Peanut patch in Pungo has folks picking plenty

PUNGO — Farmer John Cromwell has peanuts alongside the pumpkins available at the family farm stand, Cromwell’s Produce on New Bridge Road.

Around Hampton Roads, the crop is generally associated with Suffolk, but Cromwell said it takes well to sandy ground here and adds to the mix at the stand.

“It’s just all for the fun,” he said. “We’re not going to go to Las Vegas on the money we make.”

A quarter-acre patch is producing peanuts that are available prepicked at the stand or for customers to pick themselves, said Jacqueline Schmidt, an Oceanfront resident who works at the stand.

“You can boil them,” she said. “You can let them dry and roast them. You can also shell them and fry them in peanut oil.”

Cromwell said peanuts like sandy ground, and most of the quarter-acre fit the bill. Closer to the road, where the soil had more moisture, there was a difference.

But there were peanuts aplenty, and customers were picking them throughout the morning during a recent visit.

“Peanuts do all right,” he said.

In the patch, customers pulled goober after goober off the roots of the plants Cromwell had dug to expose the peanuts.