Makin' a mess o' my keyboard...

[DanG]

They're turnin' peanuts, all over the place around here.  All them pore little plants layin' on their backs with their little feet wavin' in the sun.  Then the combines come along and nip the toes off of'em, and the balers follow along to roll their little bodies into the precious "Peanut Hay."  This is boiled peanut time, in the South.  I picked up a bag of'em yesterday, and today I put'em in a stockpot, with some water and Sea Salt, and cooked them on the Coleman stove for a couple of hours. MMMMMMMM, boy! Wish y'all had some. ;D

[Tom]

DanGit Dang I wished I had some too.  I sawed in Two Egg, just north west of you a little and that is peanut country for sure.  I ate so many green peanuts it's a wonder I didn't turn into one.  Man, I wish we had peanut farms over here. The farmers in Two Egg offered to give me some land for a house if I would stay and saw for them. I finally snuck out in the middle of the night one night.  They were treating me too good and I DonT know if I could have stood living over there. What nice folks.

I want some boiled peanuts now.  Look what you've done.  :D

[Bro. Noble]

DanG,

I guess that must be an acquired taste.  My opinion is why ruin them when you could roast them.

I've tried boiled peanuts twice.  The first time I forced myself to finish the small bag my wife purchased for me.  They were cold and slimy and tasted bad.  A friend from the south later told me that boiled peanuts are delicious but they are best still hot.  A couple of years ago we were in the south and passed a boiled peanut stand where you could see the steaming kettles over wood fires.  Bought a little bag.  Ate one.  It was hot and slimy and tasted bad.  Couldn't get anyone else to try them so trashed the rest.

Am I missing something?  Are you supposed to drink a quart of beer first or something?

Noble

[DanG]

Not to worry, Tom.  It ain't but a week-dot-three till Moultrie. I'll toss a sackfull on th' truck fur ya. I'm hoping we can have a week without a Tropical Storm, so they can harvest them properly.  They've been having to rush things too much to produce a top-quality product, so far.  A good, dry week will help a lot.

[DanG]

Noble, there ain't nuthin' wrong with yer taster, just yer timin'.  To be really good, boiled peanuts must be fresh.  Most of the roadside stands sell peanuts that have been frozen, and they take on that slimey, mushy texture.  Now, to those of us who just gotta have boiled peanuts, those are better than nuttin', but they can't hold a light to fresh green peanuts.  They also use ordinary table salt, in most of them. That makes them taste like bug spray.  Sea salt is the way to go. 8) 8)

[Tom]

Your right Noble.  Boiled peanuts are terrible.  They are salty, slimey and taste bad.  It's also rumored that they will give you Arthritis, rheumatism, malaria, Alzheimers, seizures, senility, whooping cough and flat feet.  I've heard tell of folks that aren't accustomed to eating them who die shortly after moving to Florida.  Florida is known for having its citizens succumb to lack of life without their having been here very long.  

It sure helps to keep us poor ole boys fed though.  I don't know what we'd do if it weren't for being able to digest all this grossly unappetizing and unhealthy fair that we can afford. What with the awful heat and humidity down here and having to live in these alligator and insect ridden swamps, it's a wonder we are able make it at all.  I guess it's a good thing that we keep the rest of the nation from suffering  on this poor fare.

I'm looking forward to seeing you DanG.  We'll figure a time and place to meet.

[CHARLIE]

DanG it! Makes me drool DanG. Everytime someone mentions boiled peanuts, I remember Atlanta Journal. That was a little colored boy that would deliver the Atlanta Journal Newspaper in the barracks on the weekends. I don't think anyone knew his real name. We just called him Atlanta Journal. On Saturdays his ma would send him through the barracks selling little bags of boiled peanuts. Everyone liked Atlanta Journal and his mom sure could boil up some fine tasting peanuts too. I often wondered whatever happened to that young man. Wish I knew his name, I'd look him up.

[Bro. Noble]

DanG,

Come to think of it,  Both times I tried boiled peanuts it was in the spring.  I probably won't have a chance to be south this time of year so may have to do my own.  We used to grow goobers in the garden (for roasting purposes----now they are good) had to plant a mothball about every 3' of rwo to keep the moles out. What is sea salt, just boiled down seawater?

I'd like to try these boiled groundnuts (that's what they call them in Argentina) one more time the right way.

Tom,
Does eating boiled peanuts and creepy critters from the ocean cause you to have a greenish cast to your complexion?
Just curious.

Noble

[DanG]

Don't remember ever havin' no "roasted" peanuts, 'cept out of a jar.  We always had'em boiled, when the green ones were available, or "parched" when all you could get were the dried ones. This thing of freezin' them and havin' boiled peanuts, year-round is relatively new.  

When I was in Viet Nam, in '68-'69, my Mom would occasionally send me a Care package. She would always throw in a couple of cans of boiled peanuts, from the grocery store.  Stuff that Mom sent always tasted really good, even if it was from someone else's Mom. Those little cans surely were a boon to the peanut industry, judging by the way the Yankee boys took to them. I was lucky to get 2 or 3 peanuts, by the time it was passed around!

Of course, I was able to aquire a taste for Goose Liver Pate', and Trout Caviar, since one of the guys had an aunt that ran a gourmet food store, in Honolulu.  Ya' reckon if I sent him a sack of peanuts, he would ship me some of that Chestnut spread we used to put on a cracker?

[Tom]

Oh yeah, Noble,  You got it.  All this stuff down here is really bad.  We're just lucky that we've grown up around it.  Our metabolisms can handle it.......kinda.   Lots of those green peanuts'll give you a green caste.  Yep!  I always had a fear that too many folks would show up down here and use up all the resources but, as it turns out, the word is getting out about the unhealthy conditions and most of'em are shipping stuff in from home.  We've even got some good-old-boys selling them bottled water to try and keep them alive.It's a good thing too because I don't think I could handle Motza Balls and stuff like that.  What are Motza's anyway?

[Bro. Noble]

DanG,

We always spread the raw peanuts out in the attic (along with sweet potatoes) and let them dry out.  The sweet potatoes were fixed candied , baked with butter on them or put in pies.  About the first day that was too cold and nasty to play outside,  and my sister and I would start to irritate each other and get on Mom's nerves,  she would offer to help us roast some peanuts.  I hadn't thought about that in years.

we grew some in the garden when our kids were little and roasted them (the goobers, not the kids).  They wern't impressed with them.  Didn't take much to entertain us when we didn't have much.

Noble

[KiwiCharlie]

G'day DanG,

Now here is another example of strange (to me) food.  I have never heard of boiled peanuts, and I think Im a fairly well travelled lad!  ;D  My first thought is, Why? ???  I cant imagine what they must be like.  I love peanuts, but roasted and salted is all Ive ever known.  Are peanuts different when theyre green?
And you guys say Vegemite is strange!! ;)
(Cashews are the best of all though!)
Cheers
Charlie.

[DanG]

Never got a chance to try Motza Balls, Tom.  I went Motza huntin' once, but all I got was a doe.  :D :D

[Bro. Noble]

Tom,

I was trying to get you to post your picture where you have a greenish aura.

I ain't got airy an idee whats Motzas.  Course they would soon become rare if you sold all their------Hey did you ever eat Turkey fries?

Noble

[Tom]

                                                                                                                

No, but I saw some mountain oysters being collected one day.  

[KiwiCharlie]

G'day Tom,

Yay!!  One I know!! Mountain Oysters.  Of course, thats if they are the same thing there and here, so to speak??
Cheers
Charlie

[Tom]

Probably are Kiwi.  Makes me draw up real tight just thinking about'em. :D

[DanG]

KCharlie, I guess we eat'em that way because we can.  It's sorta like grits and corn on the cob. It's the same thing, only different. The result of the two method bear no similarity to one another.  Do you grow peanuts in NZ?  If so, get some green ones, right after they are harvested, put them in a pot with water and salt and boil them, shells and all. You might start a new Kiwi fad.

Noble, I've never had "turkey fries," but an old gal I used to sport around with, kept promising to fix me some Rooster Fries with Poke Salad greens.  Alas, we parted company before she got around to it, so I remain ignorant of these delicacies. :-/

[Bro. Noble]

DanG,

Polk greens are good eatin'.  My wife used to can quarts and quarts of polk greens back in our early years of marriage.

Only had Turkey fries one time-----at a card game.  Really enjoyed the snacks, but learned to never, never play a game called "Little Texas".

Tom,
Farm life isn't always as romantic as one might think.  Cutting calves isn't so bad, but pigs are a different story. They are hard to hold if you don't know how, they are a little more difficult because of their anatomy.  The worst part is that the fluid from around the 'oyster' gets on your hands and the odor stays with you for days.  Come to think of it,  it's a little like removing the nuts from a slimy peanut shell only more so.

Noble

[KiwiCharlie]

G'day Guys,

Yep, theyre the same thing!    Nice analogy Noble!  :D  And boy can pigs squeal, even if your just holding them down.  Seems if they realise they cant move, off goes the siren.
Cheers
Charlie.

[RobK]

A motzah is an unleavened cracker, a traditional Jewish food eaten during "Passover" when they eat only unleavend bread. Motzah balls are made from the crackers crumbled up. Motzahs taste like stale cardboard, in my opinion...  :(

[Tom]

Is that right?  And here I've been sitting out back with a shotgun all night hoping one would walk by.  I figured if I didn't know what is was, it must be a Matzah. :P :D

[Texas Ranger]

NOBLE!  TO MUCH INFORMATION!

[L. Wakefield]

   On the subject of rocky Mountain oysters- I only had one bull cut while living. He wasn't happy. The last one I harvested that particular anatomical part, a friend at work had asked for it/them- so after the bad boy was down, I just took them off, rinsed em, and sacked em up for James (Took em outta one sac, put em into another sac..). He liked em ok. On a 3 year old bull they are HUGE. I butcher wearing nitirile (or the current material) gloves- so can't tell you about any particular odor.

   No other takers for the oysters. James is Native American and his mom used to fry them up for his birthday. I've never tried em myself. I a whole lot rather harvest oysters than tripe. Tripe you truly have to get intimate with the worst of the worst, if you ask me..maybe pickling makes it better, but I can't imagine anything that would cut through that smell..

     lw

[Jeff]

Noble the heck with Don. Lets here some Texass secrets.

[Tom]

My Granddaddy loved tripe, LW.   Grandmomma would fry some for him about 3 or 2 times a year.  Charlie and I couldn't cut it so we put it on our fork and tried to tear a bite off with our teeth.  Then we would chew and chew and chew -----and ----chew -----and -----chew and .......................................

The more we chewed it, the bigger it got.  Finally we would have to take it out of our mouth and try to hide somewhere till we could throw it out.  It tasted ok but I don't think I have ever swallowed a piece. :D

[KiwiCharlie]

G'day Guys,

And there I was thinking Motzas were Motzerella cheese balls!!  Honestly.  I have had Motzerella sticks (yum), so thats probably where the link came from.
Cheers
Charlie

[ADfields]

Good old rockey mountian oysters
When I was a kid I would day work on all the ranches around Prescott Arizona and spring time is branding time.   Now when you are branding you also take the oysters along with giving shots, wormer and stuff.   When it's time for food at a branding you go dig some oysters out of the bucket of water the "cutter" is droping them into and set it ontop of the propain branding iron heeter.    When it splits open it's lunch time!   Stab it with a knife or a sharp stick for a handle and if you have a bit of salt.   The good old days!
Andy