Ray seemed to be developing a bit of a “thing” for needing to visit Kingaroy, the Peanut Capital of Australia.

He has taken to shelling his own nuts at night (peanuts) as I shell mixed nuts with a nutcracker. Delicious! We make quite a mess between us with bits of shell flying everywhere throughout the caravan. He planned for us to visit there today and we prepared ourselves for the 2.5 hour journey (one way). On the way we drove through Blackbutt. We all checked our skimpies but Caleb was the only one wearing black underwear so he got to be in the photo that we just had to take. We just couldn’t pass up this photo opportunity and I bet may thousands of others haven’t either. 

As we drew closer we stopped for lunch at Nanango which is the 4th oldest town in Queensland. Ray had seen a sign further back advertising the Nut Cart. We pulled up at a red painted caravan selling the most amazing varieties of flavored peanuts. The lady selling them gave us a lesson on peanut growth and production and told us some things to look out for along the way into Kingaroy. We never knew there was so much involved in the agriculture of peanuts. Peanuts aren’t actually nuts, they are a type of legume. They grow on self pollinating bushes and the nuts grow underground unlike other nuts which grow on trees. 
I explained to the lady that while I liked all other nuts, peanuts just tasted “not right” to me. She explained that because peanuts have a very high oil content, often the oil becomes rancid and changes the taste and very discerning eaters can pick the taste difference. ( !) For this reason growers have created a peanut with less saturated fats and more “healthy” fats like the omegas. Clever! I did taste one but still didn’t like it. 
On our way into Kingaroy we noticed the most delicious smell and it continued throughout the town. It was the smell of roasting nuts and we assumed it was coming from the silos at the top of the town. It reminded me of the smell in Myer in the City when as a child mum and dad would buy a few hot salted cashews to share.

• 

• 

• 

We visited the Kingaroy tourist information centre which had a museum of peanut and navy bean production attached. We had a wander through and found out that navy beans are the type of bean used for baked beans. This area is the biggest region for growing them also and most are exported to canneries in Victoria for production. 
We followed one of the tourist drives out to “Bethany” which is the homestead that Sir Jo Bjielke Peterson lived on for 42 years. There are interesting remnants of his time as Premier around the town. The church had a well known saying of his advertising their weekly service. 

On the way out of town we spotted another Nut Van and pulled over to look at their varieties. They literally had dozens but I must admit that the most appealing to me were the ones covered in chocolate. Ray bought a kilo of his favourite and a jar of peanut paste. It’s like peanut butter but has only peanuts as its one and only ingredient. 
The drive home was long but we were glad we had taken the time to explore the region and we had a huge selection of the local delicacies to keep us company on the trek home!