My grandparents had an almond orchard, and my dad has some almond trees on his property. I grew up climbing those trees, falling out of those trees, and wandering around the orchard eating fresh almonds. My first job was working for my grandpa in his orchard. I pulled hoses, trimmed branches, and painted baby tree trunks (painting the trunk protects the tree from various negative forces). Because of these experiences I feel as though I have a special authority when it comes to something very basic about almonds: pronunciation. I say “Am-end” because my grandpa said Am-end. He explained that the L was knocked out of the nut when it fell from the tree. Makes perfect sense. Sometimes when I say Am-end I get funny looks from people, obviously people not raised on an am-end orchard. No one says they ate Sal-mon for dinner. They ate sa-mon. So if the L can fall out of the fish, it can fall out of the nut. End of story.
(By the way, Merriam-Webster says my pronunciation is acceptable.)
So, now that we have that out of the way…we’re really here because it’s time you’ve made your own almond butter. I’ve been adding it to our smoothies everyday, but I needed a more cost effective may to consume my favorite nut. So I took some almonds and stuck them in my food processor. They whirled around until they started sticking to the side of the bowl, at that point I turned off the processor and used a spoon to scrap everything back into the middle of the bowl. Turned the food processor back on and continued these steps until I reached the consistency I wanted. It only took a few minutes. I spooned my butter into a glass mason jar and stuck it into the refrigerator.
I haven’t made any other nut butters, but I imagine that any nut will work. And you could also experiment with adding flavors, like vanilla extract or cacao powder. You could also roast the nuts before making them into butter.
I hope you enjoy your homemade am-end butter, regardless of how you pronounce it!
Kim Smith
Hello and welcome! Once upon a time I was a licensed animal nurse. When I had my first child I decided to leave my career and stay at home with baby. Having a child changed my perception of everything...food, products, environment, education, work, life. Everything. Since then I've been on a journey to create a more simple, holistic way of life for my family, to include the cats, dogs and chickens (and any other feathered or furry creature we have). I believe that every choice we make can bring us closer to, or take us farther away from, a harmonious existence. And our wellbeing is multi-faceted, if one area of our life is out of whack it effects everything else about us. What we eat, what we put on and in our bodies, how we integrate with our environment, how we spend our time with loved-ones, how we nourish our brains and imaginations...it ALL matters. I want to share information with you that I find truly valuable in living holistically; taking care of our whole selves. Thank-you for visiting! Kim Smith All photos used are my own, unless otherwise noted.