ENGLAND'S PEANUT KING

Evening Post, Issue 52, 2 March 1935, Page 25

ENGLAND'S PEANUT KING

"Five years ago I crushed a monkey nut in my hand. I skinned the nut and ate it, regardless of the mess I made on the floor.

"In that simple little action I laid the foundation of my fortune."

The speaker was Mr. M- E. M. Mitchell, of Wilson Street, Poplar, who today is one of the biggest peanut factors in England, states the "Sunday Chronicle."

Peanuts prepared by Mr. Mitchell find their way into almost every home in the British Isles.

"On that occasion five years ago," said Mr. Mitchell, "I enjoyed the flavour of the nut but hated the mess it made on the floor, and the trouble of getting to the kernel.

"I guessed others would enjoy the nut if it was given to them in a readyprepared form."

And Mr. Mitchell guessed accurately.

He had just sufficient funds to buy five tons of peanuts and to arrange to have them skinned.

The skinning process was carried out by _ hand at the rate of five hundredweights a week.

Now, five years later, Mr. Mitchell's firm deals with 15 tons of nuts— 16,000,000 of them—each week by special machinery.

"My one thought was to present the once-despised monkey nut in a new

and unknown form," Mr. .Mitchell continued.

"First we removed the outer shell, stripped off the outer skin, : and added flavour in the form of salt. :

"You know the rest. The peanut has found its way into almost every home in the country. ' : ■

"Only a few years ago I was an invoice clerk in Mincing Lane, sur-r reptitiously cracking nuts under the cover of my desk.

"The possibilities did not appear promising to me, nor the mess on the carpet pleasing to the .boss.-

"So, with the money I had managed to save I bought those precious five tons of nuts and employed three'boys to prepare them for me. •

"This method was hopelessly slow, so I bought and readjusted a secondhand almond blancher.

"This increased the output to five hundredweights daily.

"It was still a laborious process, however, so I bought a combined blancher and roaster, but I then found I could not cool the.nuts quickly enough."

Mr. Mitchell said that night after night he sat up perfecting a machine which would cool the nuts by a secret process and simultaneously roast and blanch them.

Now it takes only- one and a half hours to prepare a ton of nuts.