The first major use for peanuts was as food for pigs. The first commercial growth of peanuts is generally attributed to the Poplar Grove Plantation at Scotts Hill located north of Wilmington, North Carolina. The first notable use of peanuts as food for humans came during the Civil War, when both Northern and Southern troops used the peanut as a food source during hard times.

Dr. George Washington Carver is known as the father of the commercial peanut. In 1903 he began research at the Tuskeegee Institute, which eventually yielded over 300 uses for the peanut including cheese, mayonnaise, chili sauce, shampoo, bleach, axle grease, linoleum and ice cream.

In 1870 P.T. Barnum began using roasted peanuts in his circus as a snack food. Soon after, they began showing up at ball parks and movie theaters. In fact, the cheap seats in theaters became known as peanut galleries.

The peanut, which has also been known as a goober, guinea seed, ground pea, pinda, ground nut and monkey nut, is not a nut at all, but is actually a legume. This fabulous impostor of a nut contributes over $4 billion to the U.S. economy each year.

How the Peanut Grows

The peanut is unusual because it flowers above the ground, but fruits below the ground. Typical misconceptions of how peanuts grow place them on trees, like walnuts or pecans, or growing as a part of a root like potatoes.

Peanut seeds (kernels) grow into a green oval-leafed plant about 18 inches tall, which develop delicate yellow flowers around the lower portion of the plant. The flowers pollinate themselves, and then lose their petals as the fertilized ovary begins to enlarge. The budding ovary grows down and away from the plant forming a small stem or "peg", that extends to the soil. The peanut embryo is in the tip of the peg, which penetrates the soil.

The embryo turns horizontal to the soil surface and begins to mature, taking the form of the peanut. From planting to harvesting the growing cycle takes about four to five months, depending on the variety. The peanut is a nitrogen-fixing plant; its roots form nodules, which absorb nitrogen from the air and provide enrichment and nutrition to the plant and soil.

Fall Harvest

These photos show how peanuts are first dug from the ground with a tractor, inverted to dry, and, finally, separated from the vine and harvested with a combine.