Homemade Peanut Butter

Beginning during the pandemic when places like Natural Grocers and Whole Foods stopped allowing their customers to grind their own peanut butter, I have been grinding my peanut butter at home and storing it in the refrigerator. As a vegetarian, I eat peanut butter daily as a source of protein.

It was often difficult finding enough unsalted peanuts during the pandemic, and I sometimes ordered peanuts in bulk from New Jersey. More recently, I have been able to find jars of unsalted peanuts at my local grocery store and at Whole Foods. I have discovered that the 365 brand from Whole Foods and the store brand at Price Chopper make more than three large mason jars of peanut butter while the Planters’ brand makes less than three large mason jars because of the amount of waste included—that is, the seed coat or the wrapper covering the peanut.

I made the switch from store bought peanut butter because of the amount of sugar, particularly the amount of high fructose corn syrup. In an effort to get away from excess sugar, I began buying the grind-it-yourself peanut butter at Natural Grocers and Whole Foods. During the pandemic, our son gave us a peanut grinder for Christmas. It took us a while to figure out that we still needed to chop the nuts first before transferring them. I am at the point now that I can grind six pounds of peanut butter in an hour. Cleaning up afterwards is a bit of a chore. I usually soak the peanut grinder for a few hours first.

My students in one writing class are currently working on their information essay, which requires that they describe how to do something that they know well. If it were me, I would be describing how to make peanut butter.

Addendum

I am adding two pictures from my most recent batch of peanut butter. I had to use four pounds of Planter peanuts this time, so the peanut butter is a bit dark because of the wrappers covering so many of the peanuts. I tried sifting them, but it didn't help.

These pictures come from the end of the process. The peanut butter left in the drum and on the stones fill up the third jar. 

Reading in 2022

I added twenty-two books to my LibraryThing account in 2022, eight of which are ones published by Choeofpleirn Press, the press that my wife and I run. Until I got the six books that my wife and son gave me for Christmas (five collections of poetry and one anthology of poetry), I had only purchased eight books during the year—Mood Swings, a collection of stories about jazz by Bill Moody, and books of poetry by Elizabeth Tibbets (Say What You Can), Ada Limon (The Hurting Kind, The Carrying, & Bright Dead Things), Maggie Smith (Good Bones), Tony Hoagland (Turn Up the Ocean), and Joseph Millar (Dark Harvest).

During the year, I also finally renewed my library card and checked out Ada Limon’s Sharks in the Rivers and Melissa Fite Johnson’s While the Kettle’s On, along with a few other titles.

Writing poetry regularly, and reading poetry as an editor, has led to my emphasis on poetry in my own reading.

There are other books that I want to read, such as Adam Minter’s Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale, and I plan to get to them at some point.

Jazz Selections for 2022

 

My selections for the year’s best jazz releases appear below. I discovered some of these releases while I was sick with Covid and only able to sit in front of the television. I called up YouTube and added Gondwana Records in the search bar and then while bundled up in blankets, I started listening to Jasmine Myra and Chip Wickham.

There were a few other releases that I discovered during the year, but I haven’t listened to them often enough to make a definitive decision as of yet. Sometimes I return to records released in previous years, such as Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd’s Jazz Samba, which was released in 1962 and which I prefer over the album Getz/Gilberto. I also stumble onto more recent releases that I had missed when they were initially released, such as Hania Rani's Esja.

My selections below appear in no particular order. Three of them can be found at Bandcamp. 

Jasmine Myra, Horizons 

This debut album contains Jasmine Myra's own compositions and a band of talented musicians from the north of England. One memorable track is titled "Words Left Unspoken," which was written for Myra's grandmother who died during the pandemic. Many of the titles emphasize distance and create an overall melancholic feel to the music. Even so, this album places emphasis on melody. One critic when reviewing this album called for more dissonance, which wouldn't have fit at all. I look forward to hearing more of Jasmine Myra's music.

Chip Wickham, Astral Traveling

Released as a kind of preview to Wickham's Cloud 10, this album of three tracks, containing  22 minutes of music, is meant to be savored during the quiet times of day. The title track emphasizes the harp and Wickham's tenor saxophone. Wickham's flute is more prominent on "Sais (Egypt)." If I were one to astral project, I would want to return to my body to hear this music. 

Matthew Halsall, Changing Earth 

One memorable track from this EP is the one named "Upper Space." The return of the melody towards the close of this track makes me want to hit the repeat button and to listen to the entire album again and again. 

Tord Gustavsen Trio, Opening 

The addition of Steiner Raknes on bass has allowed Tord Gustavsen to experiment with different sounds. This album has been one that has been playing in my alarm clock for several months now. I love waking up to it.

Background Behind Chapbook

 

The author copies of my chapbook Listening for Low Tide arrived yesterday. I am very pleased to see twenty-five of my poems brought together in this chapbook. 

These poems were written over a period of about thirty-four years. The earliest one, “Sitting Alone, Listening,” dates from 1987 or 1988. That poem was a breakthrough poem for me because it contained my natural writing voice. Both my wife and my friend Derick Burleson have said a lot of good things about this poem; that's partly why it's included.

What connects these poems is an emphasis on listening. I am acutely aware of sound, and that awareness makes itself known in these poems.

I probably have spent hundreds of dollars entering chapbook contests. Over a period of years, I took out poems, added other ones, rearranged the poems, and changed the title several times, only to have editors say things like your poems emphasize a single theme, or your poems are too prosy and too subtle.

After seeing my wife format the winning chapbook and the finalist for our first chapbook contest, and after seeing how well they looked, I decided to let her set up my chapbook. She had been encouraging me to publish with our press, Choeofpleirn Press. We started with a trial chapbook a few months ago. That chapbook then went through another revision, and I solicited blurbs before we published Listening for Low Tide. Although we could have used a picture from Canva, I decided to use one of my own pictures. The cover picture may seem out of place with the idea of a low tide, but the picture matches what appears in the title poem.

Thirteen of the twenty-five poems are appearing for the first time in this chapbook. One downside to including poems not having been published first in literary journals is that I now have fewer poems to send out, but that problem provides more incentive to write new poems and to revise some of the other poems that I have written.

A paper copy of my chapbook is available at Amazon. An ebook for less money is available directly through our press, Choeofpleirn Press.

With the exception of a revised "Kneeling in Prayer," the poems of mine included within this blog are not part of this chapbook. Some of the poems can be found at the following links: Apple Valley Review and Dragon Poet Review and Poetica Review. Those poems published at Dragon Poet Review have undergone a few revisions. "Stenciling Another Kill" in Poetica Review has been revised as well. Apple Valley Review nominated "Those Nights" for the Pushcart.