, and served over rice. Still others will be roasted and sold by the roadside as snack food. EVERYONE is harvesting, which means there are also a lot of peanuts around. Everyone I help has given me some to bring home, people I pass on the street give me handfuls. The thing is, peanuts don’t emerge from the ground honey-roasted and lightly salted. Raw peanuts? Not for me….they sort of have the same texture and flavor as raw potatoes. I usually give these gifts to the first child I see after I have left whomever gave them to me.
This picture with the kids was sort of funny to try and capture. These children live across the street from me, and there is usually about 17 of them aping in front of the camera wanting their picture taken. Its pretty overwhelming. But today, it was just Tulai and Babucar around, and they were shy. It went like this “Ok, Tulai, hold the peanuts…now look at me. Ok, now Babucar look at me…ok, smile!! Ok, no, look at me. And Tulai look at me. Hey, Babucar, look at me. Ok, smile!” None of them turned out, it was just too much to orchestrate, the looking and the smiling and the peanut-holding. But they are some of my favorite neighborhood kids.
So that’s that. Lots of peanut work. But you know its time for a break when you start to pop all the rotten, hollow peanuts and think “wow, this is fun like bubble wrap!”