Peanuts, anyone?
It seems like every other product you find at the grocery store these days contains a label warning of manufacture at a facility where peanuts may be used. That’s because so many young children are allergic to peanuts. Back when I was growing up on a farm on the Callahan County side of Scranton, Texas, the term “peanut allergy” would have been a sacrilege. The peanut was our cash crop, determining our financial status for the next 12 months, and everyone – young and old – consumed peanuts. I was exposed to peanuts very early in life. Among my earliest memories as a little boy are those of following my dad to the field, where he would pull up sample peanut plants to determine if the crop was ready for harvesting. My dad, a second generation peanut grower on the family farm, would break open the shells even if the nuts were immature, giving me a taste. The peanuts were harvested – usually in October – by a “combine,” a mechanized machine pulled by a tractor. T...