Peanut Butter Galore

Last Friday night a group of us worked at the LDS peanut butter cannery in North Houston. The church has food cannery's all over the US that cans food produced in that area. They do everything from potatoes and wheat to beef chili and salsa. Since west Texas has big peanut farms, Houston is home to the church's only Peanut butter factory.

This cannery produces around 300,000 jars a peanut butter a year. 100,000 jars are turned out specifically for the Houston food bank. The rest goes for humanitarian aid worldwide and local food programs to help needy families.

The factory is small and take about 20 volunteers to run it. In the spring when the peanut harvest come in there are days they run around the clock. We worked the 9pm-2 am shift. It was a lot of fun but by the end of the night I was thankful I don't have to work in a factory setting.

The peanut come in in huge white canvas bags. They are roasted, separated, crushed and then mixed with oil and sugar. (It great PB, tastes like jiffy). A few people feed in empty jars and the jars are filled. People screw on the lids, the jars are sealed, labels placed on, jars are boxed, inventoried and ready to be shipped. Our shift produced around 1500 jars/hour.

I forgot to take my camera, but here is a you tube video of the setup. The video is shaky, but walks you through the process of making peanut butter.