Lloyd Osmun has been selling roasted peanuts at the National Apple Festival for almost 30 years.
Volunteer Darby Harman, 7, helps her mom Kathryn Harman, both of Abbottstown, pack apples for the apple sales booth run by Upper Adams Jaycees on Sunday. Darby volunteered with other students from New Oxford Elementary. (THE EVENING SUN CLARE BECKER)
And for almost 30 years, Lloyd Osmun has sold his goods at the National Apple Festival in Arendtsville. But when you think of the event that celebrates the fabulous fall fruit, you're probably not thinking of Osmun — he doesn't sell anything to do with the apples. He sells freshly roasted peanuts.
Behind his tent at the South Mountain Fairgrounds on Sunday, people walked around with metal mugs full of old-fashioned soda from the Wild Bill's Olde Fashioned Soda Pop stand. Others had a half-gallon of cider or a bottle of water in hand to wash down the festival's food spread of applesauce, candy apples and apple crisp.
It was hot for October, with temperatures in the 80s, and people were thirsty. But it was hotter under Osmun's tent nearby. His antique peanut roaster made things even balmier.
Photos: The 49th Annual Apple Harvest Festival
Osmun, of Nazareth, has been roasting peanuts in an antique machine at the National Apple Harvest Festival since 1986. The one he used Sunday was made in 1918 and is a brown metal, almost cylindrical machine attached to a belt and gas motor.
The belt rotated a drum within the roaster,
and underneath an open flame to roasted the peanuts. When they were done, he put them in a metal bin, transferred them to brown paper bags and sold each bunch for $3.
Osmun machine sat among a collection of other antique machines, none of which made food that afternoon. Some of the machines cut wood, while others loudly sputtered and coughed. His machine made a soft and steady whirring noise accompanied by the rattle of the peanuts rolling in the metal drum.
Peanuts were a piece of his childhood, he said as he scooped peanuts into one of the bags with a metal cup.
“I used to fish a lot,” he said. “You could follow me along the water by my peanut shells.”
Since he was always a peanut eater, he became interested in roasting them. A friend owned the old machine before he did, and he told him he would buy it if the friend ever decided to sell, and he did.
“This is the best roaster, I swear,” Osmun said.
Other roasters lock in too much moisture, so the roast isn't very good, he said. His roaster takes away 12 percent of the peanuts' moisture.
He takes the roaster out to about six different festivals each year, said Osmun, who retired from working on air pollution equipment three years ago.
“I fired my employer,” he said.
But Osmun isn't in the business of roasting peanuts to make money, he said as he watched festival goers carry their metal mugs of root beer and jugs of apple cider. A few stopped at Osmun's tent for peanuts, but most kept walking. He doesn't mind, though.
“It's just a fun thing to do,” Osmun said. “I'm not in it for the money.”
sfleischman@eveningsun.com; 717-637-3736, ext. 151; Twitter: @sefleischman
If you go
What: Second weekend of the 49th Annual National Apple Harvest Festival
Where: South Mountain Fairgrounds, Arendtsville
When: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Oct. 12 and 13
Cost: $9 general admission
More: For more information, visit appleharvest.com
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