HARDWICK — Amid shelves piled high with cardboard boxes, bags of fresh carrots and a 3,000-pound bundle of peanuts, Adriana Munch puts the finishing touches on a product that’ll rest on grocery shelves across New England.
Adriana Munch, founder of Green Mountain Peanut Butter, pours a batch of peanuts into the mixer, Thursday, Sept. 19.
Her Green Mountain Peanut Butter brand is one of the few companies in Vermont whipping up peanut butter.
Providing local food options for the community sits at the heart of the 31-year-old’s goals for her business, which is in its third year.
“People in Vermont love to support small businesses because they know the money stays here,” she said.
Adriana Munch inspecting jars to ensure they are completely dry before filling them with peanut butter, Thursday, Sept. 19, at the Food Venture Center in Hardwick.
The smell of nutty goodness wafts out of the Food Venture Center in Hardwick every Thursday as Munch and her partner Christopher Russi blend, smooth and jar their product for the week, yielding 400 jars after a day’s work.
On a recent afternoon, entrepreneurs like them from more than 14 small businesses congregated around the center’s warehouse, sinking their boots into disinfectant and slipping past each other as they hunkered down in kitchens side by side. Jars of peanut butter flew out of one kitchen as freshly picked tomatoes and jalapenos were tossed into another. Workers offered smiles as they slid past each other.
Adriana Munch, founder of Green Mountain Peanut Butter, pours a new jar at the Food Venture Center in Hardwick, September 19.
“If little Adriana could see me now, she would be so proud,” Munch said.
Munch, who lives in Wolcott and grew up in Costa Rica, had dreamed of making her own natural peanut butter since she was nine years old, when her father stopped buying peanut butter over concerns about unhealthy additives, she said.
Jars of peanut butter are being filled for Green Mountain Peanut Butter, September 19.
Munch moved to Vermont for an internship while working towards her international business degree at the National Technical University in Costa Rica. After earning her degree and settling down in Vermont, she got in touch with the Center for an Agricultural Economy, which runs the Food Venture Center as a shared-use warehouse and kitchen for food entrepreneurs.
“They have guided me from day-one,” said Munch, explaining how the center helps small businesses get started by renting out commercial kitchens, which feature industrial-grade appliances that people like her would rarely have the funds to buy otherwise.
Adriana Munch of Green Mountain Peanut Butter fills a tub of peanut butter, Thursday, Sept. 19.
Munch first met with the center in August 2020 when her business was merely an idea, her recipe only a rough draft. Center staff helped her fine-tune the recipe and make a business plan, said Colleen Crist, a production advisor at the nonprofit.
On a typical production day, Munch wields a myriad of rented appliances from the center, which would cost $30,000 to buy. Munch said she rents the kitchen with supplies included for around $35 an hour. She said she has begun to buy her own equipment, hoping to hire new staff and move into her own kitchen soon.
The center can also help small businesses find stores to sell their products, learn how to scale up their recipes and file for licenses, loans and insurance aid, Crist said. And the center has a distribution service for small or rural producers, Farm Connex, that delivers products across the region.
Jars of peanut butter cool off before lids are sealed onto them during production of Green Mountain Peanut Butter, Thursday, Sept. 19, in Hardwick.
More than three years since the first jar of Green Mountain Peanut Butter was sold, the product is being used and sold in over 50 stores, bakeries and restaurants across New England, Munch said. Those include Skinny Pancake restaurants, with seven locations in Vermont.
Siobhan Woods, the manager of Stowe’s Skinny Pancake restaurant, said she is proud to use a product made less than 25 miles from her kitchen. “Supporting local products and local food systems” is a priority for the business, she said.
Adriana Munch of Green Mountain Peanut Butter fills a tub during product production in Hardwick, September 19.
For Munch, the ideal peanut must be not too earthy, perfectly oily, with just the right nutty flavor. She buys her nuts from farmers in Georgia who grow runner peanuts, the variety she likes.
To release all that flavor and oil, Munch double blends her nuts rather than grinding them. How a peanut butter producer roasts their nuts also has an important effect on the butter’s outcome, she said. She dry roasts her peanuts instead of using oil, a move she said is healthier.
Theresa Corologos helps scoop peanut butter out of the mixer, Sept. 19, for Green Mountain Peanut Butter.
A day in the kitchen begins with the two-hour process of cleaning and drying the jars. Next, the peanuts are double-blended in a large bowl and heated to 190 degrees to kill off any bacteria. In a matter of hours, 3,000 pounds of peanuts are twisted and creamed into jars for people to enjoy.
The classic recipe is simple and precise — just peanuts and salt. Green Mountain Peanut Butter also sells flavors like maple cinnamon and honey roasted, which both incorporate locally made products into the original blend, she said.
Munch expressed appreciation for Vermonters’ appetite for small businesses. “It’s a whole nice cycle,” she said. “You help grow small businesses to eventually offer jobs to Vermont people.”
Natalie Bankmann is from the Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship, on assignment for the Hardwick Gazette.
Natalie Bankmann, UVM Community News Service
