"Mamba" AKA Peanut Butter

David's sister was making peanut butter today. I had never seen this so thought I would sit and watch-had no idea how long it takes to make peanut butter when 90% of it is being done by hand.

The process actually started last night when David's 2 sisters and mom sat together shelling peanuts. I just thought they were going to eat them so I didn't get a picture of that..but we've all seen that before.

This morning I woke up to a wonderful smell. Good smells are usually not the case in Port au Prince. Fabian, David's sister, was roasting the peanuts over charcoal fire that they shelled last night. It smelled awesome. I should make a candle out of that scent. Who am I kidding-I don't make candles OR peanut butter.

After they were roasted she rolled them in her hands to remove the thin husky part.
(don't know the technical term)

This process actually took a long time.

A lot longer than running to the grocery to buy peanut butter.

Then we were off walking through the neighborhood to get the peanuts blended together to make the peanut butter.
Fabian added about a cup of sugar and 4 small hot Haitian peppers to the peanuts before it was pulverized together.

Messy-but what a smell! There were several others there in line to get their peanuts churned. Some had honey and brown sugar to mix in. I bet that tastes great!

Finished product

I was curious to know what the cost of making peanut butter here was. Fabian made it to sell in the little shop the family has in front of the house.

She bought the peanuts for $10.50 US.
$0.50 for charcoal
$0.50 for sugar
$0.15 for peppers
$1.15 to pay to crush the peanuts
Total Cost: $12.80 US

This batch made 7 regular sized peanut butter jars. Not the large ones.

They will sell for $6.25 US a piece.

Multiplied by 7 is $43.75 US.

For a total profit of $30.95 US!

not bad...but a ton of work!

As you can see-peanut butter is very expensive here. At the American grocery store here in Port au Prince the price for a regular size jar of Jif is $12.00 US!