National Peanut Month

By Terry Orr 

My earliest memory of peanuts in the shell was at a Major League Baseball game in Kansas City oh so many years ago.  Sharing a bag with my Dad and brother along with a soda still puts a smile on my face.  All these years later, I still enjoy, cracking open the shell and eating fresh roasted peanuts.

Every three months or so, I order two 25 pound boxes of peanuts for our outdoor critters each morning. Putting a few on the deck railing - then the remainder tossed in our back yard.  From the kitchen, we (wife, cats and I) can watch the Blue Jays swoop down and pick up a peanut.  Those that spill onto the deck are fair game,  between the squirrels and chipmunks.  

Peanuts are also very good  health-wise as they are a good source of niacin, folate, fiber, vitamin E, magnesium and phosphorus.  They also are naturally free of trans-fat and sodium and contain about 25% protein.

U.S. peanuts fall into four basic types: Runner, Virginia, Spanish and Valencia. Each of these peanuts is distinctive in size and flavor. 

Peanut are not a Nut? Are you kidding?  True...they are a Legumes/bean!  

Archeologists have dated the oldest specimens to about 7,600 years, found in Peru.

Now you know. 

(All images from Google) 

Fruitcake Toss Day – Update 2013

(Google Image)

By Terry Orr

For those of you who are still holding on to that fruitcake from National Fruitcake Day (12/27/12), you are now officially permitted to toss it according to obscure holiday etiquette. Just watch out where you chuck that thing, they have been known to do some damage.

Pat and I have all sorts of outdoor critters that visit our yard – deer, foxes, squirrels, chipmunks’, raccoons, and opossum’s, a very wide variety of birds and stray cats and dogs from time to time.  We feed them – daily.  In addition to bird feed, peanuts, old bread in the morning – other treats such as other nuts, fruit, cookie, corn on the cob, etc find their way into the backyard. For heavy items such as fruitcakes and the like, we have learned to cut them up into smaller and easier to handle chunks.

So regardless of what you want to toss today – be careful and enjoy!

(Google Image)

References and Links:

http://www.theultimateholidaysite.com/holidays/2012-1/#!fruitcake-toss-day