By Brian Sherman

There’s evidence that peanuts were first cultivated in Brazil or Peru 4,700 years ago, spread to Spain and Africa by traders and explorers and eventually to the United States along with the slave trade. The National Peanut Board points out that George Washington Carver, “The Father of the Peanut Industry,” came up with more than 300 uses for the versatile legume – everything from shampoo to shaving cream, glue and chili sauce.

And though both the climate and the sandy soil are ideal for growing peanuts in South Carolina’s Lowcountry, Pee Dee and Midlands regions, it’s been only a few decades since they became a major crop in the Palmetto State, according to Marianne Catalano, marketing specialist with the South Carolina Peanut Board, an organization whose mission is “to increase consumer awareness and consumption of peanuts while creating a positive economic impact for producers.”

“Peanuts really started to boom in our state in the early 2000s,” she said, noting that approximately 350 South Carolina growers planted 68,000 acres that produced 286,000 million pounds of peanuts in 2021.

The Palmetto State now grows 4% of the nation’s peanut crop, trailing only Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Texas, and North Carolina. Catalano said Orangeburg and Calhoun are the most peanut-prolific counties in South Carolina, adding that peanut consumption nationally is at an all-time high of 7.9 pounds per person annually.

Federal legislation – the 2002 Farm Act – lifted the quota on peanut growers and at least partially paved the way for the peanut industry to soar in South Carolina. Gill Rogers, of Rogers Brothers Farm near Hartsville, said he and his two sons have “re-invented ourselves several times.” They got out of the tobacco-growing business in 1987 and started growing cotton, then corn. By 2005, peanuts appeared to be a better use of their 8,600 acres of land.

“A friend was growing peanuts, so we bought some equipment and started growing peanuts,” he explained.

Today, the farm produces around 3,000 tons of peanuts a year on the 4,000 acres suitable for growing peanuts, and another company the Rogers own buys from other growers and ships approximately 15,000 tons annually.

“The climate is perfect and there’s a lot of good land for peanuts,” Rogers said, adding that one reason farmers in many parts of the Pee Dee didn’t grow peanuts before the turn of the century was that there were no shelling facilities in the area.

“You would have to deliver them somewhere. Florence had peanuts way before we did, and Orangeburg had them as well,” he said.

Rogers chose to grow runner-type peanuts, which are smaller but more flavorful than the larger Virginia variety normally sold at ballparks and in the produce section of grocery stores. Catalano said 60% of South Carolina peanuts are of the runner variety, which are used mainly to make peanut butter and candy, while the other 40% are Virginia peanuts. Other varieties – Spanish and Valencia – aren’t grown in the Palmetto State at all.

Catalano explained that the peanut plant is unique in that its flowers grow above the ground, while the fruit is around two inches underground. In the 125 to 150 days from planting to harvesting, the seeds grow into plants approximately 18 inches tall. The self-pollinating plants don’t require help from bees, other insects or the wind, and each of them produces around 40 pods. When they mature, farmers use a tractor and peanut digger to raise, shake and flip the plant over, then the exposed pods dry naturally in the field. Catalano said the drying process is important because when they are harvested, the nuts are 25% to 50% moisture and that for food production, the moisture level must be 10% or less.

Catalano said most farmers plant peanuts in a three-year rotation with corn and cotton.

After the peanuts are harvested, they must be transported to a buying station, usually owned either by a shelling company or growers in the area, where they are inspected and graded based on the size of the pods and kernels, moisture content, damage and the presence of foreign material such as rocks or leaves, then stored until they are transported to a sheller to be processed. The results of the inspection determine each load’s overall quality and value and how much the farmer will be paid for his crop.

Catalano said growers haul their peanuts to one of 13 buying stations in the Pee Dee, Lowcountry and Midlands regions of South Carolina.

Not to take anything away from George Washington Carver’s contributions to the peanut industry, the idea that he invented peanut butter appears to be no more than a myth. According to the National Peanut Board, the origin of the stuff that is known to stick to the roof of your mouth can actually be traced back to the Incas and Aztecs, who developed a way to grind roasted peanuts into a tasty paste. And between 1884 and 1903, during Carver’s lifetime, three others, including Dr. John Harvey Kellogg of cereal fame, patented various methods of making what passed as peanut butter.

Nevertheless, the outlook appears to be bright for the continued success of the peanut industry in South Carolina. Catalano pointed out that Premium Peanut of Douglas, Georgia, is currently developing a shelling facility in Orangeburg County.

“We are excited that Premium Peanut is building a facility in our state,” she commented. “We hope our numbers will grow. It’s all driven by demand.”