woodsworm, do you use the shells to build up your soil as I do? If so, do you dry or roast them before grinding them to mix into the soil?

I'll probably just put them in the compost. For the ones I boil in salted water, I'll put them in a pan outdoors and let them get rained on first.

I don't compost them. I grind them in my blender with a blade meant to grind wheat into flour. Once they're pulverized I just mix them into the soil where I'm planting. For some reason, spinach really love peanut shells in the soil and I've gotten leaves as large as dinner plates. Peanut shells must carry a lot of nitrogen.

I love boiled peanuts too, and my family and friends think I am nuts, no pun intended!! Bon Appetit!!

I do them in the crock pot, adding a few garlic cloves and a dash of red pepper- yummm!

More reason to love them...
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - For lovers of boiled peanuts, there's some good news from the health front. A new study by a group of Huntsville researchers found that boiled peanuts bring out up to four times more chemicals that help protect against disease than raw, dry or oil-roasted nuts.
ADVERTISEMENT

Lloyd Walker, chair of Alabama A&M University's Department of Food and Animal Sciences who co-authored the study, said these phytochemicals have antioxidant qualities that protect cells against the risk of degenerative diseases, including cancers, diabetes and heart disease.

"Boiling is a better method of preparing peanuts in order to preserve these phytochemicals," Walker said.

The study will appear in Wednesday's edition of the American Chemical Society's Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The other co-authors in the study are A&M researchers Yvonne Chukwumah and Martha Verghese, as well as University of Alabama in Huntsville researcher Bernhard Vogler.

Walker said peanuts and other plants use phytochemicals for things such as helping avoid disease and insect attacks.

"These things are not nutrients; at the same time they have health benefits to humans," he told The Birmingham News. "The trick is to keep those health benefits, not to process them out of the foods."

According to Walker, water and heat penetrate the nuts, releasing beneficial chemicals to a certain point. Overcooking the nuts destroys the useful elements.

Alabama is third in the nation in the amount of peanuts produced with a crop valued at more than $67 million last year.

Thanks for your comments. My mom and I are cooking some now, some with garlic and pepper thanks to flagargoyle. I have more than I need and just posted them to my local freecycle.

I have pulled up my first attempt at growing peanuts but haven't done anything with my harvest yet! I am thinking of boiling them...do I just boil them in salt water?
ANd also, I pulled them up and left them outside to dry but there is still a bit of dirt on them..Iguess its best to wash them first then boil them?

Or maybe I'll just replant them for next year :) What a fun crop to grow!

Here is a link that might be useful: My peanuts!

Boiled peanuts. My favorite and a good old NC tradition. My father's family grew peanuts in Columbus county. We would go down in the early fall and get the green peanuts, bring them home and my mother would boil them.
Down there during the season you would stop in a convenience store and at the counter would be these small brown bags. Unmarked. If you didnâÂÂt know what they were and had to ask you werenâÂÂt from there.

You need to boil the peanuts while they are green. Not dried out. Water and salt to taste. About 1 to 1 1/2 hours depending on the peanut size. Let them sit for a while and cool off. You can also freeze boiled peanuts. I have had year old boiled peanuts and they tasted like they were just made.

I just went to the Apex Nursery last week and there was a sign on the door stating âÂÂBoiled Peanuts at the Pumpkin PatchâÂÂ. I didnâÂÂt buy any plants but I did buy a couple of bags of boiled peanuts!

Boiled peanuts. My favorite and a good old NC tradition. My father's family grew peanuts in Columbus county. We would go down in the early fall and get the green peanuts, bring them home and my mother would boil them.
Down there during the season you would stop in a convenience store and at the counter would be these small brown bags. Unmarked. If you didnâÂÂt know what they were and had to ask you werenâÂÂt from there.

You need to boil the peanuts while they are green. Not dried out. Water and salt to taste. About 1 to 1 1/2 hours depending on the peanut size. Let them sit for a while and cool off. You can also freeze boiled peanuts. I have had year old boiled peanuts and they tasted like they were just made.

I just went to the Apex Nursery last week and there was a sign on the door stating âÂÂBoiled Peanuts at the Pumpkin PatchâÂÂ. I didnâÂÂt buy any plants but I did buy a couple of bags of boiled peanuts!