Peanuts, Pecans, and the Peach State Myth

Georgia produces nearly half of all peanuts grown in the United States — more than any other state — and leads the nation in pecans as well, with the area around Albany earning the unofficial title of pecan capital of the world. Peanuts weren't always king: before the Civil War, cotton dominated Georgia's fields. When the boll weevil began destroying cotton crops across the South in the early 1900s, George Washington Carver famously advocated for peanuts as a replacement crop, and Georgia's sandy Coastal Plain soils turned out to be nearly perfect for them. As for the peaches — Georgia has carried the nickname "the Peach State" since the 1800s, but it actually ranks third in peach production today, behind California and South Carolina. The peach itself isn't even native to the Americas; Spanish Jesuits brought it from China in the 1500s, and Native Americans spread it so widely across the Southeast that early European settlers assumed it had always grown there.