Big Blend Radio

January is Healthy and Delicious at The Peanut Patch

Get a Taste of January and Celebrate National Staying Healthy Month, Veganuary, Hot Tea Month, Hot Soup Month, and more with this episode of "The Peanut Patch," a Big Blend Radio foodie podcast featuring Donna George.

Open NOW from October-April and located in Yuma, Arizona, The Peanut Patch is a southwest tradition for farm fresh peanuts, nuts and dried fruit, locally grown Royal Medjool Dates, culinary gifts, and sweet treats including homemade fudge and peanut brittle. Shop online year-round and learn more at https://thepeanutpatch.com/

Check out Donna's recipes that include all kinds of delicious favorites from peanut butter cookies to sensational salads: https://blendradioandtv.com/listing-category/donna-george/

The Peanut Patch podcast airs every 1st Friday at 12pm Arizona Time. Listen to episodes and follow the show here: https://peanut-patch.podbean.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duration:: 20m
Broadcast on:: 03 Jan 2025
Audio Format:: other

Welcome to the Peanut Patch, Big Blend Radio's foodie podcast featuring Donna George, owner of the Peanut Patch in Yuma, Arizona. It's a new year. It is 2025 and we're going to talk about eating healthy, but we're also going to talk about candy. That's right, everybody. Welcome to the Peanut Patch with Donna George over at the Peanut Patch in Yuma, Arizona. It is open as always through October, all the way through April, and you can go to thepeanutpatch.com. If you can't visit in person, but I highly recommend that you do visit because in January and February, you can go on a tour and learn all about the peanut farming history of Yuma and other agricultural fun facts while you're there. And you get to go behind the scenes and see how Peanut Fiddle is made there, and you're not allowed to touch it, though. That's what I learned. So welcome back, Donna. Happy New Year. How are you? Happy New Year. I'm great. Can't believe we're already into 2025, but we're younger and wiser, younger and wiser. That's right. You know why? Because we do eat healthy, you eat peanuts and that's healthy. All right. Good way of protein. And you know, one day, I hope you do peanut oil for us to buy because that is one of the best oils that are one of the most healthiest oils that you can use in cooking instead of canola oil. It's a light, light oil. Do you think you'd ever do that at some point? I don't know how hard it is to get, but it's not off the table, I guess. I know. I'm just putting in my request on air, right? That's normal. I'm putting in a request for peanut oil because it is so good to cook with and it's so good to cook with peanuts. As always, we have the link for Donna's recipes in the episode notes because today we're talking healthy food, but like I said, candy. You know, this is the time where everyone's going, okay, we had a good fall and holiday season and it's time to get back on the treadmill. It is actually International Veganuary Month. I'm not going to try and say that again. So we're going to call it Vegan Month where we're looking at everything being plant-based. It's also National Staying Healthy Month. It is Apple and Apricot's Month, Artichoke and Asparagus Month. It is National Soup Month. It's Healthy Food Family FIT Lifestyle Month. It is taught team month and for all of us that need a break from that, it's also National Candy Month. I'm just saying, but Donna, you have sugar-free candy, right? So we can balance it up. See? You can. Yeah. And, oh, sugar-free fudge as well. Oh, the fudge too? Okay. Now we're talking. Now we're talking. Now we're talking, right? Mm-hmm. But if we want to delve into the other side, we can't. Dr. Jackie's on our shows is a cardiologist says we're allowed to have a little naughty all the time, but not over-indulge. Everything in moderation. And if you do go on a pig out, as I call them, and many of us do, just don't do it the second day, or the third or the fourth or the fifth. You know, you're like one pig out of mud or something, but don't do it often. But if you were naughty over the holidays and enjoyed yourself, well, good. You know, life is good. You're supposed to have fun. But let's talk about health and fitness. Peanuts. I mean, that's what I was talking about, the oil. I know cooking with it, it's a good oil, especially if you're cooking high, like really intense heat, right? And doing things like French fries, which we shouldn't probably be talking about. And I think a lot of people are into air fryers now then too, huh? And so doing that. Yeah, which is doing that well. Yeah. So, but yes, peanut oil has a very high burn tolerance. Okay. Okay. That's like 450 degrees or something like that. It's really hot before it starts to burn where other oils will burn at a lower rate, at a lower heat level. So that's good, you know, quality of it. So let's talk a little bit about peanuts because you've got medull dates too, which are really healthy. That's a healthy sweetness, the medull dates, right? It's got sugars, but it's natural sugar. It's better than eating a regular candy bar and you could chop them up and put them in salads too, which is good. Oh, you could. You could chop them up and put them in your oatmeal for breakfast. Add a little, add that as you're sweet instead of putting sugar in your oatmeal, just put some. And you know what? We carry apricots, dried apricots as well, and those are awesome too. You could chop those up and put them in, you know, a salad or oatmeal or, you know, lots of different things like that. And you've got apples too, dried apples. We do. We have the apple rings and I love those things because of the texture of them. They're really cool. To me, that's the thing too, is like making a trail mix too, and I see a lot of people go get the ingredients and then they're making their own granolas or trail mix and even crackers this way. You watch TikTok, it's like a sanity of what people are doing. It's great. It's exciting, but you can make your own kind of crackers from these kinds of things so you can get your peanuts and sesame seeds and things. You have all that kind of thing, right? You have all those different nuts and seeds. So we do. That's kind of for me. I'm allergic to tree nuts apparently now, which really is a horrible thing. So I, my peanuts are my lifeline. There is no road trip that I go on without any form of peanuts or peanut butter. That is my sustenance. It's like this, it just keeps you going and it's healthy and I know I'm doing okay, right? Yeah, exactly. And it's got a lot of energy because it lasts, you know, it's not, you're not going to be hungry in 10 minutes after you have peanut butter, peanut butter and jelly sandwich with, you know, the old staple. I like the old staple. But I want my trail mix like with, I would like some raisins, but I would like to add the apricots and the, you know, the apple rings and things like that and chop them up and put them in. I want to make my own, you know what I mean? I want to make my own one. Exactly. Banana chips, even, you know, throw a few banana chips from there. Those are always good to add. And then you're getting some more potassium and stuff. And dates, chop up some dates and put them in. Yeah. Or buy the ones that are already chopped up and ready to go. Oh, you have them chopped up, which is a good thing because dates are pretty tough. Yeah, they're tough. This is also a really good time for Numa Arizona. So if you're out in Southern Arizona, you know, the weather is perfect for hiking. It's gorgeous. It's a wonderful time of year going into February and March to hike and go do those passes, those mountain cliffs like telegraph passes, what you have out in Numa. If you want to go hike up there, people go boating even now. I know they do it in the summer, but still in the winter, it is still beautiful and sunny in Numa to get out on the trail. So these are kind of the snacks you may want to take with you. But yeah, you know, trail mixes and things like that. I still want a little chocolate and we're allowed to have a little chocolate, but you have no like sugar free chocolate goodies that we can take with us. Oh, we do. Oh, definitely. I like it. And I like it. Yeah. And everything we're talking about is vegan. I know. Here we go, right? I'm like, can I have some now? You got pistachios. You got pistachios. We do. And they're really good. And we have like garlic flavored and chili flavored besides just regular. Oh, you have to tell me that chili flavored. Really? Yeah. Oh, yeah, I did. I'm excited. I'm excited. Now National Candy Month, everybody, you can get your naudies there because you've got the nostalgic candy. You got how many kinds of candies do you think you carry at the peanut batch? I know you've got this list of crazy, probably like a hundred. That's what I was maybe more like a hundred. Yeah. Yeah. I'm just saying. It's also artichoke and asparagus month. And I remember you having pickled asparagus spears. We in there, we do. We do. We have pickled asparagus and we've added a new item. It's Italian pickled asparagus. Oh, well, yeah, something different. Hey, why not? Chop up in your spaghetti sauce. Oh, salad spaghetti. Yeah. In a salad. There you go. Bloody Mary's. Bloody Mary's. I always just say pickled. Pickled asparagus and bloody Mary's, but in a salad, or like a charcuterie board too, like we were talking about earlier on the show for December. Listen, just because we have to be healthy doesn't mean we don't have to have good food. Healthy food is delicious. And I think, you know, and being vegan, that's when you start going, all right, what can I eat? And then you start finding out there's a whole world of good food out there that you can eat. And so it's, this is good. Pickled asparagus, any kind of asparagus, and even, I'm sorry, grill that pickled asparagus. It's actually pretty good. I'd like to do that. Because you guys barbecue in January. Oh, definitely. Yeah. Our weather is just, that's when it's the nicest. It's probably January, February. It's gorgeous. And you can go picnics and everything in, in, you know, so that's a, that's another part of talking about being healthy. But, um, soup, see, because in the evenings it chills down, right? Soup. Let me talk about your soups because there's making your own soup from scratch, which is great. And then there's purchasing, you know what I mean in the grocery store soups. And then there's your soups. And that is kind of like, hey, I don't have time to make a big fancy soup all day long at the stove. But this is something unique and cool that really tastes of the Southwest. And, um, if I have people coming over suddenly, this would be something I would be grabbing immediately of the pantry. Oh, yeah. And making, because it would not be, you know what I'm talking about in those little silver cans in the grocery store. Yeah. Trying to, to fake that out. No, you can't. We all know what it is. Probably have, we probably have like 30 different sheet mixes. Wow. It's, it's unbelievable. Um, you know, like grocery store now, like really, it's like, yeah, it is. It's cool. Yeah, it is. But very nostalgic, like the old fashioned, um, country store. Yeah, I love that. I think we all miss that kind of place. And I think it's going to even become more important as things are going more online, but then people are missing going into a store and actually shopping and looking at what they're buying. So it's kind of an interesting time to be in. So I think, yeah, and people can buy online from me. So you got both. So everyone were covered, right? But yeah, what are the soups? Like some of the wonderful flavors we can think of. Okay, we have tortilla soup. We have, okay, that's it. You got me a tortilla soup. You know, because none of us really know how to make it. Right. We have, um, like I said, loaded baked potato is just one of the best, um, chili soups. Um, we have actually a chicken noodle soup that's a lot better than that stuff in the silver can and a vegetable soup, minestrone. I can't even think of all the different flavors. But like I said, there's about 30 different ones that we carry that are just awesome. Wow. I want the, I'm going back to the tortilla soup and the baked potato. Yes. That's awesome. That's yummy and delicious as far as I'm concerned. I want that. And they feed a lot of people. Um, in the winter time, um, we'll take one of the sample packs that they may send us and make it. And I can almost feed my whole crew a cup of soup out of one, one package. Wow. You know, they bring their sandwich. We have a couple, a little cup of soup with it. They're ready to go. Mm. It's nothing like a cup of soup. Actually, you know, I kind of missed that. Always have these, you know, the bowls, but a cup of soup is a whole other experience. It is. It's different. It's different. Yeah. You know, I'd like to dunk things in my soup. You know, I want breadsticks or, you know, I don't know, just, I want to dunk things in it. Bread, toast, garlic toast. Oh, yeah. Oh, there you go. Oh, garlic toast with the potato, loaded baked potato. Oh my gosh. That would be awesome. And you can take it hungry. Now, what you could do is when it's in a cup, right, in the cup, you get it where you can bake like a provolone cheese topping or a Parmesan cheese topping or roast it real quick, even if you have like one of those lighter things. So you roast it on the top. So you have a nice crispy cheese topping on the top of your soup and garlic bread. I'm just saying, Oh, geez, that is good. Yeah. Why are we doing this? What? I know. Here we go. This is the torture show. Welcome to the peanut patch where we torture you with good food. Yeah. Really nice. Oh my gosh. So all right, help us out here. Um, I really want some now. This is like, yeah, I, ooh, that baked potato though. You could even put bacon crumbles on the top too. I'm just saying. Oh, it hasn't bacon crumbles in it. We don't need it. It's already there. See, this is like pizza in a cup, but we want potato too. A loaded potato is pizza and a potato. That's really what it is, right? Oh, that is. Yep. It is. And I think bacon on the pizza is better than pepperoni. That's my own personal preference, but I'll stand with Nancy on that. She's like, I want bacon, bacon, like real bacon, not Canadian bacon. That's a different bacon. Yeah, breakfast bacon, right? And, um, right, which is allowed to be eaten year round, everyone. And in Fudge, as Donna shared on the last episode, you can have maple syrup bacon right in the Fudge. Mm-hmm. Yep. And so, so basically, if you want to kick your January diet, go to the peanut patch too. So you have to say, I'm not doing this anymore. I want to indulge, you know, that's also the place to go. She can help you out either way, but there's nothing like a good soup. Oh my gosh, you know, just cozy and warm and a good, good loaf of like toasted garlic bread or toast, like, ah, man, that's really good. But I want to go to the tours that you have. So this is always January, February, March, or was it January and February only? No, it's January, February and March. Yeah. On two days and Fridays. We do it once on each of those days at 10 o'clock in the morning. All you need to do is show up. We, uh, we don't charge anything. And it's, it's a lot of fun. And so we go, I show you pictures of how peanuts are grown. I have antique equipment that is just awesome. You get to find out a little more history of Yuma, why we grew peanuts and why we don't grow peanuts anymore. And then like you said, you get to go behind the scenes and see the things that we make right here being done. And so people love it. And in fact, I have to tell them to put their hands in their pockets when we go through the two rooms with all the food because I don't want them to contaminate it because they want to reach out there and grab a piece of peanut bubble and a piece of chocolate and a stuff gate that we're working on, you know, so they can have a little sample. But I do give them a sample at the end of our fresh roasted peanuts. And then they get a free sample of fudge as well. Seriously. And there's ice cream there. And yes, in January, he's still one ice cream in Yuma. I'm just saying, you know, man, all right, I miss Yuma talking to you and miss the peanut patch. We have to get out there. And I'm ugly. And I still want that now. Oh, I don't know why I'm always doing it. Not learning. You know what I was thinking now, we should make parmesan crisps in the oven. You know, you roast me put, you know, put it like, yeah, you put parchment paper down or whatever, put some fresh grated parmesan. All right, we can put some sprinkles of basil and oregano or whatever. And it bakes and it becomes like its own little parmesan potato chip. And oh, see, I'm just saying, yeah. Yeah. I'm just saying, yeah. And then I would take some of her olives though. I would probably mix the olives into the soup mix because we're olive freaks here. And I would do that. I'm back to the soup. I can't get over it. It's soup month. So I'm all in for a soup month because that's the thing. You can do it pretty easy. And, you know, when days get shorter like that, you know, January is the heart of winter. And it's like, okay, we're a little chilly and we don't want to spend time cooking that much. We're still busy in January. Our whole new year is beginning. So we want to, you know, cook but not have to overcook, right? And so I think this is the perfect thing, soup with parmesan crisps. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you've got some great ideas. I'm hungry now. All right. Well, thank you so much, Donna. As always and everyone happy new year, check out the peanut patch.com. And if you go to Yuma Arizona or you travel through Yuma, you know where you need to go. The peanut patch. Thanks, Donna. Yeah. Thanks, Lisa. Thank you for joining us here on the Peanut Patch on Big Blend Radio. You can visit the store between October and April in Yuma Arizona or shop online at the peanut patch.com and keep up with new episodes that air every first Friday at 12 p.m. Arizona time at big blend radio.com.

Check out Donna's recipes that include all kinds of delicious favorites from peanut butter cookies to sensational salads: https://blendradioandtv.com/listing-category/donna-george/

The Peanut Patch podcast airs every 1st Friday at 12pm Arizona Time. Listen to episodes and follow the show here: https://peanut-patch.podbean.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.