North Carolina nut butter company grows from love story into award-winning business

DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- What started as a shared love of food and cooking has grown into an award-winning North Carolina business known for its artisanal nut butters, energy bars and more.

Mark and Megan Overbay met in 2010 and quickly bonded over a common passion.

"We really bonded over our love of food and cooking and how food brings people together," Mark Overbay said.

The couple dreamed of starting a food business together. Mark drew inspiration from his time serving in the Peace Corps in Zimbabwe, where he roasted local peanuts and turned them into a paste.

"And I added a little bit of honey and sea salt and coconut oil and it was better than any peanut butter I'd ever bought," he said.

As a side hustle, the couple rented a commercial kitchen in downtown Durham. They began making nut butters, while Megan, an endurance athlete, developed nut butter energy bars.

In 2011, they launched Big Spoon Roasters at the Carrboro Farmers Market.

"We were taking this new culinary approach to nut butter that hadn't been taken before," Overbay said. "We were trying to market and ask people to think about nut butters the way that a lot of people already think about wine or even coffee."

The company quickly gained attention.

"We got amazing press from national press like Bon Appetit, Food and Wine," Overbay said. "We started to get flooded with emails for requests from not just people who wanted to order our products but stores who wanted to bring our products in like big stores like Harris Teeter and Whole Foods."

Fifteen years later, Big Spoon Roasters operates from a large facility in Hillsborough. The company produces multiple flavors of nut butter, with Pistachio Crunch as its top seller. It also sells energy bars, branded merchandise and Wag Butters for dogs.

"They have ingredients like flax and chia seeds and pumpkins and cinnamon and ginger that are good for dogs coats and digestion," Overbay said.

The company's name also has a personal connection.

"My dad's nickname is Big Spoon, because of the way he eats peanut butter," Overbay said. "Right out of the jar with a big serving spoon."

The founders say they have remained committed to their original mission.

"We wanted to source only from like-minded farmers and producers and we wanted all of the products that we made to reflect our values all the way to the consumer," Overbay said. "So we didn't take any outside investors and just did it our way, the whole way."

What began as a love story continues today as a North Carolina-made success story.

SEE ALSO | More NC Made Stories on ABC11