East Texan finds niche with roasted peanuts 

By LYNN MONTGOMERY | East Texas Edition

Get Your Peanuts!  Al Jarvis of Lufkin uses restored coffee bean roasters to put a great taste to peanuts. He and wife Darlene travel with the restored equipment to various shows and trades days to sell the freshly-roasted peanuts. -- Staff photo by Montgomery

Nov. 3, 2005 - Go to a carnival, sporting event, and even an antique tractor show, and the smell of fresh roasted peanuts drifts and lingers in the air.  

It was this smell that lead to an exhibit at the Texas Early Day Tractor and Engine Show in Temple.

For 15 years, Al and Darlene Jarvis of Lufkin have been roasting peanuts using a Royal No. 5 Coffee Bean Roaster .... That’s right, a coffee bean roaster.

�You can roast peanuts, coffee beans and even pop popcorn,� Jarvis said about the device.�

During this show, the Jarvises had two coffee bean roasters, along with a 1907 Aermotor and a 1911 Dempster, which are utilized when electricity is not available, stationed on a flatbed trailer. All four pieces of machinery were restored by Jarvis.

To roast the nuts, Jarvis said it takes heat from a propane fire, the length of the roaster, to get the job done.

Roasting the peanuts takes 20 to 25 minutes depending upon the roast. “You can get a light-medium roast or a dark roast, depending on how long you cook.”

To check the roast, Jarvis explained, “Remove the red skin and a lightly-roasted peanut will have a faint tan color to it. A raw peanut will be really, really white.”

The peanuts, which come from New Mexico, are naturally sweet, according to the retired couple. 

�We do this to make extra money� he simply stated. Plus, they have a stand at the monthly First Mondy Trades Days in Canton.

�The one advantage to (selling roasted) peanuts is you don�t have to have a health permit nor charge sales tax. The reason (for no required permit) is you are not touching the product.�

Something that he feels is important in the business is to “display the bags with price so that an individual knows what they are getting.”

Bags of peanuts cost anywhere from $2 to $17 depending upon the size.

The restorer also said he had two more roasters at home for sell. One of which is restored and the other is operational. Their cost is $6,500 each. A new roaster would cost over $11,000.

Restoration is something Jarvis likes doing and he “has other old mechanical things” that he is ready to part with. 

�Everything I do I try to make it nostalgic. Something of a recreation of how they might have done it years ago,� he concluded.

And Jarvis certainly knows the ageless call of “Get Your Peanuts!”