CAPTIONS: Â Peanuts and peppermint, two great tastes found in an Amish garden in Daviess County, Indiana.
A couple of weeks ago I ran an installment of my Daviess County Journal, a visit to the long-established Amish settlement on Indiana's western border near Vincennes and Washington. Â If you missed those stories, click here.
After watching an elderly Amish man's son bale hay peacefully in a rolling field, I was then taken to see their garden, a well-kept bountiful beauty of melons, tomatoes, corn, cucumbers and something I haven't seen often in Amish gardens: peanuts. Two long rows of healthy, leafy peanut plants. Â I expressed surprise.
"They grow pretty well here," said an Amish woman sitting in a lawn chair by the garden, enjoying a late afternoon summer breeze.
I asked what she uses them for. Â She said she doesn't usually make her own peanut butter, but adds them to her homemade "corn flake candy" and they also roast them and salt them and eat them for snacks. Â Homemade Chex mix anyone? Â Yum!
The next thing I was shown was a peppermint patch. Â The Amish man broke off a leaf and had me smell it and I was greeted with the minty signature smell of the leaf.
"Nothing better than a glass of cool peppermint tea on a hot day," the Amish man said.
And I agree with that!
farmhousebarb
How neat..I have never seen peanut plants! The mint patch is beautiful..I have hubby addicted to mint tea. We get ours near a spring,where it grows naturally. It spreads like crazy and is prolific around here. Peanuts would be fun to try to grow. I think I will check into that,but I'll bet it's too cold here. We have a rather short growing season.