Nuts about healthy spreads

FUELLED by her passion for health promotion and whole foods, Christine Alexander has taken to making and selling her homemade peanut butter.

After closing the specialty health food shop along Sturt Street, her and her family had operated for years, Ms Alexander hoped to continue offering the shop’s freshly made natural nut butter.

“We closed the shop in late October last year and then it took me a little bit, until around December to get this one up and running,” she said.

“We used to make peanut butter ourselves in store when we ran the health food store on Sturt Street.

“I kept the machine and thought I would do something with it so I decided to go out on my own and give it a go.”

To keep things as local and high quality as possible, Ms Alexander said she only works with trusted Australian businesses and doesn’t add any extra oil, salt or sugar to her product.

“We get the peanuts from a little supplier in Brunswick and they are from Queensland,” she said.

“They are already lightly roasted and I don’t add any extra oils or anything, then I just grind them and it activates the natural oils and turns into a paste basically.

“It’s totally 100 per cent peanuts, hence the name Au Naturale.”

After refining her recipe and only selling to close friends and family for months, Ms Alexander started supplying for and retailing at a variety of businesses around the city.

Additionally, she said she’s looking forward to setting up shop at her first market at the end of the month.

“I have started stocking cafes, including Europa and Racers … it’s hard as well without a shop front, but hopefully the market and connections will help push the business forward,” she said.

“I’m hoping to do the market at the end of the month around the lake and my idea is to make peanut butter on the spot for people as well as selling the jars.

“I’m also hoping to offer re-fills in the future, but I don’t want to be overwhelmed too quickly so I’m hoping to build it up slowly.”

Utilising a tried and true method of pressing whole peanuts, refraining from any additives and using as fresh ingredients as possible, Ms Alexander said her customers appreciate the high-quality product and often come back for more.

“So many other peanut butters are super oily, so it’s nice to have something on the less oily side, but mainly I think that the fact that it’s locally made really sets it apart from other brands,” she said.

“People are loving it, I’ve had so much great feedback so far even saying it’s the best they’ve ever had.

“I can’t believe the response because I was a bit nervous to start, so the support has been really good.”