Whether you call them groundnuts, ground peas or goobers, peanuts are big in Georgia.  The state produces nearly half of all of the peanuts grown in the U.S. each year.  The 2002 farmgate value of peanuts in Georgia was $232 million.

According to historians the peanut plant probably originated in South America, in the area of Brazil or Peru.  Graves of Inca Indians have been found to contain jars filled with peanuts to provide food to the deceased in the afterlife.  Spanish explorers took peanuts back to Europe and from there the plants were carried to Africa and Asia.  Peanuts were brought to North America from Africa and by the 1700s they were considered as good food for pigs.  By the 1800s peanuts were grown commercially in South Carolina for the oil.  Peanut production was limited because of the intensive labor required to grow and harvest the crop.  They were sold by street vendors and were a popular snack at ball games. 

Today peanuts are grown in Asia, Africa, Australia and North and South America.  The U.S. produces 10% of the world’s crop of peanuts.

In the early 1900s machinery designed specifically for the harvesting and shelling of peanuts was invented and the demand for peanut oil, peanut butter, candies containing the legume increased dramatically.  George Washington Carver discovered over 300 uses for peanuts, including oils and ink.

Peanut plants are  left in the field several days to dry before being harvested.  The harvester separates the peanuts from the vine and the peanuts are dumped into wagons.

Peanuts do not grow on trees nor do they develop as part of the root of the plant.  They are classified as a legume, which puts them in the same family as peas.  Peanuts are a nitrogen-fixing plant, which means the roots form nodules that absorb nitrogen from the air to help feed the plant.  This also enriches the soil.  Peanuts are unusual in that the plant flowers but the fruit grows underground.  The flowers loose their petals after fertilization and the budding ovary or peg grows down away from the plant on a stem that pierces the soil and grows into the peanut.  Each plant will produce around 40 mature peanut pods.  Peanuts in South Georgia are planted in the spring, usually late April or May.  The harvest runs from September to October.

There are four basic types of peanuts.  Runners are the most common type of peanut grown and are used extensively in the production of peanut butter.  Runners are grown in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Texas and Oklahoma.  Virginia peanuts have the largest kernel and are mostly used for roasted peanuts.  This variety is grown mostly in Virginia and North Carolina.  Spanish peanuts are used in peanut candies, for snack nuts and peanut butter.  They have a higher oil content than the other varieties and are grown mostly in Texas and Oklahoma.  Valencia peanuts are sweet and most commonly roasted and sold in the shell.  The Valencia peanut is grown mostly in New Mexico.

Peanuts are unusual in that the plant flowers but the fruit grows underground.  The flowers loose their petals after fertilization and the budding ovary or peg grows down away from the plant on a stem that pierces the soil and grows into the peanut.

In the U.S. the states of Georgia, Texas, Alabama, North Carolina, Florida, Oklahoma, Virginia, South Carolina and New Mexico grow 99% of all of the peanuts grown in the country.  Georgia alone produces over 45% of the annual U.S. crop of peanuts.  Last year Georgia produced nearly 2 billion pounds of peanuts, mostly in Worth, Mitchell, Early, Miller and Decatur Counties.

To harvest peanuts the farmer drives a digger down the rows of peanut plants.  The machine loosens the soil, lifts the plant and lays it down on the ground upside down in windrows.  The plants are left in the field several days to dry before being harvested.  The machine that harvests the peanuts separates the peanuts from the vine and the peanuts are dumped into wagons and sold at peanut buying stations. 

At the buying station the peanuts are graded by size of pod, size of the kernel, moisture content and amount of foreign material.  The grading determines the overall quality and value of each load of peanuts.  A broker or sheller sells the peanuts to an end user or another dealer.  Seventy-five percent of the peanuts produced in the U.S. are consumed here; twenty-five percent are exported.

Georgia alone produces over 45% of the annual U.S. crop of peanuts.

About half of all of the peanuts produced in the United States are used to make peanut butter.   To make peanut butter the raw peanuts are roasted and blanched then ground and heated to produce a smooth texture.  Emulsifiers are added to the mix and the whole concoction is cooled to crystallize the emulsifiers – this keeps the peanut oil from separating and floating to the top of the peanut butter jar.

The shells and skins of peanuts don’t go to waste.  The shells can be used as livestock food and cat litter or they may be used to manufacture items such as fireplace logs.  The skins are used in making certain types of paper.  Peanuts can also be used as an ingredient in such items as detergent, ink, face creams, cosmetics and paint.