Here's Something Worth Celebrating: It's National Peanut Butter Day!

Today is the most important non-religious, non-patriotic holiday of the year. It’s National Peanut Butter Day!

If you’re like me, you’re probably thinking that one day isn’t enough to celebrate the golden goodness that is peanut butter, but we’ll take what we can get. (Although, I did learn that November is National Peanut Butter Lovers Month, which is appropriate since it coincides with my birthday.)

Peanut butter has a fascinating history. In Africa, cooks have used peanuts in stews for centuries, and ancient Asian recipes use peanuts for sauces. Civil War soldiers ate “peanut porridge,” but what we know as peanut butter began to take shape in 1890 when a doctor in St. Louis began marketing peanut paste for people with bad teeth. Five years later, the Kellogg brothers patented a process for making peanut butter with steamed peanuts, although in later years we moved up to roasted peanuts for a better taste.

At the 1904 World’s Fair, C. H. Sumner helped bring peanut butter awareness to the masses, selling over $700 worth of the good stuff at his concession stand. In the 1920s and ’30s, the big-name brands we associate with peanut butter — Peter Pan, Skippy, and Jif — entered the marketplace.

According to Peanut Butter Lovers, a consortium of peanut farmers in Georgia and Mississippi, Americans consume three pounds of peanut butter per person every year. That’s all? Either I’m a major outlier, or you people have lots of catching up to do!

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Even though the name brands are easy to associate with peanut butter, growing up, we ate the store-brand stuff, and I’m partial to it today. I’d rather have peanut butter from Aldi, Kroger, or Publix over Peter Pan or Jif any day. And now that I have a Publix just three miles from my house, it’s easy to get my hands on their fresh-ground honey-roasted peanut butter, which is heavenly. I’ve also tried some local brands, which are good but pricey.

Peanuts are the official state crop of my home state of Georgia, which produced just over half of the peanuts grown in the U.S. in 2021 — to the tune of 1.76 million tons! Georgia has around 4,000 peanut farmers, located in 76 of the state’s 159 counties. The peanut industry brings $2.2 billion dollars into the state every year, even as we’re trying to make people forget that Jimmy Carter farmed peanuts in Georgia before he tried to ruin the country.

There are plenty of ways to celebrate. You can have a classic PB&J for lunch, or go crazy and have honey or bananas with your peanut butter sandwich. The Georgia Peanut Commission offers an impressive array of recipes on its website — including the Elvis, a fried peanut butter, banana, and bacon sandwich that the commission labels a breakfast food. You can also do like I do and eat a spoonful or two of peanut butter right out of the jar.

You can also celebrate National Peanut Butter Day by giving back. Buy a jar or two of peanut butter to donate to a local food bank or homeless shelter. Or you can donate to Peanut Butter for the Hungry, an organization that helps people worldwide.

Whatever way you choose to celebrate, Happy National Peanut Butter Day!