Planters Nut & Chocolate Co., Suffolk, Virginia

According to Wikipedia:

Obici and his brother-in-law Mario Peruzzi founded Planters Peanut Company (unincorporated) in 1906 and incorporated it as Planters Nut and Chocolate Company in 1908. In 1913, they built a new processing plant in the heart of peanut farming territory in Suffolk, Virginia. Planters owned four factories by 1930. Obici invented a new method of skinning and blanching peanuts so the roasted goobers came out clean.

Well, yes and no. Daddy went to work for Amedeo Obici in 1928 or 1929. And it was he that invented the method of removing the skin from the peanuts, but working for Mr. Obici, he could not get the patent but Planters did. He explained the process to me and indeed, I bet they still use it. Obici sent Daddy and Ted LoCascio to Toronto, Canada to open the Planters Peanut factory there. After Daddy and Mama were married in 1929, they immediately moved to Toronto and remained there until 1945. Hence, I was "Peanut born and Peanut bred and when I die I'll be Peanut Dead!"

Daddy invented several other things for Planters. Well, Mama did one. Planters came out with potato chips one time and the company could not get the chips to stop sticking to one another while being deep fried. Daddy and others worked on it for a good while and one day he came home frustrated about it. He told Mama how they were doing it all and she laughed and told him that they were sticking because they were wet. "Dry them before cooking them." They did and that solved the problem.

I have the original, hand written (in pencil) recipe for the Peanut Candy bar. Daddy kept it in his wallet for years. I wonder if there is any value in it? Probably.

I remember the smell of Thursday mornings (I think it was Thursday) in Suffolk. That was the day they "washed" the oil they used to cook the peanuts. Daddy said that by the time they cleaned it it was basically black but they "washed" it with lye (I believe it was) and then used it again and again. But then there were the days they cooked the peanuts. O Man did it smell good. My brother in law worked for a while at another peanut company in town. Remember the peanut stacks? Remember the Planters water tower that looked over Hall Place? I hear it is gone now.