heirloom nuts

African runner peanuts were once a defining flavor of the South, memorialized in songs, peanut fritters, peanut soup and in Charleston's signature candy, the peanut-and-molasses groundnut cake. But by the 1930s the nuts had all but disappeared.

National
Science

The Lost Ancestral Peanut Of The South Is Revived

3:59pm December 29, 2016

by Jill Neimark

Brought to America by enslaved West Africans, the Carolina African runner was a defining taste of the antebellum South. Now, from just 40 remaining seeds, it's come back from the brink of extinction.

Amigo Bob Cantisano and his partners believe these chestnuts come from a Marron de Lyon tree, originally from France. He thinks the tree was one of many varieties of fruit, grape and nut plants introduced into California by Felix Gillet, a French nurserym

National

In California, A Treasure Hunt For Gold Rush-Era Fruit And Nut Trees

2:39pm January 19, 2016

by Lisa Morehouse

The search is on for heirloom varieties planted at homesteads and coach stops in the late 1800s. The resilient trees, still productive despite long neglect, could prove valuable at a time of drought.