Peanuts

When weather gets too hot in the city for Orange Balloon, he's happy that a stiff breeze blows him into the country, where he sees crops of peanuts being harvested. We learn that peanuts need fairly warm weather and a good even rainfall to grow well and that they aren't actually nuts at all, they're actually legumes and grow under the ground like potatoes. They grow in bunches, up to thirty on one plant and when it's time for them to be harvested, the farmers can tell, thanks to a special color chart. It turns out that humans have been eating peanuts for thousands of years, but it was only a couple of hundred years ago that peanut butter was first created, in Haiti in Africa. About 50% percent of all the peanuts grown in North America end up as peanut butter and some that aren't good for eating become animal feed or soap. Most of the rest are shelled and roasted, although some are sold still in shell. We end by learning that goober is an African word for peanut. We also take find out a