Although I am not from the South, my father was born and raised in Mississippi –truly a Southern gentleman. When it came time for me to go to college, I chose to go to Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi. I married and had my first two children in that city.
Everyone knew the old Black man who walked the streets of Jackson calling out, “Goobers! Get your fresh goobers!” That’s the name people in the South give to peanuts - “goobers” - and that’s what I had grown up calling them, too.
But that isn’t my earliest memory of “goobers.” As a child, anytime we went to visit my father’s family in Mississippi, we had goobers. I remember my Grandpa Jones pulling them up out in his front yard and hanging them somewhere to dry. I learned to love peanuts in all ways – raw, boiled, salted in the shell, roasted.
One of the first things to go in my new patio was a section for fresh peanuts. Above you can see the sweet little plants as they were starting to grow.
Here is a picture of the first crop out of the ground.
And of course, who hasn’t heard about George Washington Carver and his many ways of using peanuts?
Such a delicious and versatile legume!
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1 comment:
Oh, my! Do I ever love boiled peanuts. I never thought to try to grow them myself, and I think I'll save my little spot for beans. But I can't wait to see how yours do.
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