Harvesting Peanuts

On my first day in the village, the winds were right to separate the peanuts from the shaft. This particular field belongs to one of the wives. She is free to do what she wants with the peanuts harvested from her field.

All women in the compound helped. This wife had 2 sisters and a brother visiting at the time, so they helped, too. I love all of the colors in their clothes!

Previous to this, the nuts had been put into a mound and beaten to remove them from the shaft. (Note in the first picture the field hand in the background beating a pile of harvested nuts in the other wife's field.) They were then scooped into a bowl and handed to the person standing high on the stick. He/she would then pour the nuts from the bowl and let the wind carry the lighter shaft to one pile while the heavier nuts dropped straight down into another pile. They will go thru the nut pile a second or third time if necessary.