Famed mural artist Charlie Johnston created “The Peanut Farmer”, one of the largest murals in the United States. It’s nearly 100 feet tall and covers virtually all 26,700 square feet of the Birdsong Peanut Company’s Colquitt silos. It’s one of numerous excellent murals in this friendly farming town.
Vanishing Georgia: Photographs by Brian Brown 
I would love to know how long it took the artist Johnson and how much he was paid.
I’ve seen it several times & am amazed every single time!!!
Brian,
I haven’t seen this mural but it must be something. One day I hope to visit and enjoy it. Peanuts have a special place in Southern history and Georgia especially. This wonderful crop has sustained many a small farmer before it became a dominant Georgia crop. My Daddy always planted a few rows of the special nut for family consumption. At the time we kids were growing-up, Jeff Davis County was tobacco territory, not peanut. Today cotton and peanuts are king and tobacco has lost its luster as a cash crop.
Anyway, I recall well the family plots of the cherished “Goober Peas”. We planted them in red soil with small pebbles for best results, and worked them well, always making sure that we covered them with Land Plaster. When harvest time came, we hooked a tobacco sled to the tractor or a mule and went to the field in a group. To make the peanuts pull-up easier, we stomped on the spreading plant and then pulled the plant from the ground. When the vines were examined they would be covered with plump delicious “Ground Nuts.” To our delight, we packed as many plants into the ‘backer sled as possible, and then headed to a barn shelter or large shade tree where we sat a spell picking the small nuts from the vines.
Most nut “picker-offers” usually ate as they picked and by the time we had removed all the peanuts, we had bulging happy bellies. Since all the kids helped with this process, the afternoon would go well. After washing them in a big tub, we boiled them in a large pressure cooker. Some people cooked them in the yard in a black cast iron washing pot. If your family was lucky and had a freezer, most of the peanuts were frozen, so they could be used at a later time. If no freezer was available, they were eaten as soon as possible.
In the days around mid-twentieth century, boiled peanuts were used as the favored food at outdoor families’ and friends’ parties. They were sold at tobacco auctions, hawked at fairs, and other public gatherings. Livestock markets were always good places to purchase a bag of good boiled green peanuts in season. In the early 1950’s, one could buy a small brown paper bag full of peanuts for a dime.
I was in Colquitt Ga this week and saw this mural painted on the water tower. I was AMAZED!!! I had to look it up when I got home. It really took my breath away. Awesome detail. I am in the printing and publishing business and I have never seen this type of resolution on something this large. Thanks! it is truly amazing and I hope to see more of your work.