Peanut or Cheena Badam is popular outdoor leisure snack food in Bangladesh

Peanut/earth nut/ground nut/ground bean/pygmy nut or Cheena Badam 

Peanut or Cheena Badam with pod or shell

Peanut/earth nut/ground nut or Cheena Badam have taken out from shell and  with skin

Peanut/earth nut/ground nut or Cheena Badam have taken out from shell and with skin

Peanut/earth nut/ground nut or Cheena Badam have taken out from shell and skin

Peanut/ground nut/earth nut/pygmy nut or Cheena Badam field

Peanut or Cheena Badam plant's leaves

A peanut or Cheena Badam plants full with yellow flowers

Peanut or Cheena Badam's bright yellow flower with reddish veining

When peanuts or Cheena Badam are growing and not mature

Peanuts or Cheena Badam have pulled out from ground

Peanuts or Cheena Badam have wiped out from ground

Mature peanuts or Cheena Badam have harvested from field

Peanut/ground nut/monkey nut/earth nut or Cheena Badam with the pods or with shell

Roasted peanut or ground nut without the papery coat or skin

Salt peanut or Cheena Badam

Brittle or in Bangla we call it as Tana/Kotkoti or Gatta popular to the children

Brittle or in Bangladesh we call it  Tana/Kotkoti or Gatta and is popular to the children

Brittle or in Bangla we call it as Tana/Kotkoti or Gatta that still reminds our funny childhood

Prepearing for roasting peanut or Cheena Badam and heating sand to roast the nuts with it

A heap of roasted peanut or vaja Cheena Badam

A vender/badamwala sells roasted peanut or  vaja Cheena Badam

A peanut or Badam seller in evening time selling roasted badam

                   

peanut or groundnut is called Cheena Badam in Bangla. In Bangladesh peanut or groundnut or cheena badam is very much popular as leisure time snacks. Roasted peanut or cheena badam is consumed most during the outside activities, such as by spectator of different sports, mass geathering in political parties meetings or other national tradition celebration like pohela boishak, Ekusher boimela etc. Another popular use of peanut or Cheena Badam is brittle or in Bangla we call it Tana/kotkoti or Gatta. For recycling road vender collect useless things like broken glass pices, iron or tin or aluminium pices, rubber or plastics from children  insted of brittle or tana/kotkoti or gatta. 

Peanut is also known as ground nut, earth nut, pygmy nut, monkey nut or groundbean. Its scientific name is Arachis hypogeae. Peanuts actually grow underground, as opposed to nuts like walnuts, almonds etc. that grow on trees. Peanuts, along with beans and peas, belong to the single plant family, Leguminosae. Legumes are edible seeds enclosed in pods. As a group, they provide the best source of concentrated protein in the plant kingdom. It is considered as the world's forth most important source of edible vegetable oil and third most important source of vegetable protein.

Peanuts are one of the world's oldest crops. South American Indians were growing peanuts before Romans were planting olive trees. About 5000 years ago peanuts were first grew in Brazil-Bolivia-Peru region. In the 1500s century Spanish and Portuguese explorers shipped peanuts from South America to Asia, Europe and Africa. A American named George Washington Carver who started his research work and developed more than 300 other uses for peanuts and improved peanut horticulture so much that he is considered by many tobe the ’’father of the peanut industry’’.

I think in Bangladesh and in this region peanut introduced by the Portuguese sailers along with other vegetables and fruits. Now a days peanuts are cultivated around the world almost in 80 countries. In Bangladesh peanuts are cultivated in Noakhali, Faridpur, Kishoreganj, Patuakhaliu, Rangpur and Dhaka districts in 35000 hectors of lands and about 40,000 metric tons of peanuts produced annually.

Peanut is an annual harbaceous plant growing 30 to 50 cm tall. Peanut plants grow best in sandy or loose soil with warm, sunny weather and moderate rain. Most peanuts need about five months to grow to maturity. The leaves of the peanuts plants are opposite and they grow as pairs in groups four. It is interesting that peanuts leaflets fold up in pairs at night. Each leaflet is 1 to 7 cm long and 1 to 3 cm broad. The flowers are a typical peaflower in shape, 2 to 4 cm accross bright yellow with reddish veining. Peanut flower is a self-pollinating flower and grows low on the plant. Most flowers bloom for one day and then wilt. Once the flower is pollinated, the petals fall off and the ovary starts to enlarge. The budding ovary grows a small stem and the embryo penetrates the soil where the peanut starts to form into a legume pod. Pods are 3 to 7 cm long containing 1 to 4 seeds. The pods that is peanuts ripen 120 to 150 days after the seeds are planted.

All parts of the peanut plant can be used. Peanuts contain 25 to 32% protein(average of 25% digestible protein) and 42 to 52% oil. A pound of peanuts is high in food energy and provides approximately the same energy value as 2 pounds of beef, 1,5 pounds of Cheddar cheese, 9 pints of milk or 36 medium-size eggs. Peanuts are naturally cholesterol-free. In fact, peanuts contain over 30 essential nutrients and phytonutriens. Even they have a more anti oxidants than grapes, green tea, tomatoes, spinach, broccoli and carrots. Despite of its utility some people are allergisk for peanuts.

S: en.wikipedia.org; banglapedia.org; nationalpeanutboard.org; hort.purdue.edu/newcrop;