Peanuts came to America by ‘circuitous route’

One of the first peanut farms in North Carolina and the entire United States was at Poplar Grove, located near Scotts Hill in Pender County. The manor house and grounds have been restored and preserved by the Poplar Grove Foundation and are open to the public.

 

The site offers visitors a detailed description of peanut history. Excerpts are:

Peanuts are native to Central and South America. In the early 1500s, Portuguese sailors who claimed Brazil as a colony took peanuts to the coast of West Africa. There, the crop thrived in favorable growing conditions.

European colonization of America introduced peanuts to the New World. Early on, North Carolina was the epicenter of peanut cultivation.

The term “goober” is derived from “goba” or “guba,” by which “the ground pea” or peanut is known through most of the African continent.

Cultural historians note that peanuts were usually eaten raw, roasted or boiled. In the South, African-American cooks introduced the peanut into local consumption.

 

Commercially grown peanuts first appeared in the Lower Cape Fear region of North Carolina around 1818. Their popularity as a staple for human consumption as well as fodder for hogs increased their production.

 

Joseph Mumford Foy of Poplar Grove produced about 2,500 bushels of ground peas in 1850, and he doubled his crop output by the end of the decade with 5,000 bushels harvested in 1860.

 Foy’s neighbor, Nicholas Nixon of Porters Neck, revolutionized the cultivation of peanuts. Nixon’s interest in scientific farming and crop rotation led him to apply one of the earliest known versions of mechanized harvesting with the invention of a steam-powered thresher in 1856.

By 1860, eastern North Carolina farmers found peanuts to be more profitable than cotton. The United States annual production reached 150,000 bushels, with two-thirds of the national crop being produced in North Carolina.

The state’s love for peanuts is celebrated with annual peanut festivals in three communities.

Chronologically, the first is held on the third Saturday of September in Dublin in Bladen County, which lays claim to being the “Peanut Capital of North Carolina.” The festival features pageant winners in seven age groups and a vintage car show.

 

Enfield in Halifax County was once the largest producer of raw peanuts in the world. Community members organized the first peanut festival in 1937 (the oldest in North Carolina). Enfield’s peanut festival is on the first Saturday of October.

 

Edenton in Chowan County hosts a combination peanut festival and “battle of the bands” as a two-day event this year on Oct. 4-5, complete with a parade and street dance. Local high school marching bands enjoy the friendly competition.

 

As a change of pace from roasted or boiled peanuts, folks are invited to downtown Tarboro in Edgecombe County, to shop at Rusty’s Peanut Brittle. Sample a confection prepared with sugar, corn syrup, peanuts and butter. After the candy hardens and cools, it is broken into pieces and stored in an airtight container that is usually lined with waxed paper.

The owner, Russell “Rusty” Braswell Holderness started his business in 2018, after retiring as president of Rural Equity Corp. Now, his job title is “Chief Nut,” as he uses a 100-year family recipe that his mother, Nancy, perfected.

Customers say: “Rusty’s has a light and crispy, melt-in-your-mouth texture. The signature recipe is made one batch at a time using 100% North Carolina-grown peanuts and just a trace of vanilla. Each batch is hand-measured, handmade and broken by hand into bite-size pieces.”

The company’s mission is: “To make the world a sweeter place – one bag or tin of Rusty’s Peanut Brittle at a time.”