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The last Saturday of each October, the Brundidge Historical Society brings the little peanut to the forefront when the town hosts the annual Peanut Butter Festival and spreads the word about peanut butter.

The Peanut Butter Festival gets off to an early start today with the 5K Peanut Butter Run at 8 a.m. and, on grounds of the historic Bass House, there will be nonstop entertainment, arts and crafts, games. festival foods and the Nutter Butter Parade at 1 p.m.  Admission is free.

People often ask, what does Brundidge have to do with peanut butter?

The answer is simple.

In 1928, J.D.  Johnston began making peanut butter with a crude machine on what was Little Wall Street in Brundidge. Johnston’s idea was that  the sweet-tasting food stuff would catch on and he was right.

The Johnston Peanut Butter Mill was soon churning out more than two million jars of peanut butter a year.

Two years later, the Johnson brothers, Grady and Oscar, opened the Louis-Anne Peanut Butter Mill on the south end of town and their mill was equally successful.

The peanut butter mills helped sustain the small town of Brundidge during the Great Depression by providing  jobs and a steady income for the townspeople, as well as providing an affordable and tasty protein for it citizens.

The two peanut butter mills enjoyed success until the larger mills muscled them out of  business  in the late 1950s. However, peanuts continued to be a major money crop in Pike County and peanut butter continues as a popular foodstuff in all states.