Smoky Mountains: Saying goodbye

One quart of boiled peanuts, coming up!

Two weeks ago today husband Walter and I were saying goodbye to the Smoky Mountains. We toasted, figuratively speaking, the fun we had on our mountain getaway by consuming a quart of hot (temperature, not pepper), salty boiled peanuts. Getting a bag of boiled peanuts is one of the dozens of things always on our to do list when we go to the Smokies.

Nuts are no longer on Walter’s menu, and I am supposed to limit salt, so we rarely eat this Southern snack except during our Smoky Mountain trips. Our favorite peanut stop through the years has been a produce stand in Cherokee, NC. It was still closed for the winter season when we passed through. On our way home the day before Easter, the produce stand was open, but our early morning appetite sent us for hot tea and a latte at Tribal Grounds coffee shop instead.

Plan B was boiled peanuts from Jaemor Farm Market on Highway 365 North between Gainesville, GA, and Habersham County. We like to browse this produce market if we hit North Georgia during business hours.

A colorful welcome

Along the front of the market building, cheerful flowering plants for sale welcomed visitors. Fruit trees, including abundant blueberry bushes, were receiving avid attention from customers.

Veggies beckon.

Inside, the vegetables were colorful, plentiful, and attractively displayed. Even in winter Jaemor has a festive air about it. We were in the vicinity during the market’s business hours coming and going this trip. During our first stop, my cruise through the aisles yielded a bonus encounter. A gentleman was sitting surrounded by crates of apples and the glorious scent of freshly peeled apples. He was whirling the handle of an apparatus that peeled, cored and sliced the apples. “They are for drying,” he responded to my curiosity. He tilted his head toward a large collection of stainless steel dryers. “We dry our own apples.” One more home-grown delight at Jaemor Farm Market.

We are back at home, but I still have one question that I wish I had asked: Where did the name Jaemor come from? Now, excuse me while I go munch on a Granny Smith apple, one of the varieties grown at Jaemor.