green grow the peanuts-o

We're in a fairly nice neighborhood that is close enough to highways, not well cared for public land, or possibly less nice neighborhoods that from time to time we have migratory trash wander in on the wind. And the trash collection people have a tendency to let scraps fall in the road rather than their truck if it's not all bagged properly, which I'm sure doesn't help. So I wasn't particularly surprised when I pulled out the barberry along the front foundation and turned the area into a slightly raised herb garden that I found a handful of bits of weathered plastic, and an unshelled peanut. The plastic went back into the trash can, and the peanut, presumed roasted but organic matter none the less, got churned into the dirt.

Well, I pulled up a couple of the unidentified things sprouting in the bed this morning, and discovered that both peanuts from the shell had sprouted. So I stuck the one I'd already pulled up back into the ground a little way away from its sibling and wished it luck. I am fascinated by the implication that either somehow an unroasted peanut turned up in our yard (er, do they *sell* those?) or it managed to survive the roasting process still viable.