Passion behind the product 🌸
3 minute read.
Well, what a momentous occasion…..for me at least! My first BLOG. And if you’re reading this then there’s even more for me to be thankful for: my Website, up and running! This time last year it was just a tiny seed of a thought, that perhaps I might just be able to grow the Granola business to something big enough to dedicate a website to.
The support and encouragement that has been put before me and under me and in front of me has been incredible. I wouldn’t be here without it. Thank you to everyone who has been with me on this journey.
I knew nothing of running a business when I moved to Misson in August 2021. I did know how to make granola though, thanks to late nights and late breakfasts spent with friends from South Africa who loved to make good food and share it with good friends.
I discovered that many more friends liked this tasty granola and I began to develop it into a range of healthy breakfast options for my own family. That’s really where the passion came from…other people! Seeing how much everyone loved a delicious, home-made, healthy breakfast just encouraged me more, and so by the time I left Kent I was already being told by friends and family in the food industry that I should market it.
And so I began to dip my toe in the public arena of sales and move well out of my comfort zone. Actually, it was the village school playground that I stood in, dropping my 2 children off every day, and from here I handed out little bags of free samples. The interest was immediate and ‘Better Granola’ was now out there! Word spread quickly. It was very exciting. Some friends had come up with the name for me, a family we’d met through church who were home schooling their children…all very creative and sparky. After munching through a few granola breakfasts, they told me, ‘It’s just better than anything else out there’.
It was more than just the taste though for me. I wanted to make a granola that was better than others because of its ingredients and for its ethics. It is very important to me for health reasons (including for the health of our planet) that my ingredients are organic and wherever possible come from small businesses in the spirit of Fair Trade. I want to know where they come from. I want my business to be part of a chain that supports other small businesses whether they are individual families or part of a community.
I will never forget coming across a small family ‘farm’ in the foothills of the Himalayas (2005) where the whole family were harvesting apricots from their trees to dry on their roof top and take to market. It was all done by hand, not a machine in sight.
The apricots were organically grown because they had no other way to grow them, but the harvesting was labour intensive.
They were utterly dependent on the income from selling their fruit but judging by the disrepair of their farmhouse they were not getting the price they deserved for them. It struck me as so unfair! I don’t think it has to be like that, and I often have this family’s picture in my mind when I’m trying to find suppliers. If what I buy can make a difference to one family’s income I will have helped not just them but perhaps their whole community. I look for small, family run businesses here in the UK too. If they are part of a ‘not for profit’ community business overseas then great. Mission accomplished!
The packaging was important too; it had to be better than others for not using plastics in any shape or form and for being completely recyclable, or better still, up-cyclable. These passions and concerns are ongoing. It’s a challenge to keep these ethics at the forefront of my business but it’s what drives my decision making and I know that there are more and more of you out there who share these concerns and passions and want to invest them in the choices you make when putting food in your shopping baskets.
The name ‘Better Granola’ was beginning to feel like a political statement though, especially in 2024… and so the idea of renaming my product took hold and it was relaunched as ‘Garden Granola’ to allow for more creativity in the field of marketing and to remember my late husband, Rich, who was a passionate and skillful gardener.
I know he would have approved of the use of the tubs as plant pots (when you’ve emptied them of granola of course!) and he would have loved the calendar of seasonal flavours that go so well topped with fruits we can grow here, in our own back gardens.
And so, a part of my heart will always be in the garden, with Rich, and I’m delighted that ‘Better Granola’ grew into ‘Garden Granola’. It’s been an exciting and passionate endeavour to grow a business!
Penny 🌸