National Peanut Month

Texnik / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)

March is National Peanut Month in the United States.

The peanut, also known as the groundnut and the monkey nut, is, like so many things with "nut" in the name, not a nut in the botanical sense, only the culinary one. Peanuts are actually a type of legume. Peanuts are high in oil and are also classed as an oil crop. Peanuts, of the wild type, have probably been eaten for over 8,000 years, as evidence stretches back 7,600 years and they have probably been eaten for longer.

Peanuts have many different uses. They are a popular snack food, are made into peanut butter, peanut oil and peanut flour. They are a staple of the cuisine of many different countries. Nutritionally, peanuts are rich in essential nutrients of many different types. They are also high in calories, and some of their nutritional value is rendered less relevant when used in snack foods, as such tend to also contain less healthy materials.

National Peanut Day

September 13th is National Peanut Day in the United States.

Peanuts, which are also known as groundnuts, despite their name and how they are commonly referred to, are not nuts. Instead, they are a type of legume or bean. The fruit of the peanut, rather unusually, grows under the ground.

The plant from which peanuts are harvested, which is known by the same name, has been domesticated for at least 7,000 years in South America. Since then, peanuts first spread across the Americas, before being transported around the rest of the world by European traders, with the largest harvest being grown in the People's Republic of China.

Peanuts are a popular snack food in many countries, where they are eaten boiled, dry roasted and salted, as well as an ingredient in cooking and many other dishes. Some uses for peanuts other than as snacks include in peanut oil and peanut butter. As a culinary ingredient, they are used in many different dish types, both sweet and savoury. In the United States in particular, peanuts and peanut butter are common ingredients in many sweet dishes. including cakes and cookies.

Peanuts are a good and rich source of many nutrients, but on the downside, peanut allergy (which isn't truly a nut allergy, because peanuts aren't a nut) is common and potentially fatal.