November 17, 2023
This week we are harvesting peanuts and rebuilding a chicken coop. I am starting to think about what I will cook for Thanksgiving next week, to include peanuts...I want to cook plants that are harvested locally. For those of you who have never harvested peanuts, it is a lot of work! Peanuts are also known as “groundnuts” so they grow underground. To harvest this crop one needs to pull up every plant in the garden (weed and crop alike) to isolate the peanuts. Then you have to remove every peanut from the underground vine. This is where children in this area get involved…eating and separating the nuts from the mother plant. People sit under trees for hours, laughing and singing as they separate the peanuts from the mother plants. An abundance of rain results in the peanut pods sprouting and developing root systems. It is important to harvest peanuts at the right time before this happens.
Peanuts are an essential crop in central Africa. They can be ground into a protein-rich paste/oil which is added to many vegetables like cooked spinach and squash leaves. Peanuts can be preserved for several months between harvests. They preserve just about the length of time (3-6months) before the next harvest is available. I love how God created this plant to be preserved for just the right amount of time.
There is a beautiful older woman who brings me vegetables every few days who I affectionately call Tate, which means Grandmother. She noticed that we were starting our peanut harvest and asked for a handful of fresh peanuts as she was leaving. I brought her a handful of g-nuts in their shell which she received with a huge grin on her face, saying she would grill them with salt with her dinner that evening.
I love that we can live close to the land and appreciate how God provides for us. I love how Emmanuel can learn about plants in his studies and then go outside and practice what he has learned. Our very lives depend on plants and their production. I feel a thankfulness to my Creator as I participate in the harvest and processing of grain.
Ecclesiastes 11: 4-6 speaks to the necessity of being diligent to work, to plant, whatever the weather and to leave the harvest up to God. I can relate to this here in Congo where people plant fields in several places to increase their chances of success. Then they work diligently and pray for rain.
“Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap. As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you can not understand the work of God, the Maker of all things. Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.”
Blessings from Nyankunde and Happy Thanksgiving!
Lindsey for the Coopers
