Clark Bowen grew up eating nuts. They were the go-to snack his mother would let him get for himself from the pantry as a child. He also grew up loving baseball. And when these things collided, his life changed forever.

For Clark, nuts and baseball were always connected. They were his snack while watching Mariners games in the basement. He remembered the rich flavor of roasted nuts from small, local roasters, but over the years they faded away, leaving only the big brands.

Later, he began to travel to watch the Mariners play at away games. One time, at a game in Baltimore, he had roasted peanuts, and they were a revelation. These reminded him of the deeper flavor of the roasted nuts of his youth. At once he was obsessed with finding the perfect roasted peanut.

For the next year, he toured through the South to learn the traditions. Along the way he would find old peanut-roasting equipment, like brining tanks that had been left in someone’s garage for over 20 years. He even went to the National Peanut Festival in Dotham, Alabama, though the tradition in that area is boiled peanuts.

Along the way he learned what separates the major brand nuts from small-batch, artisan nuts. Big producers roast nuts by the truckload, passing them through blast heaters on a conveyor belt. This gives the nuts color, but doesn’t penetrate into the meat, leaving basically a raw nut with a seared exterior. Low, slow roasting develops the flavors throughout, and that can only be done in small batches.

Setting up shop in his native Seattle in 2002, Clark had a custom barrel roaster made. Since no one else was doing nuts on the same scale as him, there was no standard equipment that suited his production needs. He developed his own brine, and finessed the process, passing the nuts through an agricultural dryer to remove residual moisture before roasting. Because peanuts from different farms will have different characteristics, each batch must be roasted by hand, and monitored carefully to coax out their best flavor.

Ultimately, he widened his view to pumpkin seeds, which had befallen the same fate as peanuts. Big producers cut corners to get products to market, and often oversalt to disguise off flavors and inferior seeds. Clark has sourced seeds from farms in Oregon and California, giving them the same deft touch as he does his other products.