Christmas. Twenty years ago, perhaps more. A gift box arrives in the post from Aunt Ruby in North Carolina. Who is Aunt Ruby?
Opening the package, we find two 20-ounce tins of Aunt Ruby’s Country Style Gourmet Peanuts. Uncapping one aluminum lid, the tantalizing aroma of roasted peanuts wafts into the foyer. One taste, and hey, thank you, Cousin Koula Rose Franklin. A holiday treat not forgotten. To this day, that fresh, crunchy taste of Aunt Ruby’s Country Style Gourmet Peanuts remains tantamount to Peanut Heaven on Earth.
“Nutritious and delicious,” proclaims Bob Allsbrook, whose mom was known as Aunt Ruby, a registered nurse who retired and took over the making of the chocolate specialties for Bob’s selections.
Bob launched the family-owned business, A&B Milling Company, after World War II. “We established in 1945 as a feed, seed and fertilizer store serving local farmers, and soon discovered the climate and soil conditions in our area produced superior peanuts. Well, we didn’t lose time evolving A&B Milling into the peanut business. A natural progression with peanut products from North Carolina’s historic Halifax County, one of the largest peanut producing areas in the state.”
Along with the famous Country Style Gourmet Peanuts, Bob and son Robert offer unsalted peanuts, honey roasted peanuts, redskins, roasted cashews, chocolate peanut clusters, peanuts in the shell, etc. They arrange discounts for civic groups, churches, schools to sell the products at fundraisers.
Peanuts aren’t nuts. They’re legumes and do not grow on trees – they grow underground. Nuts are packed with a wallop of protein and vitamins, and are acknowledged as “a high energy food.”
“Aunt Ruby’s are the best quality Virginia style peanuts that are known for their lower fat content and large meaty size,” adds Bob.
To our palate, and we’re not easy to please, they have unsurpassed taste and texture, and create conversational ice-breakers at cocktail parties. Telephone: 1-800-732-6887 (1-800-PEANUTS).
“Sadly, for more than half of my life, I avoided some of nature’s most perfect and healthful foods: nuts and peanuts,” confesses Jane E. Brody in her New York Times medical column, published Tuesdays in the Science Times section, which we read regularly. Jane expounded on the “nutritional powerhouse of nuts – I was mistakenly told as a teenager that nuts were fattening and constipating.
“Based on what I have learned to the contrary from recent studies, I now enjoy them daily as nuts or nut butters in my breakfasts, salads, sanadwiches and snacks.
“A series of large studies … found that the more nuts people consumed, the less likely they were to die at any given age, especially of cancer or heart disease. A clinical study conducted in Spain showed that death rates were lower among those consuming a Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra nuts.”
Her research finds that “adding lots of nuts to one’s diet have a limited effect on body weight … one explanation is the satiation provided by their high fat and protein content, which can reduce snacking on sweets and other carbohydrates. Another is that all the calories in nuts, especially whole nuts, many not be absorbed because they resist breakdown by body enzymes.”
Jane alludes to cardiovascular benefits, the nuts’ rich sources of dietary fiber, antioxidants and phytochemicals. That almonds, Brazil nuts, peanuts and walnuts may actually help prevent constipation, although macadamia nuts and cashews have too much saturated fat.
A perennial fan, the late politico Barry Goldwater considered “shaving with peanut butter, but much as I loved it, did I want to carry that nut smell around with me all day?”
A Paris e-mail from on-the-go PR whiz Yanou Collart invites us to France for her September 15 birthday, which she is celebrating at a premiere concert starring the great chansonier Charles Aznavour, 92, at the Palais des Sport.
Guests will later gather at a giant bouillabaisse party hosted by three-star chef Guy Savoy at his L’Etoile de Mer. Dress code: black is forbidden!
Thank you, Yanou, but the Good Doctor remains concerned about travelling with our “basketball knees” from too much sport in high school and college.
Yanou reports that the latest “entrance exam for medical school” includes this question:
“Rearrange the letters P-N-E-S-I to spell the part of the human body that is most useful when erect.”
Those who spelled SPINE became doctors.
The rest are in Congress.