Karanga, Karanga, Karanga
Many of the children at the orphange have a lack of protein, so an inexpensive way to fatten them up is peanuts. Peanuts grow in Tanzania like weeds do in Minnesota lawns. So, every morning the children get peanuts. The larger children have no problem eatting a handful of karanga, but the toddlers cannot eat them safely, so they need peanut butter. And guess who makes it– me!! Another job to keep me busy.
Now, there are no machines to make peanut butter, so it is all by hand. We buy the peanuts shelled, but raw and unclean. I first have to clean the peanuts with some water, get the dirt off. Then they have to be roasted in the wood burning stove. I’m not too good at this, so usually Sr. Stella Maris or the workers do it for me. After roasting I have to get the skin off the peanuts because the skin prevents the peanuts from sticking together in the butter. To do this I put the peanuts in a wide basket and rub the peanuts against the bottom. Depending on how many I have, this can take between 20 and 40 minutes to skin the peanuts.
Then I have to put the peanuts in a large mortar and pestal and kutwanga, or pound until I have a paste. This step in the process can take between 30 and 40 minutes. Many times I have the older children help me out. It’s so cold and the clothes these kids have are so poor that they are shivering and the pounding warms them up a bit. And, because they help, they get an extra handful of peanuts.
Because the mortar and pestal still leaves some big chunks, I have to take the paste out and use a wooden board and a glass bottle to make it really smooth. And then you have peanut butter, which the kids love!! I can make about 1 cup of peanut butter in 2 1/2 hours– this will be good for about 2 days with 20 little ones to feed.
I would love to do this process at home, but peanuts are not as cheap and I don’t know how I would get a mortar and pestal home on the plane– but I’ll have to see. I can tell you though that homemade peanut butter with no salt or oil is the best peanut butter you will ever have!!
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