Durham’s own Big Spoon Roasters makes handcrafted nut butters from scratch and some of that nut butter gets made into their handcrafted nut butter bars! Their small batch process creates a product that is unsurpassed in taste and quality and has become a Durham mainstay over the last five plus years. Here’s the story of Big Spoon taken from their website
“A lifelong peanut butter lover, our founder Mark received his first lesson in handcrafted nut butter in 1999 while living in a rural farming community in Zimbabwe, where he was a Peace Corps Volunteer. After harvest, peanuts were roasted over an open fire and ground by hand between stones as coarse salt was added to taste. Some families added a touch of local honey and fresh coconut oil to complement the salt and smooth out the texture. The deliciously fragrant, mouthwatering result was a revelation.
In the fall of 2010, Mark was inspired to recreate that unforgettable peanut butter experience he had in Africa and started roasting nuts and milling them into fresh nut butters in his home kitchen. Excited to share these foods with others and turn these passions into a business, Mark and his wife, Megan, started Big Spoon Roasters in January 2011.
Big Spoon’s philosophy about food is based on the belief that food matters. It matters to our health, our happiness, and the well being of our planet. Food should be delicious, nutritious, and good for all those involved in producing it. For us, cooking and sharing food with others is a great joy.
We source ingredients from only trusted, transparent farms and producers that share this philosophy. Peanuts are a tremendous agricultural resource for the American Southeast, and of our 50 states, North Carolina is ranked sixth in terms of peanut production. We are thrilled to be able to work with local and regional peanut farmers and to be a positive market force for sustainable peanut agriculture.”