If you have never had Bertie County Peanuts, you have never had the best peanuts in the world! Peanuts are America's favorite treat and Bertie County Peanuts are the best peanuts that you can buy. Bertie County Peanuts (pronounced bur-tee' ) starts with the "Virginia" type of peanuts favored above all others for snacks. They select the very best of the crop from among the jumbos (which are less than 2% of the crop). They prepare them using a unique eastern Carolina process called blister-fried, improved by special techniques created by a son of a company founder.
The result is the most flavorful, gourmet crispy snack that can be found. The company is very proud of the product. The Bertie name has a proud tradition too, coming from the huge land holding which initially covered six North Carolina counties including Bertie. It was purchased directly from the original Lord Proprietors of Carolina by James and Henry Bertie in 1722.
World Famous Bertie County Peanuts, uniquely "Blister-Fried"
The Carolina-Virginia border region where Bertie County is located is famous for peanuts, being home to Planters, the best known name in peanuts. The region is also famous for the classic Southern hospitality that you usually can't find anymore. The office of the parent farm supply company warehouse just outside Windsor North Carolina is the "country store" where Bertie County Peanuts got it's start. Jack Sr. of Powell and Stokes was a gentleman of the old school who loved peanuts. He developed a special technique for making the best peanuts in the area (one part of his recipe involved cooking them in a popcorn popper which became a part of the local lore).
He took pride in sharing them with the many farmers who came by the office to do business. In rural fashion, Powell and Stokes was a place where people would hang around to discuss news and weather, gossip, share fishing tales, talk baseball and exchange tips on farming. Jack Sr.'s famous Bertie County Peanuts were always there for people to snack on. Dropping by today you find a clean comfortable little slice of American history where this still goes on (including free peanuts to sample), and Bertie County Peanuts has become a booming business of its own.
At the Bertie County Peanuts store in the Powell and Stokes headquarters You Get Typical Southern Hospitality
The whole Bertie County area is incredibly scenic and beautiful. One variety of the peanuts they make with seafood spicing is named after famous Batchelor Bay on the southeastern shore of Bertie County. The Batchelor Bay shoreline is dotted with the Cypress trees that are native to the Carolina inland waterways and rivers around Albemarle Sound and which nearly encircle the Bertie County peninsula. The area is just inland from the famous Outer Banks of North Carolina. Between Batchelor Bay and Salmon Creek is where the new Arnold Palmer designed golf course is being built for a subdivision of expensive homes.
Famous Batchelor Bay
The area also has a long time close relationship with the national sport. Baseball is one reason for the popularity of roasted peanuts and is one more link that makes this product a natural fit for the people and the community. The Edenton Steamers are a college summer league team in the area that won their league championship in 2004. The biggest night of their year is always Bertie County Night.
Take these to the Ball Park!
In the store, a picture of the generations is featured prominently. It is a part of the nature of this still close knit company and its owners. They now include a fourth generation in the business with the recent addition of Jeff, Jack Jr.'s son and the great grandson of founder "Uncle John" Powell.
Historical Picture of Powell and Stokes and Bertie County Peanuts Owners
Powell and Stokes has long been associated with peanuts, even before they started selling their famous peanuts to the public. As peanut wholesalers they knew the business well and how to find the highest quality peanuts to buy.
Powell And Stokes Has A Century Of Peanut Experience
But the question I most wanted to know was, "How do they make them?" Business has gotten so brisk that Bertie County Peanuts recently secured a separate manufacturing facility. It is beside the road that North Carolina's DMV is going to make into Windsor's first Expressway. This seems appropriate, as like Bertie County Peanuts, the plant is a mixture of the traditional and modern. The heart of their process is a special local technique called blister-fried, which creates the incredibly crispy peanut that is their hallmark. Bertie County Peanuts has perfected this technique into a unique product of the highest quality.
Brenda Harrison, Louise Leary and Chris Todd
The peanuts are carefully steamed to a perfect degree and then fried in a secret oil for an exact time necessary to make them perfectly crisp. This is the heart of their quality control which delivers such an amazing taste.
Louise Leary Spreads The Peanuts After Frying
They are then cooled after adding a pinch of salt. After that they are either bottled in special high quality reusable plastic containers, or forwarded on to be coated with candy. Their current varieties include the classic blister-fried, roasted, chocolate, butterscotch, peanut brittle, seafood seasoned (the Batchelor Bay product mentioned above) and Hexalena Hot (named after Hexalena, NC - my home town .... actually that should be home crossroads).
Brenda Harrison Fills Blister Fried Peanuts
What I can't show you here is the "Candy Room". That is one part of the new facility that has too many innovative techniques to share. Jack Powell was polite but firm when he declared this off limits. I was allowed to see it, but "no photographs"!
The "Candy Room" allows them to produce their range of party candy peanuts in small batches and still maintain high quality. Bertie County Peanuts is competing with big corporations and does this by being smart and creative in how they work.
Peanuts Packed, Boxed And Shipping Out To Customers
One of the fascinating aspects of the peanut is its unique characteristics as a plant. The peanut flower blooms above ground, but then droops down and burrows into the ground where the peanut develops and grows. A member of the "pea" family, they are not nuts at all. They are neither grown on trees or a part of the root as rumors often suggest. You can find out more about this unique product at the "About Peanuts" web site.
Young Peanuts Before The Flowers Bloom
No other plant grows as it does and that makes the process of farming it unique as well. This adds an extra step to the harvesting process, as peanuts must first be dug up, before they can be gathered.
Digging The Peanuts Before Separation
After digging, the peanuts must be separated from the rest of the plant. You can see in the picture below the peanuts that have been dug up from beneath the soil where they grow.
Peanuts Ready To Separate
In modern agriculture, this separation step too is a mostly mechanized one.
Separating The Peanuts After Digging
Peanuts are gathered in large trailers, ready to be shipped out. There is loads more information for the curious on any topic of interest for everyone from consumers to growers at the "National Peanut Board" web site. It is just one more example of the great interest about peanuts that exists.
Raw Bulk Peanuts Ready For Processing
One concern that has been overcome is the rumor started by low fat diet companies. However they have recently lost their credibility as new research has proved their concerns false. These companies ignored that peanuts have nothing but unsaturated fat and used to recommend against them. This is now well recognized as a mistake. In actual fact peanuts are an extremely healthy food. The typical opinion of peanut experts is the enthusiasm of George Washington Carver, who was amazed by the plant, and who discovered over 300 uses for the peanut, including peanut butter. Peanut butter is America's most popular kid's food.
One of my favorite web sites is "How Stuff Works", one of the most important sites for research on the Internet. If you go to this site and type "peanuts" in the search window, "Bertie County Peanuts" is the top listing that comes back. After my own "research" trying out all the samples of Bertie County Peanuts, I believe they deserve to be the top listing for everybody.
