Georgia Peanuts
Although originating in the Americas, peanuts took a trip across the world before coming of age back in the United States. Believed to have originated in Peru or Brazil in about 750 BC, peanuts filled jars placed in the graves of ancient Incas to provide food in the afterlife. Spanish explorers introduced the peanut to Europe, Asia and Africa. Slaves then brought the groundnut back to America where they planted them throughout the South. Although a staple for both Blue and Gray soldiers in the Civil War, peanuts were not grown much in the 1800s. But the groundbreaking work of George Washington Carver, an Alabama plant scientist who developed more than 300 uses from peanuts—including peanut butter, shoe polish and shaving cream—changed all that. Coupled with cotton’s decline after the boll weevil epidemic, peanuts became an important cash crop for many southern farmers in the early 1900s.
Also called groundnuts, ground peas, goobers and goober peas, peanuts, unlike other nuts, flower above the ground, but the fruit develops below it. The nut, actually a legume like peas or beans, is an excellent source of protein, B vitamins, vitamin E, zinc, magnesium, potassium and phosphorus. Georgia, led by Early and Decatur counties, produces about 40 percent of the national output. Mostly of the runner variety used to make peanut butter, Georgia peanuts are harvested in autumn.