About Hubbard Peanut Company
Dot and HJ met during their college years in Farmville, Virginia. Before he could graduate, World War II erupted and he joined the U.S. Army. Soon after the couple married, he was called back into service during the Korean War. In 1950, after completing business school while she taught in high school, the young couple returned to her hometown, the little crossroads village of Sedley, Virginia to begin their family.
With one baby at home and twins on the way, Dot knew she wasn't going back to teach that year. Wanting a little extra spending money to help with family expenses, Dot remembered how popular her family's recipe for peanuts had been with her college friends during the war years. At that time, Southampton County, Virginia was the largest county in the USA growing the type of peanuts Dot wanted to prepare. She knew that most people had never experienced the taste of really good Virginia peanuts, so armed with the time-honored recipe and a supply of peanuts grown on her father's farm, she had everything needed to get started with a new adventure. Dot perfected the unique recipe and pioneered a technique for cooking Virginia peanuts that has become an industry standard today.
We can't pinpoint the day that HJ Hubbard first sold and delivered Dot's unique peanuts to the Virginian Drugstore on Main Street in Franklin, but we know the year was 1954 and the price of a 1 oz bag of Hubs was $0.10. Gourmet peanuts were literally launched from Dots' home in Sedley where she hand skinned the first peanuts branded as Hubs. Whether they're called cocktail, blister fried, small batch, or home cooked, the peanuts that were first blanched in water, then cooked and packaged in Dot's family kitchen in Sedley were the original 'home cooked' Virginia peanuts first introduced commercially in the market place.