There's Little Better

It’s winding up harvest time here in South GA.  Corn that has been left standing has been combined, cotton picked and peanuts pulled.  We are always driving thru Georgia and enjoy watching the progression from planting in the Spring to the harvest in Fall.  From the smell of the blooming cotton in late summer to the prescribed burns in the pine forests in early Spring.  It’s a great place to live.
 
My good friend has a farm about 40 minutes from The Barn across the state line where we hunt wild birds and run dogs during quail season.  I have been very fortunate to be able to take Will all these years, he has learned so much more than just how to shoot a gun. The fields are leased to farmers that plant some in peanuts and some in corn.   Now that Will is 17 and off with his friends or working after school, Molly and I took off one afternoon to pull some peanuts to boil.  We LOVE boiled peanuts in our house.  Sure I could have gone to the farmers market like so many times before, but how often do you get a chance give an 11 year old a lesson in agriculture?
 
After unlocking the gate, Molly got in the driver’s seat of my old Range Rover Will and I restored and off we went through the woods.  My dad did the same with me when I was that age but we were in an Oldsmobile!  Once at the peanut field, we pulled a few plants, pulled the peanuts off he roots and into the box they went.  We got just enough for what we knew we would eat without being wasteful.   Once we got home, we washed and boiled them in a pot full of water and salt.  After a couple of hours we stood at the counter fighting over the soft ones that you can eat whole….there is little better. 
 
I guess once Will is off to school next year, I will have a new hunting partner.  Of course, I think she will have more fun with the dogs and Jeep, but that’s all right with me.  Like those boiled peanuts….there's little better.