Peanuts!

     It sounds like a trip to the ball park. Come on--get your popcorn, peanuts, and crackerjack–I don't care if I ever go back! Come to think of it, crackerjack is a mixture of popcorn and peanuts. Is there no end to the vernacular names referring to or associated with the lowly peanut? Mani, goobers, pinders, Arachis, and groundnuts are other names.

    South American Indians had peanut farms as long as 1000 years ago. The peanut pod that holds the nuts (usually two to a pod) grows underground. Flowers develop and become fertilized in the early morning. The flower's receptacle will last until noon, at which time the flower will die and the receptacle of the bloom, called the peg, turns and grows downward and buries itself in the soil. Walla! The peanut pod holding the edible peanut develops underground. The peanuts-in the shell-are then called groundnuts. Can you imagine being at a football or baseball game where the vender is saying, "Get your hot roasted groundnuts and a bottle of beer?"

    The leading peanut-producing countries are India, China, and the U.S.A. We grow the peanut crop for food, whereas the other countries use them principally for edible oil. Georgia is our principal state to produce that good old southern goober—processed into peanut butter, or eaten as dry, salted, roasted, or boiled in the shell. They contain 20 to 30% protein, 40 to 50% oil and are an excellent source of vitamin B.

    You will find ground peanut shells in plastics, wallboard, and abrasives. Peanut oil is used in soaps, creams, shampoos, paints, and nitroglycerin.

    Check out your crackerjack; if the peanuts are large, the peanut is a large-seeded Virginia and if slightly smaller the peanut is still a Virginia. Your box may have a smaller variety called Spanish peanuts. But, there may be so much caramel on the popcorn and peanuts that identification is hopeless. Don't get excited, a peanut is still a peanut. I never did know the difference in peanuts and cared less as long as the goober taste was there.

    George Washington Carver, a giant among researchers, found over 300 uses for the plant and its use. Perhaps, if he had been blessed with a longer life on earth he could have discovered an alternative source for peanut oil fuel.

Have fun!,
    keep crunching!;
        that stuff in your mouth is the one food you will always remember—goobers.