It’s National Peanut Butter Lover’s Day! It’s a day to celebrate all those of us that love the creamy (or crunchy) spread. Peanut butter accounts for about half of the U.S. edible use of peanuts—accounting for $850 million in retail sales each year according to the National Peanut Board. With that much in sales, there must be plenty of love to share today!

A form of peanut butter dates back to the Aztecs. They were known to grind peanuts into a paste. This is not quite the peanut butter of today, but is the first known record of the closest thing to it.

The version of peanut butter we all know and love today began somewhere toward the end of the 19th century. The process of manufacturing and the machines to do it can be credited to a couple different sources. In 1884, Marcellus Gilmore Edson of Canada patented peanut paste, the finished product from milling roasted peanuts between two heated surfaces. He never used his patent to make peanut butter though. He used the paste to make peanut candies. In 1895, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, of Kellogg's cereal, patented a process for creating peanut butter from raw peanuts. He marketed it as a healthy protein substitute for patients without teeth or with bad teeth. In 1903, Dr. Ambrose Straub of St. Louis, Missouri, patented a peanut-butter-making machine. In 1922, chemist Joseph Rosefield invented a process for making smooth peanut butter that kept the oil from separating by using partially hydrogenated oil. In 1928, he licensed his invention to the company that created Peter Pan peanut butter. In 1932, he began producing his own peanut butter under the name Skippy. In 1935 Rosefield created crunchy or chunky peanut butter by adding pieces of peanuts back into the mix. And in 1955, Procter & Gamble entered the peanut butter business by acquiring W.T. Young Foods in Lexington, Kentucky, makers of Big Top Peanut Butter. They introduced Jif in 1958 and now operate the world's largest peanut butter plant - churning out 250,000 jars every day!

Fun Facts:

1 acre of peanuts will make 30,000 peanut butter sandwiches. That’s a lot of sandwiches!

Archibutyrophobia (pronounced A’-rakid-bu-ti-ro-pho-bi-a) is the fear of getting peanut butter stuck to the roof of your mouth.

By law, any product labeled “peanut butter” in the United States must be at least 90 percent peanuts.

According to a survey done by Huffington Post in 2014, the best peanut butter and jelly sandwich is one made with strawberry jelly and creamy peanut butter on white bread.

There are six cities in the U.S. named Peanut: Peanut, California; Lower Peanut, Pennsylvania; Upper Peanut, Pennsylvania; Peanut, Pennsylvania, Peanut, Tennessee; and Peanut, West Virginia.

George Washington Carver is considered the grandfather of the peanut. While he didn’t invent peanut butter, he did come up with over 300 uses for peanuts and innovative ways to grow and cultivate the beans.

Peanut shells are used to make kitty litter, wall board, fireplace logs, paper and animal feed. They are also sometimes used as fuel for power plants. Who knew!