Homemade Peanut Butter

Amendoim.

Peanut butter has always been a main source of protein in my regular diet. Growing up, peanut butter and strawberry jelly on whole wheat bread was a staple in my lunchbox, as an Americorps volunteer I always packed a peanut butter and banana sandwich for lunch, and for the first three months at site here in Moz, I went through a lot of Black Cat, a South African brand, peanut butter. Crunchy, organic, smooth, Black Cat, Jif, Peter Pan, I have tried them all. But, two Fridays ago was the first time I have ever MADE peanut butter. It was not only the first time I made it myself, but also the first time I was teaching others how to make it. I, of course, didn’t let them know it was my first time and I just kept hoping that everything would go well. Luckily it did! And we just made it again this past Thursday.

I made peanut butter with one of the faith-based organizations in Chicumbane, TSHEMBEKA.

About a month ago, one of the activistas I have worked with at the hospital, Antoineta, asked me if I would be able to meet with their organization to try to help them get organized and start working again. While in the past TSHEMBEKA has done a lot in the community like home visits and helping at the hospital, currently they aren’t really working due to lack of funding. EGPAF (Elizabeth Glaser Pediatrics AIDS Foundation) pulled their funding about a year ago.  When we met a few weeks ago, we talked about income generating projects so that they could be more self-sufficient. In the past, with the help of a grant, they had a chicken raising project, but this has sinced ended. I introduced the idea that we could make peanut butter. I told them about another organization in Guija that makes their own peanut butter and sells it. I made sure they knew that it would be a long process to get a business plan going and all, but most importantly we would have to see if they even liked it or it is even marketable here in Chicumbane. In order to find out, we would have to make it ourselves. So we set a date and everyone agreed to bring some peanuts from their gardens and we would make peanut butter. The first date we set didn’t work out. But, “nao faz mal”, we set it for the following week and were able to do it that day. It is definitely a sign I have been in Mozambique a while  when changes in plans such as this no longer come so much as a surprise, but are almost expected.

Four activistas: Antoineta, Alcina, Josefa and Marta all came to make peanut butter the first time. When we arrived, we sat outside the office on straw mats and started de-shelling the peanuts we brought. I did a little talk on all of the steps to make peanut butter and why it is a good source of energy and protein. Then, we went through the following steps:

1.     De-shell the peanuts

2.     Take out any bad peanuts

3.     Roast the peanuts with sand in the bottom of the pan

Alcima roasting the peanuts. 

Antoineta taking the red shells off the peanuts.

4.     Take off the red outer covering of the peanuts

5.     Crush the peanuts

6.     Mix the peanuts in a clay bowl to a make a smooth butter-like consistency

The activistas taking the red shells off the peanuts.

Alcima, Marta and Josefa making peanut butter.

7.     Add a little bit of salt and sugar to taste

8.     Bom Apetite! Enoy.

The weather was a little dreary that day so we kept moving between being outside in the yard to the covered kitchen area depending on the rain. But, the process went well.  I didn’t have to teach any of the women how to do the steps we were doing because they were all techniques they had done hundreds of times before. They had just never done them with the end objective to make peanut butter. They not only worked hard throughout the process, but also celebrated the steps by singing songs in Changana. Upon completion, we were able to fill enough little jars for everyone to take some home. As we were filling the jars, one of the activistas was literally licking the bowl clean, she turned to me and said in Portuguese, “Colleen, we are going to develop Chicumbane with this peanut butter.” Maybe, just maybe, I thought. As we ate our lunch of peanut butter sandwiches, they brainstormed how they could sell these peanut butter sandwiches on the road to kids as they go to and fro school. We decided to meet again the following Thursday to invite more activistas to learn how to make peanut butter and to try a little experiment of sales, to see if people would actually buy the sandwiches.

On Thursday when Antoineta picked me up at my house to head to the office, she told me how her son had asked if she could go buy more of the peanut butter they had. She said how she told him she couldn’t buy it, but was going to make more with Mana Colleen. They had finished the jar she brought home in less than a week. That Thursday, twice the amount of activistas showed up to work. While we sat taking out the bad peanuts, this time Antoineta gave the talk on the steps we would be following and why we were making peanut butter. I don’t know if it was because we already knew what we were doing or what, but the process seemed to go a lot faster and smoother. And the peanut butter turned out a lot smoother too. When it was ready, we called some of the neighbors in the area to come try it. They loved it and actually started dipping some cassava we had in the peanut butter. We set up a chair on the road with some pre-made sandwiches and some of the activistas said they would sit there the rest of the day to see what kind of interest it generated. They decided they would sell a half peanut butter sandwich for 2MTS. Just for reference, $1 USD is equal to 30 MTS.  I felt like we were setting up an African version of a lemonade stand. The women were excited to see if people were interested in their new product, but I think they were most excited that if at the end of the day, there were still sandwiches left over that they would be able to eat them. 

Antoineta trying to sell some of the school kids on peanut butter.

Clean-up crew

TSHBEMKA Activistas and neighbors of the office trying peanut butter.