Merry Christmas From The Peanut Van! 24th December 2011: Hello everyone! It's Christmas Eve and we're taking a few minutes away from family and friends to wish you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas and a happy and safe New Year. All our Peanut Vans at Kingaroy, Childers and Aussie World on the Sunshine Coast will be closed on Christmas Day. But otherwise we'll be open every other day of the Festive Season on our normal hours: 8:30am to 5:00pm at Kingaroy and Childers and 9:00am to 4:00pm at Aussie World. Our central offices and processing plant in Kingaroy, though, will be closed from the 24th December 2011 through to January 3rd 2012. So if you want to call us during this time, please phone us on (07) 4163-6444 or 1300 81 82 83 (or email us at info@peanutvan.com.au) and leave a message. We'll be randomly logging over the break to check messages and emails and we'll get back to you as soon as we possibly can. We'll also be taking a break from the many markets we attend in January 2012. But we'll be back as usual from February onwards. Finally, we'd like to sincerely thank you for your support over the last 12 months. As we've mentioned more than once this year, the 2011 Queensland floods and Cyclone Yasi helped produce the second lowest peanut harvest on record. And because we insist on using 100% Australian peanuts (and always have!) because we know they're the best in the world, this meant that we ran out of several stock lines during the course of the year. However - like peanut farmers everywhere - right now we have our fingers and toes crossed for a return to a normal harvest in the year ahead. And as soon as our supplies get back to normal all our current out of stocks will disappear too. We're not the only people to have had the problem either! Just before Christmas Australian entrepreneur Dick Smith came to Kingaroy to find out what the situation would be like for his Dick Smith Peanut Butter line (which is currently off supermarket shelves due to supply problems, since Dick also uses 100% Australian peanuts too). He dropped in to see local peanut farmers, us and the Peanut Company Of Australia and his visit was extensively covered by the media. If you missed it, you can see A Current Affair's report by clicking here. Photo: Yes, our clever cameraman caught Santa and his helpers preparing Christmas hampers at The Peanut Van's factory in Kingaroy last week (left to right): Olivia, Wendy, Rob and Chris Patch. Merry Christmas!

Yikes! Christmas Is Coming... So Come See Us At The Markets This December 5th December 2011: If you can't make it to any of our Vans this month, you can also come see us at a lot of markets all over south-east Queensland. This can be really handy for a bit of Christmas shopping! And this month you'll find us at all of these great places: Wednesday 7th, 14th and 21st at the Queen Street Mall Markets in Brisbane Sunday 4th: Michelton Markets Saturday 10th: Powerhouse Markets at New Farm Sunday 11th: Blackforest Cuckoo Clock Markets at Cabarlah (just 15 mins north of Toowoomba) and the new Stones Corner Markets at Stones Corner in Brisbane Saturday 17th: Manly Markets

October Special: Get 20% Off Our 375gm & 1kg Chicken and Parmesan Flavours 14th October 2011: Hello everyone! If you've been missing our monthly specials over the last couple of months, here's some really good news: they're back! And from today (Friday 14th October) through until the end of this month - or earlier, if we sell out - you can get 20% off 375gm and 1 kg packs of our delicious Chicken or Parmesan flavoured peanuts. You can pick these specials up at any of our Peanut Vans in Kingaroy, Childers or at Aussie World on the Sunshine Coast; at any of our market stands this month; order them online through our secure shopping cart; or order straight over the phone by calling us on 1300 81-82-83. PS: If you're planning on getting out and about soon to enjoy the fine Spring weather, here are two great family festivals we're attending in the next few weeks that you might enjoy as well: Motors in Motion at Kingaroy Aerodrome on Saturday 29th October and the Good Food and Wine Show at the Brisbane Convention Centre on the 4th to 6th of November. Motors In Motion is all about cars, trucks, bikes and machinery and the Good Food & Wine Festival is all about food and wine. But they're both really great family shows. And you'll find us at both of them too - so make sure you drop by and say hello if you attend either one!

Can't Get To A Peanut Van? Then Come See Us At The Markets In October 1st October 2011: If you can't make it to any of our Vans this month, you can also come see us at a lot of markets and big public festivals all over south-east Queensland. In October you'll find us at all of these: Every Wednesday at the Queen Street Mall Markets in Brisbane Sunday 2nd: Michelton Markets Saturday 8th: Powerhouse Markets at New Farm Sunday 9th: Blackforest Cuckoo Clock Markets at Cabarlah (just 15 mins north of Toowoomba) and the new Stones Corner Markets at Stones Corner in Brisbane Saturday 15th: Manly Markets Saturday 29th: Motors In Motion Festival at Kingaroy

Oh Yes! Butterscotch & Caramel Are Now Back Too! 23rd September 2011: Hello everybody! We're very pleased to announce that as the Australian peanut supply slowly (oh so slowly!) returns to normal, our stock lines are continuing to get back to normal too. And if you're a fan of our delicious Butterscotch & Caramel flavoured peanuts, the good news is that after an absence of several months we're absolutely delighted to announce that we're now able to put this popular line back on our shelves. Our cookhouse has been working overtime to do it, but you'll now find 100gm, 375gm and 1 kilo packs of this delicious flavour back in stock at all three of our Peanut Vans in Kingaroy, Childers and at Aussie World on the Sunshine Coast. You can also get them at any of our market stands in south-east Queensland (see story elsewhere on this page about where we're currently appearing); by phoning our central order line on 1300 81-82-83 Mondays to Fridays from 8:30am to 5:00pm; or directly online 24 hours a day, 365 days a year through our secure shopping cart. We'd also like to thank all our loyal customers for sticking by us through this difficult year. As you know, we're fanatical about Australian peanuts because we honestly believe they're the best and freshest in the world. And as Aussie farmers, we really appreciate it that so many of you seem to share exactly the same view.

Hello Spring!!! Sweet & Salty Are Now Back In Stock 1st September 2011: Hello everyone! After a really cold Winter we're very pleased to welcome Spring (we're sure you are too). And this Spring we have an extra reason to celebrate. We're very pleased to announce that after being out of stock for the last few months, our popular Sweet and Salty flavoured peanuts are now back on the shelves again. As we've mentioned before, we've had numerous out-of-stocks this year. They've been caused by the January floods in Queensland (which hit the South Burnett's peanut growing areas) and Cyclone Yasi (which hit the North Queensland peanut growing areas now long afterwards). Both of these terrible events shrank Australia's average annual peanut harvest from 60,000 tonnes to 12,000 tonnes. And that in turn affected us because we refuse to use anything except pure, fresh 100% Australian-grown peanuts. But now that warmer weather is returning all Aussie peanut farmers are looking forward to getting new crops in. And we hope that over the next 6 months all of our out-of-stock lines will be returning to the shelves too. Sweet and Salty is the first of these. So if you've missed this delicious favourite, you can now get it from any of our Peanut Vans in Kingaroy, Childers and Aussie World on the Sunshine Coast; directly from us at all the markets we attend around south-east Queensland every month; or online through our secure shopping cart.

A Special Message From Rob & Chris About Your Favourite Aussie Peanuts 19th July 2011: As regular Peanut Van customers know, several of our popular lines have been out of stock from time to time during the course of this year. And since this sort of situation is usually a rarity for us, some customers have asked us why it's been happening? So we thought we should tell you. There are really two reasons: The first was the floods and Cyclone Yasi which hit Queensland in January this year. Nearly all of Australia's peanuts are grown in Queensland and the Northern Territory and nearly all the peanut growing areas got hit by one (or both) of those disasters. How badly were they hit? Well, in a normal year Australia harvests about 60,000 tonnes of peanuts. But this year the harvest dropped to 12,000 tonnes. So the supermarket chains and many food processors have been importing peanuts nearly all this year to make up for this massive short-fall. But the second reason - and it's strongly tied to the first - is that ever since we opened in 1969 we've always had a policy of only using 100% Australian grown peanuts (and since the early 2000s, 100% Hi-Oleic Australian peanuts). Why? Because we simply don't believe that imported peanuts come anywhere near to matching the quality and freshness of domestic peanuts. We've been Australian peanut farmers all our lives so we hope you'll take our word that we really know peanuts inside out. And the result of our policy is that we've been having shortage in a few lines this year because we simply won't compromise on giving our wonderful customers the best - and freshest! - peanuts we possibly can. We know you trust us to bring you the best peanuts in Australia. And we take that responsibility very seriously. So we'd like to thank you for your patience if one of your favourite Peanut Van lines happens to be out of stock at the moment. Hopefully the weather - and the peanut harvests - will return to normal later this. And as soon as that happens, so will we!

Brrrrr! Warm Up On These Cold Winter Nights With Chris's New Peanut & Pumpkin Soup Recipe 12th July 2011: Hello everyone! We don't know what it's like in your part of the world right now but here in Kingaroy we've just had seven sub-zero nights in a row (two of them at minus 5 degrees!) It's been so cold here that Chris has been hard at work in The Peanut Van's kitchen most of the week brewing up hot soups to keep all of us from freezing. And recently she's come up with a real cracker we'd like to share with all of you too. It's quick and easy to prepare and it'll really warm you up on a cold Winter's night (or day). Naturally, we call it... Chris's Peanut and Pumpkin Soup Ingredients: 1 Large chopped pumpkin (Jap) 1 chopped onion 2 crushed cloves of garlic 1 diced potato 1 small chopped sweet potato 1 packet of chicken noodle soup (or chicken stock cube) 1 cup of peanut paste ½ teaspoon of ginger ½ teaspoon of paprika 1 desert spoon of curry powder Method: Put all ingredients into slow cooker (crock pot) with 1 cup of water and a pinch of salt and add cracked pepper. Then put on slow all day To serve: all I do is beat it with mixer in crock pot, but you can strain if desired (I like it thick) Optional: before serving, either add cream or coconut cream to give this soup an even creamier outcome! You can also serve this with a dash of Worcestershire Sauce or Tabasco if you like extra zing! PS: Before you ask, Chris reads our website too - which is why this is also a Reader's Recipe

Need Some Comfort Food This Winter? Why Not Whip Up A Batch Of Ruth's Peanut Slices? 7th July 2011: Regular visitors know that our website has a lot of great, easy-to-prepare peanut recipes. Well, just recently Ruth Donmall from Brisbane came to see us at the Manly Markets and promised to send us her personal recipe for Peanut Slices. She emailed it to us not long afterwards and we cooked it up in The Peanut Van's kitchens in Kingaroy this week. And we really liked them!. So (with Ruth's permission) we're passing it on to all our other peanut cookery fans too. Naturally, we call this recipe.... Ruth's Peanut Slices Ingredients: 1 cup self-raising flour (sifted) 1 cup raw caster sugar 1 cup Kingaroy raw peanuts 1 cup raisins 2 eggs (well beaten) Pinch of salt 1 dessertspoon butter Method: Place flour, sugar, peanuts and raisins into a bowl. Add 2 eggs well beaten, pinch of salt and butter and combine. Spread on greased tray (28cm x 18cm) and bake in moderate oven for 30 minutes. Sprinkle icing sugar on top when cool, then cut into squares.

Don't Take A Punt! Grab Our July 2011 Special Before We Sell Out 5th July 2011: Hello everyone! We're a few days late with this month's special because we've been tied up with our end-of-year stocktake (sigh......) But to make up for it we honoured all our June specials right up until midnight on July 4th (rather than June 30th). So we hope that's OK. As all die-hard footy fans know, things are really hotting up in the national football competition right now. The final State Of Origin will be held on Wednesday 6th July and for all the rest of the competition the ladder is really starting to take shape. In fact, the stakes will just get higher for all the teams from now on. And because we know that lots of Peanut Van footy fans will be glued to their TV sets (or going to games) over coming weeks, this month we've chosen a special we hope will go really, really well with cheering your favourite team on to victory: Toasted Beer Nuts. From today until midnight on July 31st we're offering our 375gm and 1kg packs of delicious toasted beer nuts for $7.50 and $15.00 respectively (that's about 20% off our normal retail price). You can pick them up at any of our Peanut Vans in Kingaroy, Childers or at Aussie World on the Sunshine Coast; at any of our market stands this month; order them online through our secure shopping cart; or order straight over the phone by calling us on 1300 81-82-83.