The peanut is possibly one of the most misunderstood vegetables cultivated.

It's neither a pea nor a nut – but it's a lot closer to being the former. A member of the bean family (which includes peas), the peanut is often disparaged and the butt of many jokes. "Living on peanut butter sandwiches" is often associated with extreme poverty (after all, commercial peanut butter is cheap, though better, organic brands will cost you a buck or two more). But the fact is (at least for those of us who don't suffer from potentially lethal peanut allergies), peanuts represent an amazing source of nutrition – and more.

A popular misconception is that 19th-Century African-American scientist George Washington Carver invented the peanut. He didn't, although he did find many interesting uses for it. Peanuts go back a long way in agricultural history – over 7,600 years, in fact. It was the indigenous peoples of Peru (not the Incas nor even the Moche – this was several millennia before those peoples emerged) who started cultivating the early ancestor of the modern peanut, which apparently is a hybrid of a couple of herbaceous wild beans (which is known as the Faboidae family).  Cultivation of peanuts spread northward into Mexico, where early Spanish conquistadores found them being peddled on the streets of Tenochtitlan (present-day Mexico City).

The rest, as they say, is history...

Peanut cultivation is normally associated with the American South, where it has been called the "goober" among other unflattering names. However, the U.S. produces only a small fraction of the world's peanuts. The largest producer by far is (ready for this?) China, where the peanut harvest runs over 14 million metric tons a year. India is a distant second, at just over 6 million tons, while the USA comes in third at around 2.3 million tons.

Here's something else I'll bet not many people know: there are a half-dozen types of peanut grown around the world, and dozens more cultivars within these groupings. Most of the peanuts grown in the US today are of the Spanish type. These seeds tend to be smaller, but have a higher oil content. Over the past seventy years however, more farmers in the South have been turning to the "Runners," which taste and roast up better. Virginia peanuts are also growing in popularity because of the large seed.

When it comes to food, peanut butter and candies like peanut brittle are only the beginning. Peanuts are a popular ingredient in Chinese and South Asian cuisine; they're the main ingredient in the popular dish known as pad thai (if you've never tried this concoction, you've missed on one of Thailand's major contribution to the world). Another unique savory dish is known as "African peanut soup," a hearty stew made with peanut butter, chicken, onions, tomatoes and various spices.

Mainly however, peanuts are a nutritional powerhouse, providing more "bang for the buck" than many other foods. Chock-full of vitamin E various minerals and healthy unsaturated fats, they are also 25% protein – the highest of any member of the bean family.

Next week, I'll tell you about some of the industrial and manufacturing uses for this little gem.