Russell Fege’s accent is unfamiliar to most of those who are beating a path to The World’s Largest Peanut Boil in Luverne.

“Sounds like a Cajun,” one man said.

“Well, he sure ain’t from around here,” said another.

Fege sure ain’t from around here. He’s a Louisiana product but he’s also a Shriner and that’s why he was in rural South Alabama bagging boiled peanuts in the hot, humid last days of August.

“I like the roasted peanuts.” Fege said, pointing toward the roaster along a short wall of the Shriners’ Peanut Barn on the outskirts of Luverne. “We don’t eat boiled peanuts in Lafayette. Don’t ever see any. What we eat boiled are crabs and crayfish, but peanuts? No.

“But, I’m not here to eat. I’m here to help out fellow Shriners because this is a good cause. I got to know the Shriners here through deer hunts that private schools in this area hold. I’ve been coming to the hunts for six years but this is my first year helping with the peanut boil.”

Fege said boiling 25 tons of peanuts is hard, hot work with long, long hours.

“I’ve been bagging peanuts all morning and I’ve still got a lot more to go,” he said. “But I’m proud to be helping.”

Fege said his home Shrine Club sells Vidalia onions as a fundraiser.

“We have to unload an 18-wheeler, stack the bags over in the shade and people come to buy,” he said, with a smile. “Boiling peanuts is a lot different. Roasting is easier and I like roasted peanuts better but people around here want boiled peanuts.”

Folks around South Alabama are partial to boiled peanuts and The World’s Largest Peanut Boil is a Labor Day tradition around these parts.

Charles Taylor of Brundidge placed an order Thursday afternoon for 14 bags.

“For three people,” he said with a smile that hinted maybe all the bags were for him. “We’ve been coming to the peanut boil for years. We put the peanuts in the freezer and then we’ll have them for football games. Things like that.”

William Baker, past president of the Crenshaw County Shrine Club, said, too, that the boiled peanuts are good, now or later.

“We get good, green peanuts and we’d like to think they are the best around,” he said. “We’ll boil 25 tons this week and that’s about what we usually do. We’ve got five vats going day and night. It takes three hours to cook-off the peanuts and each vat holds about 600 pounds so we’re busy all the time and folks are waiting in line most all the time.”

The Shriners fired the first “pots” of peanuts on Wednesday night and they have boiled without ceasing since.

Baker said, if the weather cooperates, the peanuts could all be sold before Labor Day.

“Then, we could go home Monday and get some rest,” he said and added laughing, “if we’re still around Monday, we could tie up and fight. When you’ve been together that long and it’s been this hot, you might not be happy with each other.”

The World’s Largest Peanut Boil is held at “the barn” at the intersection of Highway 331 and Highway 10. Boiled and roasted peanuts are available and also souvenir T-shirts.