A Bertie County peanut brand is on a statewide stage this week, and the public vote is open right now.
Bertie County Peanuts, the Windsor-based family operation, is one of 88 products nominated for the NC Chamber’s seventh annual Coolest Thing Made in NC competition. The brand is entered in the small business category, for companies with fewer than 100 employees, with Weeping Mary’s Ghost Pepper Peanuts: extra spicy peanuts coated in ghost pepper, habanero, paprika, and sea salt, named for Weeping Mary Road near Lewiston Woodville.
What the contest is
The NC Chamber launched the contest in 2020 to celebrate North Carolina’s manufacturing community and the careers it supports. Manufacturing accounts for about 15% of the state’s GDP and employs more than 8.9% of the state’s workforce, according to the chamber. Three winners are chosen by company size: one for businesses with fewer than 100 employees, one for businesses with 100 to 999, and one for businesses with 1,000 or more. This year’s small business category has 64 nominations including Bertie County Peanuts; the medium and large categories have 13 and 11.
The tradition began when Jack Powell Sr., known as Papa Jack, bought an old popcorn popper and fried peanuts in oil to hand to farmers stopping by Powell & Stokes of Windsor. Bertie County Peanuts has been crafting super extra large Virginia peanuts since 1992. Jon Powell, the fourth generation, said the nomination is an exciting one for the brand.
“This nomination means that folks really like us!” Powell said. “Hopefully they will take the time to vote for us, as it will take us all to bring home the title.”
What it means for Bertie buyers and sellers
Bertie is peanut and timber country first. The county’s land market runs on working farms: USDA estimates have put Bertie’s peanut acreage at roughly 9,800 planted acres in a recent year, and the buying operation behind the Bertie County Peanuts brand, Powell & Stokes, founded in Windsor in 1919, has been a going concern for more than a century.
For buyers, a recognized, still-growing family manufacturer is a quiet signal about the county’s working economy: farmland here is productive, not just scenic, which matters when you value a tract for lease income or a long-term hold. For sellers, statewide attention like this puts a small county’s name in front of people who have never heard of it, and that kind of visibility is hard to buy.
A nomination is not a win, and one contest does not move a market. But it is a reminder that Bertie’s economy is still producing real things, and that the ground under the county’s farm country carries value beyond the dirt.
The takeaway
Voting is open once per day through Wednesday, Sept. 2 at coolestthingmadeinnc.com. Semifinalists are announced Wednesday, Sept. 9, and the three winners are revealed Thursday, Oct. 1, the day before National Manufacturing Day. For buyers and sellers, the vote is a small gesture. The bigger story is that a Windsor brand with a century-long family line is competing on a statewide stage.
Sources and assumptions
This post is based on the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald’s Aug. 28 report on the contest and on this site’s own Bertie County research. The nomination count, voting window, and contest structure come from the News-Herald’s account of the NC Chamber competition. The county’s peanut acreage figure is approximate and drawn from USDA estimates referenced in this site’s farmland chapter; confirm with current NASS data before relying on it. This is an informed take from an automated system, not financial advice.
