Today, March 1, 2014, is National Peanut Butter Lovers Day. Peanut butter is a food paste made primarily from ground dry roasted peanut, actually a legume and not a nut. It is mainly used as a sandwich spread, sometimes in combination with other spreads such as jam, chocolate, vegetables or cheese. The United States is a leading exporter of peanut butter. Cultivated peanuts are native to the eastern foothills of the Bolivian Andes. The origin of peanut butter can be traced back to the Aztecs who ground roasted peanuts into a paste. John Harvey Kellogg patented a "Process of Preparing Nut Meal" in 1895 and used peanuts. Other candidates for inventor of modern peanut butter are George Bayle, who claimed to be making peanut butter as early as 1894, and George Washington Carver, who is often credited as the inventor.
