This month we’re talking to Jon Weed, owner and creator of one of our most popular items here at Homespun: B. Happy Peanut Butter! Their delicious peanut butter took our shelves by storm and we just can’t seem to keep it in stock. Once you have a sample (ask us for one) you’ll understand why. It’s just not like any other peanut butter you’ve ever had. Not only does this company make an irresistible product, they’re a family business built with love. Learn more about their operation below and don’t forget to stop in and try some!

Introduce yourself! What do you do and where?

Hi There!  I’m Jon Weed, the owner and creator of B. Happy Peanut Butter.  Along with my family (wife-Kathy, Jackson -16, Julia -14, Sawyer -10), we create unique small batch peanut butters that we think are so good, so addictive that our motto is “Eat it with a spoon!”  We live in Zionsville, IN and have our commercial kitchen there also.

How and when did you get started making peanut butter?

This crazy adventure started officially in January of 2013, when we started making peanut butter in our home kitchen just for ourselves and a few friends.  In April of that year, a friend offered her commercial kitchen to us if we wanted to make it and sell it at the Zionsville Farmers Market and her local store.  Thinking this would be a good way to teach my kids about running a small business, we agreed to use the kitchen and B. Happy Peanut Butter was officially started.  Now we jokingly call it “Our lemonade stand on steroids.”

What inspires you?

Although my dad worked for Ford for 33 years and my mom was a stay-at-home mom, both had a very entrepreneurial spirit to them when I was growing up.  I’m a big believer in “The American Dream” and nothing represents that better than the small business owner.  I always enjoy seeing how other business owner do things and we are so lucky to be in a community where business owners really support each other.

Describe the process of making your peanut butters.

I don’t want to give away too much, but we have found the perfect honey roasted peanuts that we grind ourselves and, after many trials and errors, we think we have found great combinations of ingredients to mix in.  White chocolate and pretzels in our Dream Big, chocolate/toffee in our Go Lucky, Snickerdoodle popcorn in our So Happy Together, coconut/almonds/dark chocolate in our Don’t Worry, cranberries/white and dark chocolate in our Joy To The World, apple/cinnamon in our Pay It Forward, raisins/flaxseed/chocolate chip in our Happy Trails Mix and our plain one called KeeP Smunchy, because the texture is somewhere between smooth and crunchy.

Describe your typical day.

My “real” job is as a financial advisor, so I do that during the day, but nights, early mornings and weekends are spent making B. Happy in our own commercial kitchen that we started leasing a year ago.  My wife, Kathy, spends part of her day jarring the B. Happy, making deliveries and shipping it out to our online customers.  The kids help at night jarring, labeling and helping me make it. It truly is a FAMILY business!!

What makes your peanut butter special?

Besides the unique flavors, the main difference is the texture and the honey roasted peanuts.  The honey roasted peanuts give it a great flavor and the texture is what we call smunchy, between smooth and crunchy.  The smunchy texture allows it to be easily eaten with a spoon and we do not have a lot of oil separation because of the texture and the high quality peanut oil that we use.  We hear the word “addictive” from a lot of our customers, so we are proud to have created a world of B. Happy Addicts.

What’s your favorite handmade item that you own?

Besides the hundreds of plates, pictures and Christmas ornaments from my kids, my favorite handmade items are some pieces of artwork we have in our home.  A great painting of Mackinac Island from an artist friend of mine and a painting of the first home I bought in Broad Ripple.

What do you wish people knew about what you do?

I hope that people know how much we appreciate the positive feedback we get about our B. Happy.  There are a lot of late nights of work along with tough decisions of balancing family and work, but to get to hear or read about how much people LOVE our product makes up for all of it.  As I am always saying to people that tell us that, “I never get tired of hearing those words.”  Please keep it coming!

What is your greatest achievement?

Raising kids that I think appreciate what they have and are kind people.  It helps that they see what hard work looks like and that they earn their own money.  We don’t give our kids a weekly allowance, so what they spend is from what they earn and that means they have to make some tough decisions, which I think is good.   It’s not an “achievement,” but I’m blessed to be married to someone that I still love this much after almost 23 years of being together.

What is your favorite part about your job?

I have really enjoyed getting to know the business owners of the stores that sell our B. Happy.  These people work so hard and take so much risk to do what they do and I hope that our B. Happy makes all of their stores a better place.  They are trying to live their “American Dream” and I just respect the heck out of them for doing that.  I also love sending a positive message through our B. Happy.  Kathy would tell you that that is my life motto (Be Happy) and I’m glad to share that with our fans and addicts.  Life is Short – B. Happy!!