Caro lettore, I recently discovered how easy and fun it is to make your own peanut butter! Peanuts are a major cash crop around these parts, so maní (peanuts) is plentiful and cheap. By contrast, almonds are imported from Chile and hard to find except in the bigger cities. Half a pound of ground maní is $.75 at the town market, where the woman pours fresh, unroasted peanuts into a molido (grinder) and out comes fresh-ground peanut paste.
I find this paste great for cooking in Thai dishes but too thick to use as conventional peanut butter.
So, I decided to experiment by making my own peanut butter. I bought half a pound of maní at the market and put it in the blender with a teaspoon of vegetable oil (I actually sauteed some green onions and used that oil), 1/2 teaspon of salt, and 1 tbsp honey. Peanut paste is quite thick, so it was difficult for my poor little blender to process it. However, I helped it along by stirring manually and it turned out to be delicious, with a slightly crunchy consistency. If you want a creamier consistency, just keep on blending.
Some recipes that I’ve read call for adding a powdered milk, but I like the simplicity of my recipe. To finish it off, I spooned the mixture into an empty glass PB jar that I had washed and saved. We don’t have glass or plastic recycling here, and it kills me to put glass bottles in the trash can, so I wash and reuse mine.
With Earth Day coming up in less than two months and excitement about having an eco-friendly President in office, I’m thinking a great deal about my own impact on the environment. Of the Three R’s, Recycling gets the most hype, but Reducing and Reusing are just as important. And in these tough economic times, Reducing and Reusing is as practical as it is eco-friendly.
Buying Ecuadorian-made peanut butter at the big supermarket in Loja (2.5 hours away) is expensive on a Peace Corps budget, but a friend of mine insists on buying American brands such as Jif or Peter Pan which irritates me to no end. First of all, there is an insane amount of chemicals in commercial peanut butter. Extra Crunchy JIF contains partially and fully hydrogenated vegetable oils, that is, trans fats. Trans fats are terrible for your health and have been banned in cities such as New York – yet we serve this to our children? Also, American peanut butter is flown to Ecuador from places such as Orville, OH, which makes it awful for the environment in terms of carbon expended.
Now, I realize that it’s simply not feasible for everyone in the States to get fresh-ground peanut paste, but you can always buy a bag of roasted peanuts from the store and grind them up yourself in a food processor. Then, add some oil, salt, and honey (optional) and you’ve made your own healthy PB, filled with good fats and proteins and none of the preservatives. 
