These ripe peanuts were harvested from a garden in Kelowna.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Kit Malinao

Kelowna gardener Kit Malinao has successfully grown peanuts for the third year in a row, and while she only has room to grow a few peanut plants, she gets a good haul at harvest time.

Her peanut crops draw surprise and questions from other gardeners in the area who ask what her secret to success is.

“There are not a lot of people growing them around here and some have tried but tell me their plants rot or are eaten by voles,” Malinao said. “One gardener told me her peanuts got worms.”

Peanuts — which are not nuts, but legumes — are not generally grown in the province or in the country as they need sandy soils and hot dry weather to produce.

According to the Peanut Bureau of Canada, more than 86% of peanuts consumed in Canada come from growers in the United States and the total amount of peanuts farmed in Canada may be as small as a couple hundred tonnes.

Malinao appears to have mastered growing peanuts and she doesn’t hold back when sharing her knowledge with other interested gardeners.

She starts by purchasing seeds from local gardening centres or ordering them from the Ontario Seed Company, and plants them in early spring. 

“I start the seeds indoors in shallow pots on a heated mat and only water them sparingly, they’re prone to rotting,” she said. “It only takes a couple of weeks for the seeds to germinate.”

Kelowna gardener Kit Malinao holds peanuts she grew in her garden.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Kit Malinao

When the temperature outside is above 10 Celsius, Malinao plants them in her garden in a location that gets full sun all day. When the roots and a set of true leaves develop, she waters the plants every week. 

“The safe bet is waiting until June to transplant when the weather is drier and its warmer at night,” she said.

When the peanut plants flower, Malinao does something called ‘hilling’ to help boost her plants’ peanut production.

“The flowers turn into pegs that contain ovaries which make the peanuts underground,” she said. “You make a hill under the plants so its easier for the peg to drop down into the soil. If you hill, you’ll have higher yields.”

Malinao pulls up the plants in October and lets the legumes sit in room temperate for a few days which allows the shells to harden and the pink legumes to deepen in colour.

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According to the bureau, peanuts and peanut butter are a very popular commodity country wide with 94% of the population snacking on them, and the average Canadian eating almost 3 kilograms of peanuts every year. 

Malinao doesn’t harvest enough peanuts to make peanut butter and prefers to eat the legumes fresh.

“These are different from what we get at the stores, those are dried and already roasted," she said. "Raw peanuts are pink in colour and have a fresh legume taste."

One variety she's harvesting this year is called Valencia.

“These peanuts are not as big as heavily produced varieties, they’re smaller, they do well here because of the long, hot growing season."

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Malinao is originally from the Philippines where peanuts grow.

“The most common way to eat peanuts in the Philippines is to boil them in sea water and the sea water salts them, we eat them as a snack.”

The peanut plant likely originated in South America and was first discovered by Spanish explorers in Brazil who took them back to Spain, according the National Peanut Board.

Traders spread them to Asia and Africa, and Africans introduced the legumes to North America in the 1700s.

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