Page 39 - Discover Fall 2021
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drives, but in this case, the BUMMs causing them to collapse. It was clear
were interested in coming up with a that a new solution was needed.
novel fund-raising idea.
With the support of the church
Twenty-two years ago, a member and numerous volunteers, a separate
who had just relocated to the lake building was erected behind the
from North Carolina described church. The one-thousand square
a peanut project that his former foot structure soon became known
church had used with success. The as the “Nut House”, and it boasts
idea was greeted with immediate ample space to store thousands of
approval, and they went to work. empty jars, over a ton of raw peanuts,
They scraped together the necessary two double cookers, jugs of peanut
funds to acquire oil, a commercial
a cooker, a few washer, and racks
hundred pounds to hold dozens of
of raw peanuts, cases of finished
and a few product.
hundred cases
The operation
of empty jars.
grew to the point
The group went
of taking delivery
to work in the
of 6 to 8 pallets
church’s kitchen,
of jars at a time,
roasting, flavoring
and more than a ton of peanuts.
and packaging the product.
Sales continued to be brisk, and in
Sales boomed, exceeding all very short order, the BUMMs were
expectations. This put a kink in able to reimburse the church for the
the project, because it was literally cost of the building.
taking over the church’s kitchen,
In the normal course of operation,
much to the chagrin of the church’s
a team of cookers will devote four
regular kitchen staff. Equipment,
hours to roasting, flavoring, and
supplies, and the finished product
packaging at least 55 cases of
took up every square inch of
vacuum sealed jars of peanuts. This
available space. Finally, push came
process is repeated every two or three
to shove when a number of cases of
weeks, but from October through
ready-to-sell peanuts were stored
atop an entire row of cabinets,
www.discoversmithmountainlake.com 37
