DOTHAN, Ala. (WDHN) — Stacy McCardle, the owner of Cottonwood-based McCardle Farms, has been growing peanuts all of his life as it has been a family tradition.

This peanut harvesting season has been one of his most difficult seasons to date.

“It’s been a long season for sure, we planted late this year, and we are actually still in mid-harvest right now in our farms to pick them out and get them to the mills for harvest and everything,” McCardle said.

Right now, the state of Alabama is mostly between severe and extreme drought. Houston County, where Cottonwood is located, is seeing a combination of both severe and extreme.

“When the ground is hard you can imagine it’s like digging up the asphalt with a shovel,” He said. When the grounds harden over you are going to wear the points off a lot faster, you’ll end up cutting the peanuts off and when they are gone there is no retrieving it.”

He said they experienced a large problem with the points breaking and bending this harvesting season due to the scarce amount of rain.

Luckily, the drought hasn’t affected his supply of peanuts for the first time at the National Peanut Festival.

“We do have enough set aside so that shouldn’t be a problem,” He said.

He said the only problem right now is needing some rain as harvesting season continues.

“We definitely don’t want to be rained out here but in order to get the crop out of the ground we need some rain so if we can get the plows in the ground and keep moving but it would be a blessing,” He said.

McCardle says peanuts are the last crop he has to get out of the ground right now.

If you are looking to try some, he said he has a huge selection of flavored peanuts.