Thus far I’ve been making my nut butter in an ancient, wonky food processor I traded for a brand new one.
Yup, I bought a brand-new food processor off Takealot, and it simply wasn’t up to the task. Broke within half an hour of me switching it on the first time.
Before that, I’d used a good neighbour’s machine; the wonky one.
Just wanted to test it.
When the new machine arrived I gave the jalopy food processor back to the neighbour, convinced the new machine would grind the macadamia nuts, cashew nuts and dried banana better than the ANC ground up our country.
Little did I know that the new machine would conk out and join the big scrapyard in the sky in less than an hour of ownership.
When it did break, I ran back to my good neighbours, hoping they’d allow me to use their senior food processor again, which they did.
What do you do?
I’ve got nut butter to make, so I needed neighbours to lean on.
In the meantime, I contacted the company that makes the food processor I’d bought off Takelot, and they graciously agreed to send me new parts at no cost, save transport.
When the parts arrived, I tried the new machine again, this time making sure I don’t overload it.
Alas, it just didn’t want to work.
It was about as good at making nut butter as a blender is at making bricks.
So I ended up giving the new machine to the kind folks to whom the primitive food processor belonged.
It was a kind of trade, but not completely. If they wanted their old machine back, I told them, they were welcome to it.
But I needed their clunker because I’d received nut butter orders, and you know what?
Their machine just works.
It looks like it wants to jump off the table while it’s mauling nut butter ingredients, and I have to keep the lid, which is now a two-piece part, down firmly for it to keep processing, but it just keeps running.
It’s like an old man with false teeth chewing on a tough, over-cooked steak, who refuses to give up.
He will keep chewing until he’s consumed the steak.
That’s what this fossil of a food processor is doing with the ingredients I’m chugging into its mouth.
It just keeps going.
It moans and groans at me, but like a Lister motor, it just won’t stop.
But it won’t keep going forever, so I started doing some research into nut butter machines.
They’re available a dime-a-dozen, if you know where to look.
And some of them are cheap as chips.
But even though they’re cheap, it doesn’t mean I can simply pop out my card and swipe.
I need to sell nut butter.
So I decided to go the dirt, dirt cheap road and buy a manual grinder.
I’m excited about this part of the journey.
The machine is as low-tech as you get.
That means it’ll work even if load-shedding strikes.
My dream of becoming the Eastern Cape nut butter king is taking shape.
It’s baby steps, but it’s so cool to walk this road.
There’s much to learn and do still.
I’ve started looking at getting nuts closer to the source. Actually, directly from the source.
By God’s grace, it seems an old school friend will be supplying me.
Another important issue is that of GMO versus non-GMO foods.
From chats with a fitness fanatic pharmacist friend of mine, it’s clear the market wants non-GMO foods.
I’d love to expand into offering a Lush Yummy nut oil.
There are so many opportunities to serve the market with organic, nutritious nut-derived products, and I don’t want to miss out on any of them.
But I need your support.
I cannot venture on down the nut butter path if you don’t come alongside me.
So please show your support by buying Lush Yummy nut butter, and by signing up for the newsletter.
I’d really appreciate it.
Thanks so much for your support.
It’s people like you who make it lekker to continue on with this adventure.