“Sitting by the road side on a summer day,
Chatting with my mess mates passing time away,
Lying in the shadow un-der-neath the trees,
Good-ness how de-lic-ious, eating goober peas!”
Through the years, I've heard this verse many times, never realizing that goober peas were peanuts. Being my curious self, I wondered where the nickname of goober peas came from and began searching for the answer. All I could find was that goober meant silly or goofy and peas and peanuts belong to the same family.
Peanuts were first grown by South American Indians; however, today, they are grown all over the world. In the 1500's, Spanish and Portuguese explorers shipped peanuts to Asia, Europe and Africa. The peanut is not a true nut but a pea belonging to a group of plants known as legumes. There are more than 10,000 varieties of legumes, including peas, beans, red clover and alfalfa. Legumes are flowering plants that bear seeds in pods, with round growths on their roots called nodules. The tiny plants that live in these nodules help legumes by making nutrients similar to fertilizer. However, peanuts use large quantities of other nutrients from the soil; therefore, one crop of peanuts seldom follows another in the same field. Experts recommend that peanuts should only be planted in the same soil every three or four years. While a walnut grows in a thick hard shell, a peanut grows in a pod similar to a bean. Peanuts are shoots from the flowers that blossom above ground and then grow downward into the soil to produce the peanut below ground. So, when eating a peanut, you are actually eating the seed of the peanut plant.
"When a horse pass-es, the soldiers have a rule,
To cry out at their loud-est "Mis-ter here's your mule
But an-oth-er pleasure en-chant-ing er than these,
Is wearing out your grinders, eating goober peas!”
In early America, very few people liked peanuts. This changed during the Civil War when soldiers of both sides ate the peanuts, which they called goober peas. At times, goober peas were all the southern soldiers had to eat. They were easily carried by the soldiers and could be eaten either raw, roasted or boiled in water. The Northern soldiers packed peanuts in their bags to take with them when they returned home.
Peanuts contain as much as 50% oil. This peanut oil was used by southern railroaders to lubricate their locomotives, and the southern women cooked with peanut oil. Peanuts were still a minor crop in the south until 1905 when the boll weevil invaded the cotton crops. Many southern farmers were forced to leave their farms. Then, an American scientist by the name of George Washington Carver persuaded many of these farmers to switch to planting peanuts instead of cotton. Today, peanuts are the tenth most valuable crop produced in America. Although George Washington Carver was the father of the peanut industry, he did not invent peanut butter. It was invented in 1890 by a doctor, from St. Louis, Missouri, for his elderly patients. The peanut butter was easier to digest and contained almost as much protein as meat.
“Just before the battle the general heard a row,
He says, "The yanks are coming, I hear their rifles now"
He turns around in wonder, and what do you think he sees,
The Georgia Militia, eating goober peas!”
The peanut came to the United States from Africa when African slave dealers sent peanuts along on the slave ships for food on the long Atlantic crossings. Peanuts were a perfect food because they didn't spoil. Those peanuts not consumed on the long voyage across the ocean were planted.
“I think my song has lasted almost long enough,
The subject's interesting, but rhymes are mighty rough,
I wish this war was over when free from rags and fleas,
We'd kiss our wives and sweethearts and gobble goober peas!”
In 1977, peanuts reached a new height when Jimmy Carter became the thirty-ninth president of the United States. Former President Carter had been a peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia; Carter’s friends, who helped in his Presidential Campaign, were nicknamed the peanut brigade.
“Peas! Peas! Peas! Peas!
Eat-ing goo-ber peas!
Goodness how de-li-cious, eating goober peas!”
When finally published in 1866 the composer of Goober Peas was listed as P. Nutty, Esq. and lyricist as A. Pender, Esq.