That’s a little more understandable. Peas grow on vines, so you’d expect peanuts to be somehow similar to peas. I guess they get their name because they’re in pods like peas but without being told, how would someone guess they grow underground?
And cashews do grow on trees (they’re technically a fruit) and are similar to peanuts. Would anyone guess that cashews are fruits?
I guess they get their name because they’re in pods like peas but without being told
Presumably the opposite; they get their name because they’re in shells like nuts
(The ‘pea’ part is because they’re a legume; it could have just as easily ended up ‘bean-nut’, except that would over time become ‘beanut’, which would probably re-become peanut)
Yes, okay, guessing the origin from the name can be somewhat misleading. But the striking thing for me is that people do not know and do not bother to ask themselves where a product that they consume every day or every week comes from. That’s ignorance.
Why is it important to know these things? I’d rather people be ignorant of the biology of a peanut plant than ignorant of the many important things that people are ignorant of.
I consider it important that if I am consuming a produce regularly to know what exactly I’m eating, what it is made from and where does it come from. Because the stuff I’m eating becomes a part of me. And also because I am regularly spending money for that so I will inform myself about the details of a product.
It’s not about those peanuts, that’s part of understanding one’s own life and the contexts of life in which one is involved. And I think it is a problem that many people are consumers who are very alienated from these life contexts and no longer understand how they are actually connected to the world. That’s one reason why illusions can thrive.
Delicacy is putting a horrible misnomer on those things. They aren’t bad, but fuck do they spill easily when your partner decides to take a sharp turn out of the gas station lot.
Yes yes! I grew up on road trips north and back and we used to just stop whenever we saw them. Had a favorite stop we didn’t know the name of we called ‘boiled peanuts guy’ and his were the best!
I just had raw peanuts for the first time this week and the taste was intriguing. It really brings home how they are “legumes” when they taste more like peas than peanut butter.
Reminds me about the fact that a roughly equal proportion of the population does not know that peanuts, just like potatoes, grow underground.
Ok. But I would say not knowing potato chips are made of potato is slightly worse.
I wonder what people guess what french fries are made from…
Freedom.
Not even French people. They just would have no idea, regardless of the seemingly obvious context clues
It’s the Flemish but the French make them
TIL I thought they were like beans hanging in the air.
That’s a little more understandable. Peas grow on vines, so you’d expect peanuts to be somehow similar to peas. I guess they get their name because they’re in pods like peas but without being told, how would someone guess they grow underground?
And cashews do grow on trees (they’re technically a fruit) and are similar to peanuts. Would anyone guess that cashews are fruits?
They’re legumes that grow underground and trigger nut allergies. They are the platypus of the plant world.
I don’t know why I remember this, but there was also a Spongebob episode that showed a potted peanut plant with peanuts growing on it like peas do.
How dare you question the scientific accuracy of Spongebob Squarepants!
Presumably the opposite; they get their name because they’re in shells like nuts
(The ‘pea’ part is because they’re a legume; it could have just as easily ended up ‘bean-nut’, except that would over time become ‘beanut’, which would probably re-become peanut)
Peas were named after peanuts?
Yes, okay, guessing the origin from the name can be somewhat misleading. But the striking thing for me is that people do not know and do not bother to ask themselves where a product that they consume every day or every week comes from. That’s ignorance.
Why is it important to know these things? I’d rather people be ignorant of the biology of a peanut plant than ignorant of the many important things that people are ignorant of.
I consider it important that if I am consuming a produce regularly to know what exactly I’m eating, what it is made from and where does it come from. Because the stuff I’m eating becomes a part of me. And also because I am regularly spending money for that so I will inform myself about the details of a product.
It’s not about those peanuts, that’s part of understanding one’s own life and the contexts of life in which one is involved. And I think it is a problem that many people are consumers who are very alienated from these life contexts and no longer understand how they are actually connected to the world. That’s one reason why illusions can thrive.
They’re also called ground nuts for this reason! Boil a potato and nobody bats an eye… Boil a peanut and everyone loses their mind.
Hot boiled peanuts are a delicacy served at gas stations all over the southern US! (Also they are legumes, like peas, not nuts.)
Delicacy is putting a horrible misnomer on those things. They aren’t bad, but fuck do they spill easily when your partner decides to take a sharp turn out of the gas station lot.
It’s also very easy to find absolutely disgusting boiled peanuts
Yes yes! I grew up on road trips north and back and we used to just stop whenever we saw them. Had a favorite stop we didn’t know the name of we called ‘boiled peanuts guy’ and his were the best!
TBH, until just now I hadn’t given much thought to how peanuts are grown. 🤔
I just had raw peanuts for the first time this week and the taste was intriguing. It really brings home how they are “legumes” when they taste more like peas than peanut butter.
In German language they are called ‘Erdnüsse’ (Ground Nuts), so it is more obvious where they grow.
But since the climate doesn’t (yet) allow to grow them here, maybe many people don’t know much about their origins either.
That’s fun, reminds me of how French calls potatoes “apples of the earth” (pommes de terre.)
And the tomato, in Italian, is called “pomodoro”, literally “golden apple”.
In German, potatoes are also called ‘Erdäpfel’ although that is considered as outdated and somewhat funny.
In Baden, I sometimes even hear them called Grumbeere
Oh, that I never heard. But I always lived in the North.