Wednesday, May 05, 2004
The Nut House! (America's love affair with Peanuts) 
As far as I know, Peanut butter did not become very big in Merry Ole England till the last 20 years. I had my first peanut butter and Jam sandwich just a few months ago. And tho I am a lover of nuts, (that goes without saying! ;-)) wasn't over-ly keen on it, but didn't not like it either.
Anyhow, I know peanuts has been big in America for years and years. Even apart from Charlie Brown! So have been finding some info out.
Americans Eat the Most
"Prized mainly as a source of high-quality cooking oil elsewhere in the world, the peanut rises above the level of condiment in the United States. Every year, Americans eat more peanuts than any other people in the world � about 12 pounds per person, including five pounds of peanut butter."
No Less than 90%!
"In the United States, any product labeled "peanut butter" must by law be at least 90 percent peanuts"
Benefits of the nut:
May help prevent colon cancer
Keep your heart healthy
Lose weight: Control appeitite (and I always thought they were fattening!)
How Peanuts became popular:
Peas! Peas! Peas! Peas! eating goober peas! Goodness how delicious, eating goober peas!
� Traditional song
How Peanuts Became Popular
During the Civil War, Confederate soldiers sometimes had nothing to eat but peanuts, or "goober peas," a name that may have come from "nguba," the word for peanut in the Bantu language. Union troops found themselves eating � and enjoying � these unfamiliar vegetables.
The Peanut Gallery
Street vendors in northern cities, some of them soldiers who could find no other work, began selling roasted peanuts, and around 1870, P. T. Barnum introduced them to the crowds at his circuses. The cheap seats in theaters and public entertainments became known as the "peanut gallery."
Peanut Butter Debut
Peanuts made the leap from snack food to health food in the 1890s when a St. Louis doctor ground them into a smooth paste to feed his older patients. Peanut butter made a nutritious, easily digested and tasty food � perfect for invalids.
Peanut Genius
By the 1920s, when George Washington Carver showed all that the humble legume could do, Americans were more than willing to sing in his choir of praise for the miraculous nut.
George Washington Carver
The Plant Doctor
Even as a child, George Washington Carver was known as the "plant doctor." Born into slavery in Missouri in the early 1860s, he supported himself from the age of 10, moving from place to place in search of whatever education was available to a black orphan in the early days of Emancipation.
Eventually, he earned bachelor's (1894) and master's (1896) degrees from the State Agricultural College in Ames, Iowa. He then accepted Booker T. Washington's invitation to head a department at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
Helping Peanut Farmers
His search for ways to enrich soils depleted by years of one-crop farming led him to legumes. He began a campaign urging local farmers to plant peanuts, a crop he knew Southerners were familiar with.
Discovering Peanut Uses
When growers complained that there wasn't a large enough market for peanuts, Carver went to work. In his laboratory, which the devout scientist called "God's Little Workshop," Carver discovered more than 300 uses for peanuts, from foods of all types to inks, dyes, soap, face cream and powder, creosote (a wood preservative), wood stains, plastics, linoleum, metal polish and synthetic rubber.
His efforts altered the economy of the South, and the peanut, not even recognized as a crop in 1896, became one of the top six in the United States by 1940.
Famed Throughout the World
Carver's wide-ranging agricultural research made him renown throughout the world. He worked with Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, testified before congressional committees and spoke with presidents. He published 43 books and pamphlets and was awarded medals and honorary degrees, as well as membership in the British Royal Society of the Arts.
Little known facts:
A Familiar Face
Mr. Peanut, the Planters Peanut Company mascot, originated in a contest for schoolchildren in 1916.
Over 100 Years Old
Peanut butter was created by a St. Louis physician in 1890 as a high-protein, easily digestible food for his elderly patients. In 1904, it was promoted as a health food at the St. Louis World's Fair.
Where's the Jelly?
How to make a peanut butter sandwich was described in an Atlanta cookbook in 1898. The recipe concluded, "Tie with brown ribbon having the same tint as the paste."
Fear of What?
"Arachibutyrophobia" is the fear of getting peanut butter stuck to the roof of your mouth
Look What I Found!
Columbus discovered peanuts on the island of Haiti when he landed in 1492.
And I bet that's all more info than you ever wanted to know about Peanuts! |
