Dear friends,
It’s hard to imagine that One Planet Granola is already celebrating its two-year anniversary. This business is truly a dream come true for me and I want to share with all our friends and fans how I began my journey in the food industry. It all started in 2001 when I bought a small coffee shop in Ross, CA that I called Café on the Common. I knew nothing about running a business but I had passion for cooking and sharing my food with people. I was also a single mom with three small children so I had no choice: I had to make this new business work.
I wanted to create a café where customers experienced the nurturing warmth of delicious home cooking the moment they walked in the door. I was a good cook but I was not a good baker. My customers were patient with me while I perfected my muffins, scones and croissants. Once a regular customer took a bite out of a scone and spit it out all over the counter: I had forgotten to add the sugar! It took a few years, but I finally hit on the right mix for all my baked goods. My blueberry and ginger scones drew customers all the way from San Francisco. Over the years, I made and sold over 900,000 scones and the café become a much beloved neighborhood and family gathering place.
The granola we served came from a wonderful local man. Six years ago when he retired and shut down his business I thought, “Now what?!” I searched and searched but couldn’t find an organic granola to satisfy my standards. The obvious answer to my dilemma was to create my own! I created my first batch in the café one day after business hours. My plan was let my customers be my tasters and get their feedback, but I ate the whole batch before the morning. I am not kidding! I made another batch and this time I held my self back so there would be some to serve the next morning. That second batch was a huge hit with everyone and my granola quickly became a café favorite.
When customers started asking if they could buy a pound to take home, I realized that I had hit on something that I could make into a business. And just like the café, I thought well let’s do it. So I started packaging up the granola and selling it in the café. I got excited about exploring different flavors with organic fruits and nuts and came up with eight unique, all-organic flavors. In June 2010, I asked my daughter Sandra to partner with me and we launched One Planet Organic Granola.
My first supermarket order was Woodland Market just down the road from the café. Then I got an order for 30 cases from United Market for two of their local stores. It took me a week to finish that order because I could only bake five pounds at a time in the café oven! Now I have an oven that can bake 450 pounds at a time and One Planet Granola is available at Whole Foods. Every time I get a new order, I can’t believe that people like my granola so much.
Just writing all this down brings up so much emotion, excitement and a great gratitude to everyone who helped us to get One Planet Granola off the ground. Thank you for being part of our life, and thank you for making us part of yours.
Love, Rana
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