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Saturday, October 24, 2009

SC's Official State Snack Food

Boiled Peanuts
Peas! Peas! Peas! Peas! Eating goober peas! Goodness how delicious, eating goober peas!
- from the song "Goober Peas" - written in 1866 with words by A. Pindar and music by P. Nutt

One of my favorite treats this time of the year is boiled peanuts. Like grits and sweet tea, they are a true southern snack. In fact in 2006, boiled peanuts became the official state snack. Wonder what took them so long to figure that out?
The best boiled peanut comes from green (raw) peanuts which are harvested around September, October and November. So many times the boiled peanuts sold at football games, flea markets, produce stands or roadside stores are made from dry peanuts. They do not come close to the ones made from green peanuts. And the bigger the peanut, the better.
So when Aunt Eloise called, said she had picked some peanuts, and do we want some, we made a short road trip to the lower part of SC.
Cope SC Cope SC

The peanuts she had picked for us were HUGE. As big as my husband's fingers. Oh, the excitement. Instant drooling.
Jumbo Peanuts
It didn't take long after we arrived back home that the pressure cooker was jiggling and we were sampling a pot of boiled goobers.
Boiled Peanuts
Please pass me a napkin. My fingers are dripping wet from the brine.

4 comments:

Memaw's memories said...

They look great. I've never had boiled peanuts. We used to roast them in the oven and they were good.

Amy J in SC said...

I do like some boiled peanuts. My husband, from NC, had never had them before when we got married, which I thought was the oddest thing being that he was just from NC but now he devours them too, as well as my kids.

manne said...

Since I live in Norway I got a kick from reading the road sign in your post...and now I have to google to find out WHY it is there... I guess it has something to do with all the scandinavians emmigrating all those years ago.

Theresa said...

Heavens, I'm hungry now. I love me some boiled peanuts!