Hubs History
Hubs History
From our home to yours
The Seed is Planted
The Seed is Planted
Dot and HJ met during their college years in Farmville, VA. 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, to begin their family. She continued to teach school while he became immersed in his first job as an accountant at the local paper mill. The Great Depression had left its heavy prints on their growing up years and may have been a catalyst for the creation of a family business that the two worked together for decades to build.
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.
The Idea Sprouts
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.
Roots Begin to Establish
Roots Begin to Establish
In 1954, when Dot decided to start a business, there weren't many mail order companies and even fewer who were shipping gifts of great food. There was no system for zip codes in the United States. UPS wasn't operating in Virginia and FedEx had not yet been founded. At the time, there was no such thing as a credit card and the phones in Sedley were on 'party lines.'
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.
Fertilizing
As her business grew, Dot and her husband, HJ, worked with shellers in Suffolk and blanchers in Edenton, NC to assure the quality of peanuts her customers would receive. Ultimately, Dot's specification for the largest peanuts from the crop and those that were too large to go through the peanut planting equipment became a new and highly sought after but 'unofficial' USDA grading standard of Super Extra Large.
HJ spent countless after work hours helping Dot manage the volume that grew each year. As an accountant, he was instrumental in developing many of the business processes still in place today. He, with a team of local engineers, developed a valuable batch cooking process that allowed large volumes to be produced in a short window of time so the couple could meet the seasonal demand and still maintain the freshness and high quality expected by their loyal customers.
The Peanut Vine Spreads
The Peanut Vine Spreads
As orders with checks began to pour in, the peanut vine spread throughout Virginia, across the country, and even across the oceans. In addition to her robust mail order business, Dot's peanuts were sold in the best of gift shops, clubs, hotels, and restaurants throughout the country. Dot received letters, accolades, and orders from governors and presidents. Hubs were featured in magazines as far away as San Francisco, and touted by food writers and editors such as MFK Fisher and Craig Claiborne of the New York Times. Virginia peanuts were popularized as gourmet gift quality by the introduction of Hubs.
The Harvest
The one thing that the Hubbard family has never lost sight of throughout time is quality. From sourcing the best peanuts of the harvest to ensuring top notch service, the experience of each Hubs customer is paramount and on the minds of every member of the Hubs team. With ever changing technology, advances in the logistics industry, vigilant monitoring of food safety, training and maintaining employee health and safety, safeguarding of private information, increasing government regulations, as well as many other factors of growth and competition, the goal of the Hubbard family and team members is to never lose sight of how and where the journey began.
Dot Hubbard Receives Lifetime Achievement Award from American Peanut Council
According to the American Peanut Council, Dorothy "Dot" Hubbard was a trailblazer in terms of popularizing a peanut product, but she was also a female entrepreneur in a time when that was rare. Dot Hubbard, who passed away in 2002 at the age of 76, was honored posthumously on June 24 at the 2019 USA Peanut Congress with the APC's Lifetime Achievement Award. Mrs. Hubbard, who founded Hubbard Peanut Company in Sedley, Virginia, maker of the Hubs brand, perfected her unique family recipe and pioneered a technique for cooking Virginia peanuts that has become the industry standard for the gourmet Virginia-type peanut we know today according to Sid Levy, chairperson of the APC, in presenting the award. Hubbard's daughter, Lynne Rabil, President of Hubbard Peanut Company accepted the award.
In his remarks Levy recognized that the Hubs "home cooked" brand that Hubbard introduced 65 years ago culminated in the creation of a market category of gift quality peanuts often referred to as 'gourmet'. Ultimately, her specification for the largest peanut from the crop has become a new and highly sought after 'unofficial' USDA grading standard of Extra Extra (super) Large.
Dell Cotton, Executive Secretary, of the Virginia Peanut Growers nominated Hubbard for the award. "Dorothy Hubbard was the first to make this type of peanut product accessible to anyone who wanted a Virginia peanut. Not only did her company grow, but it also led to the development of multiple gourmet processors in the Virginia/Carolina area that make up an integral part of our Virginia peanut industry. We can credit the foresight of the Hubbards for being the catalyst for and a large part of this industry for which our V/C farmers are so proud."
“Why not try to cook and sell peanuts”
Dot wondered. She decided to give it a try using her mother’s method of blanching the peanuts and then frying them in oil. Most cooks roast their peanuts. “It was different - a home recipe,” she says. A secret recipe that is still followed today with the help of specially designed equipment.
“Why not try to cook and sell peanuts” Dot wondered. She decided to give it a try using her mother’s method of blanching the peanuts and then frying them in oil. Most cooks roast their peanuts. “It was different - a home recipe,” she says. A secret recipe that is still followed today with the help of specially designed equipment.
In accepting the award, Rabil said, "We are so proud of Dot and only wish she could have known this day would come. Whenever I think of someone starting a business from scratch, I think of Dot. She began by literally hand skinning peanuts in her tiny kitchen and as her business grew, she outsourced that step to other women around the community. With a set of twins, my brother, and me in tow, she drove around every morning picking up pans of peanuts. From there she grew into having truckloads of raw blanched peanuts delivered to Sedley."
According to Rabil, her mother had a vision of sharing high quality...very high quality.... peanuts that could be packaged and given as a gift. As word spread, she had to figure out the best way to ship these gifts. Rabil said, "Remember, this was before zip codes, FedEx, credit cards, or computers and it was also at a time when if a woman worked, it was usually as a teacher (which my mother had been), a secretary, or as a nurse....not developing a home based business ....which is quite the trend today!"
Rabil reminisced, "We have a photograph hanging in our office of Pope John Paul in Vatican City receiving a large tin of Hubs in a private audience with one of our customers. There were magazine and newspaper articles from famous food editors in San Francisco, Chicago, and NY including MFK Fisher and Craig Claiborne. We have received letters from Presidents of the US and governors, including a letter from the 1973 Southern Governor's Conference in Alabama where the wife of Georgia Governor Carter wanted to know the cooking secret for those peanuts that she had received from our Virginia Governor. The story from the White House was shared with us that President George H W Bush gave Hubs to the Prime Minister of Japan as a gift at the close of a major trade deal. "
After 70+years, Hubbard Peanut Company, Inc. remains in Sedley, Virginia where the original home has expanded into offices and production facilities. It continues to be owned and managed by the Hubbard's children and grandchildren.
The American Peanut Council is a trade association based in Washington, D.C. Members include peanut growers, shellers, brokers, manufacturers and organizations that provide goods and services to the industry. The Peanut Congress, held annually, is a gathering of industry representatives from the United States and abroad.
