Quiz ♪ [Peanut Trivia]

Hi, I’m one of our SUZUICHI staff members, and lately I’m hooked on frozen peanuts, which another staff member recommended to me ♪ (At first they half forced me to eat them, but now I love them, lol)

Today,

we’re doing a quiz 🙋

Why a quiz? Because it’s fun, lol

When a quiz show is on, it’s fun and you can’t help watching, right!? (This is where you nod along)

So here’s some peanut trivia in quiz form ✨ I’m the type who wants to try everything, lol

Now, here’s the question! (Ta-da ♪)

[Fill-in-the-Blank Quiz] Guess the word that goes in the box ♪
Question: Where does the name “Rakkasei” (落花生), the Japanese word for peanut, come from?
“Because a ☐ grows from the fallen flower.”
(Hint: Rakkasei is written with three characters meaning “fall” (落), “flower” (花), and “grow” (生).)

What grows from a fallen flower…? 😮

Tick, tick, tick, tick ⏰

・

・

・

Time’s up 👐

The answer is

[Fruit] (実, “mi”: the fruit or nut)

Peanuts at harvest time: they bear their fruit underground.

After the flower (花) blooms and falls (落), a needle-like stalk called a gynophore (or “peg”) grows downward and burrows into the soil, where the fruit grows (生). That’s why peanuts were named Rakkasei 🥜

Circled in red: the gynophore (peg) reaching into the soil.

I learned where the name Rakkasei comes from 5 years ago, when I had just started working at SUZUICHI and came across a book in the shop 💡

It’s an old book, probably several decades old, but it has easy-to-follow illustrations showing how a peanut sprouts from a seed, forms its fruit, and grows…

As I read it, I kept saying

“Wow! So that’s how it works!”

over and over 😮
I’d never really thought about there being a story behind the name Rakkasei 💦

Oh! By the way, the book is called “Peanuts, Nankinmame, Rakkasei” (all three are Japanese words for peanuts) ✨

I can’t post photos of it for copyright reasons… (sob)

If you ever get the chance to visit our shop, it’s a book I’d really love for you to see ✨

See you next time 👋🏻