Peanut

HISTORY 

The peanut plant is native to South America, Central America and Mexico.

When the Spanish invaders arrived in South America they found all kinds of new things to eat, including peanuts.

Before they were called by their present name (starting in the early 19th century), peanuts were typically called ground nuts or ground peas.

Due to the short supply of coffee during the American Civil War, troops were forced to come up with imaginative alternatives. Ground up peanuts were amongst the substitutes for coffee.

The diesel engine that Rudolf Diesel used to demonstrate his new idea at the 1900 Exposition Universelle (World's Fair) ran on peanut oil.

Before he became a famous jazz musician, Duke Ellington had a job selling peanuts at Washington Senators baseball games.

In 1929, Texan Bill Williams pushed a peanut to the 14,115-foot summit of Colorado's Pikes Peak with his nose; it took him 21 days.

Peanut M&M's were introduced in 1954. Its creator was allergic to peanuts.

Jimmy Carter first began selling peanuts from his parents’ 360-acre farm on the streets when he was just five years old. He took over the family peanut business in 1953 and during his presidency the farm  was placed into a blind trust to avoid a conflict of interest. After he returned to his farm at the end of his presidency, Carter found that the trustees had mismanaged the trust, leaving him more than $1 million in debt.

Former world champion 110 metre hurdler Colin Jackson once held the unofficial world record for throwing a peanut the farthest. On February 20, 2008 he hurled  a peanut 37.92 meters (124 feet, four inches) at the Welsh Institute of Sport in Sophia Gardens, Cardiff.

The Guinness World Record for longest peanut throw belongs to Seiji Suwa from Japan. He achieved a distance of 47.73 meters (156 feet 7 inches)  in Japan on November 26, 2023. This record was set at an event organized by YAMASU Co., Ltd. and specifically aimed at throwing locally produced peanuts.

FUN PEANUT FACTS

A peanut is not a nut, it's a legume.

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

Peanuts are the number one snack nut consumed in the United States and they account for two-thirds of the snack nut market.

15 million Snicker bars are made daily, which amounts to about 99 tons of peanuts.

Peanuts actually grow underground, as opposed to nuts like walnuts, almonds and other nuts that grow on trees.

The south has the best climate for growing peanuts in the United States. Sixty percent them are grown in Alabama, Florida and Georgia.

It takes approximately 540 peanuts to make one 12-ounce jar of peanut butter.

Half of the peanuts grown in America are used to make peanut butter.

When making peanut butter, the heart of the peanut is taken out because it's too bitter. The peanut hearts that are collected are put into birdseed.

Leftover peanut shells can be used to make packing material, kitty litter, kindling, fireplace logs, or compost.

Source Mentalfloss.com