One of the most frequently asked questions we hear from you is, "Is there a Michele?"
The answer is a resounding, YES!
More than a decade ago, Michele set out on a mission in her home kitchen to create an especially delicious granola cereal. When her efforts resulted in a pan of crispy oat-y, nutty chunky granola goodness like she'd never tasted before, she decided to make the leap from hobbyist to entrepreneur, and "Michele's Granola" was born in 2006.
Michele's handmade granola immediately stood out from other products, and it still does today: Michele only bakes with ingredients recognizable as real food, and her granola is baked in small batches, giving every pan and every bag lots of care.
As Michele's Granola grew from a one-woman farmers market show selling a few dozen pounds a week, to a production facility baking for hundreds of grocery stores and food service locations, Michele had several options for meeting that growing demand for her very special handmade cereal:
She could abandon her handmade process and purchase machines to attempt to recreate her granola-making on a larger scale.
She could outsource the baking to a co-packer, a company that manufactures foods for many clients in one plant, removing herself from the hands-on production.
But Michele is committed to doing something quite revolutionary:
Rather than mechanizing or outsourcing production, she is preserving the special quality and character of her granola by maintaining her handmade, small-batch process and simply bringing more people and hands into the kitchen. A team of 35 people bring love, care and pride to Michele's kitchen just outside of Baltimore, contributing to her product in ways she could not have imagined.
We invite you to meet some of the lovely people whose hands and hearts make Michele's Granola today. We also invite you to taste the difference of a handmade product!