The roadside stands are open throughout the South and include the traditional offer of boiled peanuts. It’s a southern thing! The raw nuts are boiled in the shell in salty water for several hours, sometimes over an outdoor fire. They must be green, which means raw and not the actual color. The fresh nuts to be boiled are usually available from May through November.
The peanut, which originated in Brazil and Peru, was an important source of high protein eaten during the Civil War, and legend holds that the salty boiling helped kill bacteria and preserve the food which could be carried for days in the Confederate soldiers’ packs.
Today, we wouldn’t want to carry the boiled peanuts around too long, as they are tastiest if eaten while warm and fresh. They can be refrigerated, frozen or canned, and sometimes the canned variety is found in grocery stores, but they’re never as good as they are at a roadside stand driving along our rural or coastal routes.
The song “Goober Peas” was written in 1866 referring to the delicious peanut snack while sitting alongside the road. They usually are eaten outdoors, as the eating might be a bit messy and the shells are dropped for the birds to gather.
You will love them…or maybe hate them. There’s no middle ground with a bag of boiled peanuts. Watch for the fresh boiled nuts as you traverse the highways, and let us know what you think!