The Providence Granola Project

Back for the Fourteenth

2012-02-01T20:30:00.000-08:00

Spring is early in the air
And so, of course, is love renewed
With Chocolate Cherry 'nola fair
Returned with lovely kirsch imbued*.
Hot from the pans that soft sweet smells
Make drift throughout the neighborhood.
Hastening quick to kiss your lips
And 'long the way to do some good.
Flax, sunflower, barley, walnut, germ,**
Join honey sweet and almond new
To ship out 'ere where you decree
And find your lovely sweetheart true.

*I would have liked to have written "embued," only this is the past form of "embus" which means to put soldiers on a bus. I suppose this could be appropriate if granola were traveling a long ways on a bus, but we use priority mail.
**wheat, that is.

Ah. Okay. Well. I did once publish a poem in my high school paper. I think it sounded just about like that. In fact, I think it was about granola too. Now if someone could just put it to music, that might do the trick. Maybe Celine Dion will help us out. Does anyone know Celine?

But to put that in plain English, we made our first batch of Cherry Chocolate granola last night. Most of the month-club subscriptions went out today and I intend to post it on our online store before I go to bed. We decided to go all out and cut the raisins this year and double the cherries. Other than that it's the same as last year's recipe complete with Ghirardelli chocolate, morsels of candied orange rind, and a nice big kiss of Swiss kirsch.

For you lovers out there, I'll soon be posting a little Valentines special which matches a bag of Cherry Chocolate with a limited run Valentine's edition of Bourbon Pecan. You can order this alone or with a t-shirt. Both recipes contain chocolate and, I admit, veer dangerously close to dessert for healthy breakfast food. Hey, it's Valentine's day. Feel free to include a gift message or poem and Zaid, our shipping manager, will get his practice writing English.

Bringing back a granola we just retired a couple months ago is a first for us, but it just seems like the right thing to do. These are two of most extravagant granolas ever, and a nice way to say, I love you.

Be advised that we will not make the Bourbon granola until next week so packages will ship out on the 8th or 9th.

Cherry Chocolate: Oats (org), honey (pesticide-free, Aquidneckhoney), cherries (w/ sugar, sunflower oil), canola oil (exp pressed), granulated cane juice, coconut (org), sesame (org), barley (org), cranberries (w/ sugar, safflower oil), almonds, oat bran (org), pecans, wheat germ, sunflower seeds (org), flax seeds (org), walnuts, Ghiredelli chocolate, glazed orange peel (sulphured), oat fiber, kirsch, vanilla, cinnamon, sea salt, almond extract.

Bourbon Pecan oats (org), honey (pesticide-free from Aquidneckhoney), cranberries (cranberries, sugar, safflower oil), granulated cane juice, canola oil (org), coconut (org), sesame seeds (org), spelt (org), raisins, pecans, almonds, oat bran (org), wheat germ, sunflower seeds (org), flax seeds (org), walnuts, Ghirardelli chocolate (chocolate, sugar, cocoa butter, milk fat, soy lecithin), bourbon (Wild Turkey), coconut oil (extra virgin), oat fiber, sea salt, cinnamon, almond ext., vanilla, nutmeg.

Announcing our New Web Site

2012-01-20T10:54:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

We’ve been silent for a couple weeks… but here’s our big news: this morning we finally launched our new website at http://providencegranola.com.

So please come visit. Scout around. Learn more about our mission and the refugees who work with us. Find out where you can buy granola. Check out the pictures, blog archives, and links to interesting places. Read some very nice articles written about us. See if you can find our brand spanking new Ginger Zinger label (thank you Becky Joy). Follow us on Twitter if you’re so inclined; sign up to be on our email list (if you’re not already). So much to do, so little time.

This site, I'm proud to say, is not just a template into which we plugged our information. With Geoff’s help I’ve been designing it over the last few weeks; so the html and css code was written by my fingers. If you know me and my phobias of code you will be impressed. The color scheme, you’ll notice, was chosen to integrate with our blog.

It does have a few areas under construction (including a place to interact via Twitter and Facebook), but the essential components are there—at least the bare bones, and hopefully a good sense of what we are all about. Some day we’ll have a fancy-schmancy slide show like everybody else. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to send them. We've yet to work on all the compatibility issues. (Though the screen shot's from iphone, the menus don't yet work there).

While you’re at it, don’t forget to pick up some Amaretto Pear. Our first batch sold out a week ago. We made the second using unsulfured pears, which may not stand out as well (they have a darker color) and are not quite as soft, but, wow do they have a terrific pear taste. I saved a few. I can’t stop eating them. I love them. I even soaked them in a little amaretto liquor to help keep them soft. I think I need one now as a small reward.

A big thanks to all who helped on the site, especially: Dr. Michael Hayden who taught a class in web design I took at RIC, Tim G who helped us launch, update domains, and retrieve our granola store when it got lost in cyberspace, my cyber-savvy kids with their (a bit too) raucous laughter at some of my aesthetic choices, my wife for bearing with me staying up half the nights and being grouchy in the mornings, days on end, Seven Stars Bakery (whose website we love because it's simple and tells stories—and don’t worry, we stole nothing—just some inspiration which we hope is a form of flattery), and Sophie who took up residence in my armchair and kept me in my computer chair (ah, the joys of working from home).

You can thank yourself (in advance), for us, for visiting.

Yours,

Keith

Di Sarrona Amaretto Pera (plus Kiarostami and Juliette Binoche)

2012-01-06T20:42:00.000-08:00

You don’t need to tell me that it’s a very bad habit. I can’t help it. I love it: I climb in bed, half-planning to go to sleep, but then plug in my earbuds, and end up watching a Netscape movie on my iphone. Sometimes half. Sometimes the whole thing.

Sometimes explosions and car chases. This week it was Kiaostami’s Certified Copy (about as awful a title as Abbas Kiarostami is a wonderful name) (and bravo to Netflicks for actually making some interesting stuff available for streaming) (and who are the jerks that gave it 3.5 stars?--Juliette Binoche deserves at least that many just for being Juliette Binoche). Okay, I'm probably being pretentious. I admit I love slow movies and subtitles.

This is a little film. No crashes. No gunfights. Perfect for an iphone with earbuds in bed.

I won’t give too much away in case you watch it, but it does have a long-haired texting teenager, a mediocre bottle of wine, a golden tree before which delightfully superstitious (and impatient) young lovers say their vows. There is waiting and wondering, critiques and interruptions, originals and fakes, walking together and lot of lagging behind. Some memories remembered, others forgotten or lost. There are young lovers and old, believers and skeptics, and one piece of unsought but remarkably astute fatherly advice (this seemed so un-European) from a stranger. (Actually, now that I think of it, there’s some unsought motherly intuition as well—how gratifying when the wise get to share their wisdom, if only by the way they walk and hold each other up.) There’s a secret little prayer (though it’s overseen) whispered in the same church where Juliette removes her bra. (This astounded me: I know next to nothing about Kiarostami, but since when did film-makers start portraying the church as a place to ask for help and experience a little liberation!)

And in each scene, whatever’s going on in the background seems to be what matters most. The foreground—the action, the plot—just keeps getting in the way. Perhaps I should revise my recommendation and caution against a 3.5 inch screen.

What else:

A couple naked statues in a fountain.

Three languages.

Three or four dark flights of stairs.

A marriage bed.

A happy accordion. (While this is no Last Tango in Paris--certainly there’s no wild nameless romanceless sex--there is a top floor, and a Frenchwoman and a Englishman in Italy.)

An open window.

Bells tolling.

An implicit invitation to go ahead and ask for whom they toll.)

There are no refugees, but surely all transplanted people carry some of their loneliness with them. (I just looked him up. Our friend, Kiarostami, is عباس کیارستمی from Iran. No wonder he understands displacement.)

And, no—no granola.

But the reason I bring all this up is that I’ve dared imagine that our January granola wouldn’t be out of place in that little Italian Courtyard.

We’ve named it Amaretto Pear.

Di Saronna Amaretto Pera if you prefer.

Delicate, soft; the sadness of bitter almonds, the sweetness of pears, the wisdom of almond oil.

(And also a few plums, nectarines, and marzipan to keep them company—see below for the ingredients and a confession.)

It comes with artwork by Becky Joy (who gave us her permission to reproduce for commercial purposes her beautiful picture). Check her out via google.

Clearly I’m getting carried away. I will stop. It’s close to midnight. I’m heading to bed. It's late. I have my phone.

One small piece of unsought advice: we made a first batch of 125 pounds, but 80 went out in today’s mail to granola-of-the-month subscribers. You can do the math. We’ll start selling at the farmer’s markets tomorrow. Perhaps we’ll make more. No promises.

Buonanotte.

Oats (org), honey (pesticide-free from Aquidneckhoney), cranberries (cranberries, sugar, safflower oil), almond oil, canola oil (org), granulated cane juice, coconut (org), almonds, sesame seeds (org), barley (org), macaroon paste, pears, oat bran (org), wheat germ, pecans, sunflower seeds (org), flax seeds (org), nectarines, plums, amaretto liquor, oat fiber, sea salt, cinnamon, almond extract, nutmeg, cloves.

Confession: While we usually make every effort to be all-natural, we did include fruit and macaroon paste in this recipe that contain sulfur dioxide or potassium sorbate. The dried fruit is superior quality from Bella Viva Orchards in California. As much as we hate the chemicals, we’ve had lousy luck using (especially stone fruit) without it.

Our big close up on the Rhode Show

2012-01-01T11:35:00.000-08:00

Providence Granola Project Apple Crisp: foxprovidence.com

Miracles

2011-12-24T16:03:00.001-08:00

Interview with Maitham (Part 2. If you missed part 1, skip down the page below the beautiful granola fan a.k.a Mary Louise Parker)

Maitham offered to show me where he got shot. I was interviewing him at table in the Wayland Square Starbucks. That place can be a little drafty in December. He said he’d shown his interviewer at the United Nations in Syria, a lawyer from California—“a nice guy.”

The bullet had gone in through the chest and out the back. Along the way it clipped his liver, and broke three ribs, which in turn damaged part of his diaphragm. But the lung was safe.

“That was the miracle from Jesus,” Maitham said.

I’m no expert in human anatomy, but assuming a straight line between entrance and exit, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of room for a bullet to miss a lung. Maybe he was exhaling.

Once again, I think this is all best in Maitham’s own words:

M: I was on the bridge. I was going to see my cousin. Suddenly I hear a shot. That’s what’s happening—I mean it’s still happening in my country. The terrorist people shooting the new army, because they say the new army, they are lying with the American military, so we have to shoot you. There was a checkpoint in the street to make safety. I was on the bridge. I don’t have any place to run away. The checkpoint started to shoot random. So I get one of the shots.

I think other people they got shot too. But my lung it was safe. If my lung has hole, then I was gonna die. The lung would fill with water and blood and…” (He grabbed his throat.)

K: You couldn’t breathe.”

M: Exactly. When I get shot. I recognized what happened to me. But I was still good. But I was trembling because I didn’t know what happened to me. And I didn’t tell my wife because she was pregnant.

This, I confess, was the point where I was most baffled. I mean how do you not tell your wife you’ve been shot when you’re driving. That would take more than a miracle for me. And it put the story in a broader context. Maitham’s daughter, Masara, now a kindergartener at the Resevoir Ave. school, is a joyful chatterbox. Everyone else in the house calls me “teacher.” Masara calls me “Keith.” And she adores books. I mean, seriously, if you need a home for your kids’ old picture books, Masara’s room is the place where they will be loved. I stopped in at their house last night and, by chance, interrupted Maitham’s birthday party. (He made me promise to tell people’s he’s 22.) I should know better than to ever try to visit an Iraqi home for 5 minutes. Masara blew out her dad’s candles and kissed her dad. Everybody kissed Maitham, myself included, though I needed a little instruction: it's those French-style alternating-sides air-kisses. Maitham explained that among friends everybody kisses everybody in Iraq, men and women alike. But the limit is four—they’re very strict about this. When I finally broke away and found Masara to say goodbye, she was in her room standing in front of the full length mirror, holding a picture book open so that the girl in the mirror could enjoy the pictures, while she “read” to her in English.)

M: My home, it was one kilometer. I get back to my home. My father was there and he get me to the hospital. And Zaid (Maitham’s brother) he was there. He come with me with the car. Because we know there were many, many cars. And Zaid he get out from the car and,” Maitham banged on the table to illustrate pounding on a car top “Please we need a way, please get out. We have accident.”

I was praying on the way. I was like praying on the way “Oh Jesus, forgive me. Maybe I will come to you. Forgive me. Maybe I’m gonna come to you.” I didn’t know I would survive. I didn’t know that my lung was safe until I get to the hospital.

It was a long day, teacher.

That shot spread Maitham’s family out across the world. Some went to Jordan, another Dubai. Most went to Syria because it had the lowest cost of living. Maitham along with his family and two million other Iraqis went to Syria. The planes had standing room only in the aisles. From there, over the years, the dispersion continued around the world. Maitham has a cousin in Sweden, one in Michigan, another in Australia, one in Canada—though most (along with about a million other Iraqis) are still Syria. Waiting. And Syria is no longer a safe place even for it’s own people. Maitham believes that the wound expedited their application. Another miracle in disguise.

Before we left, I asked: “So what do you like most about living in America.”

M: It was a dream for us. Oh! I am in America?! I used to just hear about living in America... It’s nice. Very nice country. I don’t know, everything is nice here. Especially the safety. You can live safely here.

K: What did you find the most surprising?

M: Here? Ah… let me think. I don’t know how to describe it. When we used to live in our country… here we get more respectness. I mean the people here respect each other. For example, if you go to the hospital in my country and you ask about something at the desk. They say, (shouting) “Hey. What do you need.” Here the people say “Hi, how are you. How can I help you.” I mean, the people here have more respectness between each other. The human being, he have rights. That’s a difference. We used to live in a very very big jail. It was a jail, my country. You have freedom here.

It’s a nice compliment. I know it’s not always true. Even I have been shouted at by one of Maitham’s neighbors. And I have met Iraqis who are afraid to take the bus in Providence because they’ve been harassed.

But hey. An earnest compliment. We can all savor that for a moment.

So happy holidays everyone. Merry Christmas. Happy Hannukkah. Prospero Año y Felicidad. Thanks for employing refugees and buying our granola. We had over 150 orders come in this month—including some today—and the web site is always open if you, like me, specialize in late Christmas or early New Year’s gifts. (Although if you’re ordering subscriptions, please make it clear in your notes if you prefer a December or January start. We’ll get it in the mail as soon as we can.) I'm off to Ohio, but Zaid is here manning the granola fort. For you locals, we're on the shelves that the University Heights Whole Foods, and the farmer's markets will be open on the 31st.

Keith

Celebrity Endorsement Alert

2011-12-19T20:56:00.000-08:00

Granola, Cigarettes, Ali, and Advent

2011-12-17T09:53:00.000-08:00

Advent. Season of waiting. Season of distraction.

Season of my eldest daughter’s birthday party. As I’m writing our house is full of girls. It’s been a true all-night—giggly, at moments slightly shrieky, and always shockingly happy—girl fest. They keep blasting Bono, maybe to make sure I don’t feel lonely. But I’m not.

We granola workers have worked hard this Advent, so I decided to reward myself Thursday with a visit to Starbucks with Maitham, one of the refugees. I figured I’d interview him, and share part of his story with you (along with a reminder that right now—meaning today and tomorrow—is the time to order granola if you want it to arrive before Christmas). There. Got that out of the way. But it’s important. What’s a Christmas without Holly Jolly Ginger.

Anyway, I recorded about an hour of conversation just because I have an iphone and ican. This morning I started listening, thinking I’d jog my memory for a few minutes and put together a short blog.

Next thing I knew, the hour had slipped by. I’d listened to the whole interview, without putting a single note on paper. Which should tell you what a compelling storyteller Maitham is—despite his limited English; sometimes because of his limited English! (Are you out there, Ira Glass? Maybe it’s time to run a few stories on refugees.) Not to mention his hope, his gratefulness, his laughter, his self-reflections, and his openness.

I asked Maitham all kinds of things ranging from getting shot in Iraq, to escaping to Syria and the troubles and family members still there, to his ill-fated attempt to request asylum in Sweden, to how he feels becoming an American and the hopes he has for his new life in Rhode Island.

But all this will have to wait. If I’m going to send out a blog, it has to go now, so I’ll simply transcribe part of our conversation about cigarettes along with a few explanatory comments. This conversation started with cholesterol. Apparently Maitham’s doctor has introduced him to this particular American worry. I tried to offer a little advice:

Keith: Eat a lot of granola, that’s good for your cholesterol. The almonds, the walnuts, pecans. Nuts are good for your cholesterol.

[This was meant as a joke—though it’s true. We did laugh.]

Maitham: Ah.

Keith: And also if you exercise.

M: Yes, teacher, I need to walk, but it’s cold, teacher.

[I don’t particularly love being called “teacher,” but it was my position when I started this company. I wonder if it’s stuck primarily because my name is hard for English learners to pronounce. I’ve given up on trying to stop it. I explained that there are two types of cholesterol. I did seem to take an instructional tone.]

K: You can go up and down the stairs at Amos house. Carry things up and down.

M: Yes, that’s what I’m doing. And I got the machine, you know. Don’t you carry it anymore. I will do it.

[Our sealing machine weighs about 60 pounds. This is coming from a guy with a gunshot wound. I don’t think lifting that machine is easy for him. I had just found out that a bullet went through his chest and broke 3 ribs, which in turn damaged his liver. Miraculously—this is Maitham’s word choice—the lung was spared. Maitham is a Christian and not shy about thanking Jesus for his life.]

K: Or you could stop smoking.

M: You know, teacher, I tried. From what happened with my daughter, when we just come back from the hospital.

[Maitham’s second daughter was born just last month with the major vessels to the heart transposed. Miriam had heart-surgery in Boston. She is now home, and doing just fine. Another miracle. Miriam would not be alive if Maitham had not fled Iraq.]

M: I tried to smoke only a little bit, teacher. Outside, and in the car, every 3 hours. Yeah. I do what I can do. I do my best. Sometimes when I try. I wake in the morning. I say, “I’m not going to smoke.” Until 12 o’clock, until one o’clock, I feel nervous. I feel I need to punch something. It’s addiction. That’s the problem, teacher. I mean, I want to see the guy who created the cigarette. I want to punch him teacher. Maybe I will say thank you. I don’t know. Maybe I tell him thank you, maybe I’m going to punch him.

[We had a good laugh about this irony. It’s amazing. Successful humor across cultural and language barriers is not easy.]

Have you heard about Ali? He was Mohammed’s cousin. The Shi’a people, they love Ali. That’s the Shi’a people. They love this guy. So he said, “If the illness and sickness was a guy. I will kill him?” You know what that mean?

K: You tell me.

M: He mean, he hate the illness for everybody. I love that saying. So that guy who created the bad things in the world, maybe you need to kill him. Tell him, “Why do you do this—the people they got--” But for the guy who created the cigarette, for me I don’t know. Maybe I’m going to kick him. Maybe I’m going to say thank you.”

You know what I feel sometimes? If I don’t smoke, if I try to stop completely… when I wake up in the morning I feel my body is like maybe somebody give me an anesthetic. I don’t feel my body. I just want to smoke. Then I feel wake up. I feel happy.

When we went to Sweden. We went illegally. We went to Asmir—a city in Turkey. From Asmir with a small ship to one of the Greek islands, and from this island, to Athens. Nine hours. When we tried to get the fake passports and we get in the airport, they catch us. So we go to the jail for 4 days. Teacher, I didn’t care about anything. The government there, they know the Iraqi people they just run away from the bad situation. So they be very nice to us. When he close the—what is it? [gesturing]

K: Handcuffs

M: Yes. He asks me, does it hurt? If I say yes, he will open it a little bit. Look how they are nice with us. But we go to the jail for 4 days. Two days in the jail in airport.

K: What? They have a jail in the airport?

M: Yes. Somebody come. He says, “follow me.” All of us from Iraq. He get all the fake passports. And we follow him to jail. Yeah it was very funny. And the problem wasn’t the jail—there was no smoking in the airport. That was my crazy days. After two days we went to the court. They closed us in the truck. I got a cigarette from a guy. I don’t even know where he’s from. I was very nervous and I was fighting with Zaid [Maitham's brother who also works for us]. I was saying, we’re not going to go on. We’ll go back to Iraq. But when the man gave me a cigarette, I was like. I got courage now. I was smiling.

For now, this will have to be our advent granola blog. If you hurry, there is still time to order granola and have it arrive before Christmas. Otherwise—maybe this is even better—you can still order a granola-of-the month subscription to start in January. You will improve someone's health and happiness and we will thank you for buying the granola that allows us to provide work for people like Maitham.

We wish you blessings. And courage. May “that guy” who created illness and trouble and “bad things” in the world (maybe even cigarettes) be destroyed. And may you have joy and peace.

Keith & Geoff

Out of the Rain

2011-12-08T07:47:00.000-08:00

Yesterday’s 4:30 afternoon phone call was, according to my phone, from Lian Cung, our new employee from Burma. I was squatting on the floor poking at our sealing machine with a screwdriver in hopes of fixing it.

“Is you the taxi?”

“No, I’m the granola guy.” I don’t love the title, but it’s sometimes convenient.

“You isn’t the taxi? Oh. I thought this guy was calling a taxi to pick him up cuz’ he don’t know where he is.”

Lian doesn’t speak any English yet. He was also supposed to start work at 4:30. If he didn’t show I was going to have to figure out plan C for picking my kids up from school. My wife—(Plan B)—has been out of town.

“He’s my employee. Tell me where you are and I’ll come get him.”

It was pouring rain. Enough to turn some streets into little rivers. I had soaked my feet just getting from the parking lot to the kitchen.

"He’s at -------." “What?” "-------!" "What?"

I’m not a Providence native, but I know these streets pretty well. For the life of me I couldn’t grasp what the guy was saying. But we finally figured it out. I jumped in the car, pulled over at a corner where a drenched new employee emerged out of the darkness.

So it’s 0 for 2 on map reading for Lian. Although 2 for 2 on being resourceful. (I never met this week’s good Samaritan.) I’d even given Lian a driving tour of the neighborhood when I found him last week: the bus stop on Broad; Friendship where Amos House is located; the back entrance on Pine. I made him repeat all the words.

We did the tour again.

“3 O’clock!” he told me a few times.

Apparently he’d been wandering around in the rain for an hour and a half. Really it doesn’t surprise me. Every time I’ve been in a foreign country I’m amazed by how everything looks similar. Subtlety gets lost in novelty. Hard rain doesn’t help. I wondered if he came at 3 to avoid finding it in the dark. And waiting until 4:30 probably suggests how hard it was for him to ask for help.

I did hand him my screwdriver once we arrived. He had the sealer running in the few minutes before I needed to leave to pick up my kids. Then he maneuvered all 60 pounds of it upstairs. I doubt he weighs much more than 120 himself.

This is all a long way of saying that it’s training that makes running a granola company fun for me. And people who have been denied a lifetime of opportunity like nothing better than being trained. This week, Zaid has taken over our ecommerce site, managing the email, the orders, buying postage, a few phone calls. My main rule with him has been to call me if he doesn’t understand something. We’ve gone from about 50 calls on Monday to about 10 yesterday. None (so far) today. That’s an impressive learning curve. Don’t let anyone say that someone who didn’t grow up with computers and web sites can’t figure this out.

This is also an even longer way of reminding you that Providence Granola is at the ready to service all your granola needs. We’re very busy, but eager to be even busier. The web store is open. A Granola of the Month subscription, in particular, is a one-of-a kind gift that can keep nourishing and delightiong year round.

Skim down a couple entries on our blog to read about our specials. And while your at it, you can waste a few minutes watching our television debut.

Three other things:

a) I am delivering to Whole Foods this morning. So one way those of you who are in the Providence area could really help us out is to move it off their shelves. Let them know we are serious.

b) A number of you have expressed interest in collecting and combining granola orders to save on shipping—or just to help us out. I’m attaching a form (to email recipients) that you are welcome to use for group orders. Just emailing a scan or photo of it would be enough to get it off to you.

c) We’ve had a few questions about shelf-life. We are putting a 6 week “Best by” date on the granola going to Whole Foods. Really granola should keep for a few months, but I think it loses some flavor after a few weeks. We generally don’t sell granola unless it’s been made in the last two weeks or has been frozen. Our granola does keep exceptionally well in the freezer or fridge, so that’s where I would recommend keeping anything you don’t plan to eat today.

Unintentional (yet intentional) Hide and Seek

2011-12-02T13:13:00.000-08:00

Hi fearless granola eaters,

In the growing craziness of December, Geoff and I were talking about our mission, so I took a few minutes to look back through the list of everyone who has worked in our little granola factory to date.

So far we’ve employed 22 people.

19 had never held a job before in the United States.
11 had minimal English—meaning they understood little more than greetings
6 were not literate in their own language
1 was a college grad with computer expertise

Of these 22

13 moved on to full-time jobs
1 (a high school student) moved on to a part-time job
4 presently work part-time jobs while continuing to work with us (1 is now our manager, another is in training to take over the shipping and data management).
1 moved and we don’t know if he’s working
1 left because she went on disability
1 started her own business and is still (unsuccessfully) trying to leave
1 we just hired this week

Our newest employee, Lian Cung (last name is pronounced Tchoung), is a new arrival originally from the Chin province of Burma. He lived in Malaysia for a while after fleeing Burma and before being offered the opportunity to resettle in Providence. He has a wife and, I’m guessing a two year old—which I only know because they accompanied him to his first day on the job. It was all quite comical since I’d given him a map that he obviously couldn’t read and my phone number and the two of us were playing an unintentional game of hide and seek on streets around the kitchen. (I usually ask new employees to find the kitchen on their own as an initial challenge and learning opportunity. I wonder if he brought his wife because she’s more comfortable with maps.) He finally found a passerby (who had a thick accent I could barely grasp and a kind heart) who read the street signs to me over the phone so I could locate him. We all had a big laugh; I think the passerby had as much fun as I did.

Lian replaces Pa Say who found a full time job without staying with us long enough for me to even get a picture. Lian’s a very slight man, but he seemed to have no problem stirring the 125 pound batch of granola that sometimes gives me a backache for a week. Evon, our kitchen manager, loves it when I hire Burmese—because, as she puts it, “he does good work. He works hard. He works fast.” Honestly, you don't need to speak a lot of English if those are your credentials.

It is especially fascinating to be working with Burmese during the very week that our Secretary of State was making the first official US visit to Burma in over a half-century. Seeing Clinton hugging Aung San Suu Kyi on the evening news nearly took my breath away. I’m probably not allowed to use these pictures but I love them too much not to put them up here just for a few days.

Thanks for enjoying your granola and being part of this adventure.

Top picture: (msnbc) http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/02/9161922-hillary-clinton-embraces-aung-san-suu-kyi-following-historic-talks

Bottom picture: (usa today) http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2011-12-02/clinton-burma/51577246/1

Providence Granola Holiday Gift Guide

2011-11-28T11:24:00.001-08:00

Dear Granola Friends:

The following is your shopping guide for the Providence Granola Project webstore which you can reach through our website or by visiting: http://shop.providencegranola.com/.

As we mentioned in our last blog post, this holiday season will define the course of our future, so we would like to invite you to think about making granola your holiday gift of choice. It does make a terrific gift. Dinner parties, something for office colleagues, a little gift to yourself and your healthy diet resolutions... not to mention planning ahead for the munchies on long road trips (so you don't just eat M&Ms and Pringles).

A month-club subscription is cool way to keep your gift arriving right through the winter or around the year. Plus our new t-shirts (in 3 great colors) are bound to be the new fashion rage from Providence to Los Angeles.

We know our granola is a premium product, but we also know that it's a good deal. Our overhead is about as low as a company can get. If you went out and bought the same high quality raw ingredients and tried to make it yourself, you would never be able to make it for this price.

We've put together some cool gift packages that combine granola with granola fashion wear. All our specials are now posted, but this email should help explain the possibilities.

Gift Packs:

Two Bag Gift Pack: Includes 2 bags of granola (Original, Holly Jolly Ginger) a t-shirt, and a thank you note signed by a refugee employee.
Three Bag Gift Pack: Includes 3 bags of granola (Original, Holly Jolly Ginger, Original Muesli) a t-shirt, and a thank you note signed by a refugee employee.

Please Note: The two- and three-bag gift packs are a great way to save over ordering individual items.

The Deluxe Holiday Gift Pack and the Deluxe Holiday Gift Pack Extraordinaire: each includes collections of some of our best granola and muesli recipes along with fashion wear and a hand-written note from one of our refugee employees.

Please Note: The deluxe packs are intended for present and future aficionados of PGP who not only need their small mountain of granola but also love supporting our mission. Part of the costs involves coaching time to help one of our employees compose a thank you note in English. Shipping and handling are included.

Also Important: Gift packs will start shipping around Dec 5^th (when the t-shirts are ready). We will send orders ASAP unless you make it clear to us (with a note as you check out) that you prefer that we wait until a later date. All packages will ship by priority mail.

Free T-shirt Special with Granola of the Month subscriptions:

As usual, GOTM subscription are available for 3, 6, and 12 months. These make great gifts. For every 12 months of granola you order as gifts between now and Christmas (this can include self-gifting), we will send you a free t-shirt.

Important: Our database will track the sum total of the months of granola you’ve ordered, so this could include four 3-month subscriptions or various combinations of months. You don’t need to order these gifts all at the same time.

Also Important: We’ll email you a coupon code when your orders reach 12 months. Then you can select the exact t-shirt you want right off the webstore.

Also: Granola orders will always ship ASAP unless you tell us otherwise. (T-shirts ship December 5th.) If you prefer that the first month of a subscription start closer to Christmas or in January, you must make this clear in the note at checkout.

Free Shipping Special:

The final special, is that any order for over $75 to a single address gets free shipping. We will offer this from now through January 1^st. (Gift packs can be included with free shipping.)

The scoop on t-shirts

Thanks for all who responded to our survey on t-shirts. By far, the most “votes” were for putting our oval logo on front and the divers scene on the back—so that is exactly what we did. The front logo is about 4 inches, centered (includes URL) and the back is about 11 x 8 inches. We also took your advice on a more fitted-style lightweight shirt with different cuts for men and women. Our web store shows a white shirt—but they are actually available in 3 colors (and not in white). We did need to raise the price slightly (to $21) to cover the extra screens and the fitted-quality shirt.

Shirts will be available (while they last) in the following colors and sizes:

Women:

Heathered Charcoal: XXL, XL, L, M, S

Denim blue: XXL, XL, L, M, S

Olive: XL, L, M, S

Men

Heathered Charcoal: XXL, XL, L, M, S, XS

Denim blue: XL, L, M, S, XS

Olive: XL, L, M, S

We appreciate your going on this ride with us. It's all a bit complicated, we know. Big companies can custom order premium websites and the assistance to run them. We're novices at finding our way around in cyberspace. But we're getting there. The good part is, that if there is a problem and you need to leave us a message toll free at 1-855-628-4897 (or, you gotta love this, 1-855-OAT-GUYS) you will be helping one of our employees (Zaid) to practice all the skills he is learning. He will call you back (or Geoff or Keith will if he gets confused.)

Happy shopping.

Love, Keith and Geoff

Granola takes on Yellow Tail

2011-11-23T19:48:00.000-08:00

There's a lot going on at PGP.

First, a staffing update: We are taking the plunge to move Zaid, a refugee from Iraq who has been with us for most of the year, into Krystal’s position of managing our shipping and customer service.

Krystal, who has helped hold us together this year is taking the plunge of opening her own business. While we don’t deserve any credit for this bold move on her part, we’d like to take some anyway, because we would love to be in the business of helping people starting businesses. Krystal, we will miss you. Thanks for not leaving quickly. And go for it.

Those of you who have met Zaid at farmer’s markets probably have some idea how sharp he is. He learns quickly, has an eye for details, is not shy about asking questions, and doesn't pretend to understand when he really doesn't—all qualities we need. The technology, of course, is new to him, so this is a big step.

The other good news is that orders will start going out in on a daily basis in December. And Zaid will be more available to return messages left on our new 800 number. What you—our customers—need to know when calling Zaid is to speak slowly and enunciate carefully. This is particularly important if you are from Cranston (or Alabama.) But to clarify: this does not mean shout: Zaid is neither dense nor hard of hearing; you're slowing down your speech just to speed up comprehension. And if Zaid doesn't understand after a couple tries--then Geoff or I will give you a call.

Second: This holiday season will define the course of our future. Our hope is to do about $30,000 in sales over the next month. So we would like to invite you to think about making granola your holiday gift of choice. Granola really does make a terrific gift. A month club subscription can stretch your gifts through the bleak winter or even through the year. If subscriptions aren’t your cup of tea, we are posting number of gift packages including t-shirts (in 3 great colors) in our web store and at the winter markets.

Here’s another idea. A number of our frequent customers have told us that they now take a bag of granola as a gift to dinner parties. The last dinner gift I took someone was a bottle of (relatively cheap) Yellow Tail, so with this in mind, I put together a little head to head comparison:

Bag of Originola	A bottle of Shiraz Yellow Tail Wine
6.95	6.99 (or more)
Unique gift—suggests real thoughtfulness	yawn
Can eat it first thing in the morning and all through the night	Raises eyebrows before 5 pm
Leftovers are still good for a few weeks (longer in the fridge)	Goes sour in a few days; tastes funny cold.
Lots of fiber	No fiber
Uses local ingredients	No local ingredients
Up to 70% of price benefits RI’s local economy (and we need it!)	Maybe about 15% of price benefits local economy
Can be delivered right to your door	Pick it up yourself
Likely to inspire a new granola customer	Absolutely no chance of inspiring a new granola customer
Could wake up your host to all kinds of issues of social importance—especially if you direct them to our blog	Likely to make your host very sleepy
Could inspire deep conversations including (but not limited to) refugees, world events, the local economy, the locovore movement, the benefits of oat fiber, the minerals in dehydrated cane juice, Jules Verne, and whether vegans should find it acceptable to eat raw honey	“Sure is cold and rainy today.” “How's the cheese?” “Pass the salt please.”
No animals were injured in manufacturing (not even bees)	What’s the deal with kangaroo tails anyway?
Distance in miles from production point to pickup: Pawtucket—about 3; North Kingston—about 18; California—about 3000	Distance in miles from production point: over 10,000 miles, easy. Probably a lot more.

Carbon footprint of transporting stand-up pouches: 1/25 of glass	Carbon footprint of transporting glass: 25 times that of pouches
If you apply the 5 second rule, a spill involves no loss at all	A spill will not only ruin your white pants, but the 5 second rule can’t be applied.
Kids like it	Kids can’t even try it

I could go on, but you get the idea…

Just a little something to think about on this Happy Thanksgiving. Please stop in at our web store to see our Holiday specials including our new t-shirts.

Geoff and Keith

Advice on T-shirts

2011-11-17T19:44:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,

If you're on our email promotion list, just ignore this email. It's exactly the same. Or you can make a comment here if you didn't to the email.

With the holiday season around the corner, we thought we'd give you an additional option for gift-giving: the official Providence Granola Project t-shirt! Our initial design incorporated a selection of Recipe of the Month labels, but to replicate the variety and richness of the colors on a t-shirt would have been cost-prohibitive. We may offer that design as some kind of poster, but for now we have settled on three options for the final t-shirt product.

Two of the options involve a fuller presentation of our signature "deep seadivers" image whose connection to granola is still a bit elusive even to us. We just liked the image and it's taken on a life of its own. Another option is the simple oval logo. A third is a tryptic of sorts that provide a glimpse out submarine-like portholes. (These are quick mock-ups--the finished product will be more polished.)

So here is where we can use your help. Two questions (but one is a two-parter).

Question one: would you buy a fashionably colored Providence Granola t-shirt ($19) and if so do you have suggestions on colors (we plan to go with a top quality, "perfect weight" style t-shirt in a darkish palate of colors including black).

Question two: which design do you like best? Option 1, 2, or 4? (3 has already bit the dust). We're leaning towards 1 but need some confirmation. (Or would you concur with some facebook responders who like a small logo (2) on the front with some form of 1 or 4 on the back?

Your input will really help us as we move forward with ordering t-shirts to be ready for the holidays. We plan to offer a gift special that combines a sampler of 3 different bags of granola/muesli and a shirt, so even if you don't want one for yourself, what would you be excited about giving someone else?

Thanks, as always. Back in our days at Brown we designed some killer t-shirts, but we're not in our twenties anymore and sometimes feel a little fashion-challenged.

We know we are a very lucky little company to have such invested granola-buyers. We hope to get our order in next week, so get your druthers in soon.

Geoff and Keith

PS stay tuned for the details of our annual holiday promotions for granola.

Option #4

Strange happenings

2011-11-11T10:40:00.000-08:00

In a whisper, Evon, our manager, confided that she ate half a bag of Bourbon Pecan in the morning, then felt strangely warm, light, tipsy for the rest of the day. Almost like floating. “Could it be all that whiskey?” she asked. She hadn’t yet compared notes with her sister, who ate the other half of the bag.

Bola, who claims that people from Nigeria don’t go for sweet stuff (like granola), was trying to purchase some for a friend who works at RISD.

Maitham could be heard singing while he packed.

I myself woke up in the night and snuck downstairs without turning on the lights and opened a fresh bag and ate a piece. Later, I began experiencing impulses to give it away. Bags of it. Some things you figure out with your taste buds, others by your impulses. I always know something’s good when I start giving it away.

To back up: there were moments Wednesday when we feared that this granola did not wish itself to be made. At home, with the prototype, it took about 15 minutes to bring the sugar to 240 degrees. At Amos House this took over two hours. Two—at a rolling boil. Can anyone explain that?

My wife had to jog to her meeting because I had the car. My daughters had to forage the fridge for dinner. When I poured the Wild Turkey into the sugar, it was like Eyjafjallajökull erupting, with an aroma more difficult to describe than Eyjafjallajökull is to say. Even so, two hours was barely sufficient to crystallize the sugar into praline. We beat those nuts; arms like wind mills. A Don Quixote moment if there ever was one. The granola was done and needed to come out of the oven. In my pocket, my phone buzzed, unheeded.

Maitham arrived in the middle of this ready to amuse us with his latest English joke.

“This is a crisis,” I told him. “Quick. Wash hands. Put on gloves.”

“What’s a crisis,” he asked, but I couldn’t think how to define the word in the middle of a crisis…though he was already aproned and furiously soaping up. This is what makes on-the-job English learning so marvelously effective.

Once the praline finally started to set, we made an assembly line mixing in the nuts and stirring in the chocolate.

“A crisis is like a bad surprise,” I said, to ease the tension. “Things go wrong. We don’t know what to do. We try to do something.”

“Like my country,” Maitham said. “Iraq is always in crisis.”

I had to work the nuts in with my (gloved) hands while Evon stirred in the chocolate and the two of them conferred in Arabic.

In hindsight, we should have put the pans back in the oven for 15 minutes. Evon called me a few hours later to say that only half of the granola had clumped into our signature super-size chunks. The other half crumbled. (Whatever you may think of our chunks, they are not easily made. We’ve already decided that if we start stocking the shelves at Whole Foods, it has to be a chunkless edition.)

When I told Evon not to pack the rest and that we’d heat it up again tomorrow, I thought she might cry. This is because she said, “I’m going to cry." Not because she minds the work. Evon works hard. She just likes the granola to be perfect. She has this theory that if granola is not made with love, then it won’t taste lovely. There needs to be love in the kitchen. Love between the people working. I should get her to write a blog on the subject, but it would probably have to be in Aramaic and a bit Zen, but we’re all on board with it. We respect the ingredients; fashion them with love.

But there’s the adversity that leads to failure, and another kind that turns granola into a marvel all its own that really needs a name yet to be invented. Maybe something like Eyjafjallajökullola. For now we’re calling it Bourbon Pecan. The pecans and walnuts melt in your mouth. The chocolate, which we added last minute (on your advice) hides and waits like a treasure before it melts in your mouth. We all agreed it’s one of our best. (Though if we make it again, I swear I will make the praline the day before.)

And fair warning: to compensate for the higher price of the pecans and Wild Turkey, we are charging an extra dollar per bag. (Month-club members receive their monthly 1 lb allotment as usual.) This is our first attempt at a premium “dessert” granola. It’s a little sweeter; a little higher in calories. We do see ourselves as a health food company, so we pray that this one will be especially good for your soul. We highly encourage giving it away. You’ll have to let us know if it makes you warm and light (or summons you from bed in the middle of the night).

Zaid, our new shipping coordinator, is packing month-club boxes as I write. It will also be available at the Pawtucket Winter Market and the season’s first Coastal Winter Market tomorrow.

Ingredients: oats (org), honey (pesticide-free from Auidneckhoney), cranberries (cranberries, sugar, safflower oil), granulated cane juice (org), canola oil (org), coconut (org), sesame seeds (org), spelt (org), raisins, pecans, almonds, oat bran (org), wheat germ, sunflower seeds (org), flax seeds (org), walnuts, Ghirardelli chocolate (chocolate, sugar, cocoa butter, milk fat, soy lecithin), bourbon (Wild Turkey), coconut oil (extra virgin), oat fiber, sea salt, cinnamon, almond extract, vanilla, nutmeg, and a whole lot of love.

The praline is made with dehydrated cane juice and a little coconut oil (and without cream or butter to maximize shelf-life). This granola contains almonds, walnuts, pecans, wheat, milk (fat) and soy (lecithin).

If you intend to hoard this granola (or any of our granolas) beyond a couple weeks, we recommend that you do so in fridge or freezer.

And finally, on completely different subjects--THANKS to all who have commented on our recent blogs. We really appreciate it. And if you follow us on Twitter, you may see this blog again. I'm planning to send parts of it out in 140 character increments.

Eight cylinders (and a baby)

2011-10-31T10:19:00.000-07:00

A spark plug went out on my Volvo last week. Actually it was the $250 plastic thingy that supposedly controls the movement of the spark to the piston but the effect was the same. The “check engine” light start blinking. The warning panel directed me to bring the car to a stop and turn off the engine as soon as possible.

I made my calls to Triple A and my garage, and then sat there thinking about a guy named John Slaiger, who was a pastor (now-retired) who lived and worked in South Providence. My wife and I used to (yes, a long time ago) bring groups of Brown students for immersion experiences in South Providence. We’d sleep in the basement of John’s church and participate in various soup kitchens and building projects during the day. In the evenings we’d play cards and talk about what we were learning and John would always find a scrap of paper and teach us his “8-cylinder model” for understanding poverty.

Family

Employment

Physical health

Education

Mental health

Spiritual health

Community

Housing

Something like that, only at a slant. (Shucks--community and housing are left off. Plus, I tried to change the text direction and narrow the columns, alas my html skills are deficient.) The point was that an engine needs all eight cylinders in order to function. If we are interested in empowering people, we can’t put blinders on and focus on only one “cylinder” of their lives. Well we can, of course, but it doesn’t work.

For example: suppose you help a single mother find a job. On their first day of work, the new employee’s mother, who is supposed to pick up the kids and walk them to the bus stop, gets a headache and doesn’t show. So the kids miss the bus; the new employee shows up late. She might not lose that job, but it makes for a lousy start.

Or another: Someone starts a hotel job in Newport which involves catching an early bus in the morning and returning late at night. Meanwhile, his/her teenager starts getting in fights at school. Then what? Supposing this is a refugee who didn’t arrive with a community that can support a floundering teenager--then should the employee quit their job? Any job that seems counterproductive to stabilizing the family or seems to hurt the people you most care about isn’t very attractive.

The job developers at the International Institute used to tell us that getting someone a job (even in this economy) was the easy part. The hard part was helping them keep the job. While a job might be the most crucial “cylinder” in empowering people towards self-sufficiency, it couldn’t function by itself. Job developers couldn’t afford to ignore the other aspects of refugees’ lives if they wanted them to keep their jobs. Consequently job development and education and social services had to work together.

Of course, these same cylinders affect all of us. What’s variable is how comprehensively a misfire destabilizes a person’s life. At the risk of mixing metaphors (though strangely appropriate with snow on the ground in October), it might be a bit like standing on a floating patch of ice, vulnerable to tipping over with a shift of weight in any single direction. What’s different for many below the poverty line is that the patch of ice is smaller and less stable. When my car broke down, I pulled out my iphone and informed Triple A, and my garage within 5 minutes. I was especially sweet to the Triple A call-person and I suspect she expedited a dispatch. Within a half hour the Triple A guy had already dropped me off at home, and I had borrowed my sister’s car and was on my way to pick up walnuts for our batch of granola.

A refugee on their way to a job wouldn’t usually belong to an auto club. Their Trakfones are often running out of minutes. They don’t carry Visa cards. Their language skills don’t always permit sweet-talking. It wouldn’t surprise me if a refugee in that situation just left the car and hopped on a bus—and then spent their day’s wages paying the towing and storage fee.

Returning to John’s analogy: one thing I love about it is the suggested power of 8 cylinders. In a day when most of drive 4’s or 5’s—his image steers away from pity. The spark plugs might be misfiring, but once those cylinders start working, the impact of all that resilience and those survival skills is going to be powerful. Our city needs resilience and survival skills right now and who better to show us how to use them than refugees? This is one reason Providence needs to keep settling refugees. Try getting involved in one of their lives—you’ll be surprised how much you learn.

One of the ways I’ve been learning is by watching one of our PGP employees, named Maitham Wadia, who just had a baby. The doctors knew the baby had heart problems so the C-section took place in Boston and the baby's operation was last Tuesday. Talk about resilience: Maitham came to work while the operation was going on. Happily it all went well. Maitham and his wife have no doubt that in Iraq or Syria where they used to live the baby would have died. Still the baby will stay in the hospital for a month and the ongoing stress is intense. Their solution was to bring the baby’s grandmother from Baghdad to help out for two months. It’s really no small miracle that she got a visa. My church has been helping pay for their ticket, though I have no doubt that it took most of the savings of both Maitham’s family and his mother-in-law's family to get her here.

I would like to invite you any of you who would like to to contribute toward the cost of her plane ticket by sending a check. You can just send it to my address (73 Governor Street, Providence, 02906. Please do NOT make checks out to PGP but directly out to “Maitham Wadia.” Regretfully, gifts will not be tax deductible, but it keeps everything simple.

Granola update: October was a good month. We had a positive meeting with our local Whole Foods and are working with them to get the granola on the shelf. We’re making good progress in our social media campaign (please look for us on Facebook and Twitter), which will help prepare us for a strong holiday season. We’re getting a t-shirt ready for the printer. I had hoped for a more definitive sense of whether the business is going to be able to start paying me a salary within a couple months. That still remains to be seen, but we’re at least moving forward on that hope. More on all this soon enough.

Thanks for reading (and for eating granola). As usual, we would love your comments--that's why this is a blog. I received a lot of comments via email last time--and I know some people had trouble posting here. If you have trouble--and you email with permission--I will go ahead and post your comments myself. Keith

Creepy, Dark, Tasty

2011-10-05T11:29:00.000-07:00

Hi folks,

Today’s a big day for us as we start a new employee name Pa Say, who is from Burma via a Thai refugee camp. He understands a few words of English, but (from what I can tell) is not yet speaking. I interviewed him yesterday at the International Institute with the help of a translator. He has experience in a cement factory, which at least fulfills one of our work requirements—the ability to carry heavy bags of supplies up and down stairs. I left him a map (which I’m not sure he could read) and a W-9 to fill out as homework.

It’s always a big deal when a new employee starts. For me it’s a refreshing reminder of the importance and practicality of our mission. For him—well, it’s his first job in America, which is a bigger deal than most of us can imagine. I have no doubt he’ll show up, map or not. He’ll probably be a couple hours early. And for the rest of our staff, particularly our manager, who needs to train and guide him without any shared language or expectations in common, it’s a challenge. One that, as a refugee herself, she is amazingly good at.

Today we also go into production with our October granola.

We enjoyed the suggestions some of you sent in for a tasty creepy granola. I especially loved the idea of mixing dark chocolate with (bloody) strawberries. Rather than “Dark Night,” I thought we could have called it “Dark Matter” or, better yet, “Dark Energy” as a little shout-out to this month’s nobel prizewinners in physics (did you know that “galaxies and clusters measure…about 27% of [the total amount of matter]… leaving 73% or so in the form of some invisible stuff that is not matter: “dark energy.”? Apparently this is the right amount to explain the acceleration of the universe. Read more at http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2011/10/04/dark-energy-faq/) However, while I seemed to have time to read Discover Magazine on line, I didn’t have the time to source dried strawberries. They’re expensive and I always need a certain amount of time with a new ingredient to make sure we’re getting value, quality, and a decent shelf life and that I know how it handles in granola. We’re saving the idea for Valentine’s Day. Just imagine what a little dark energy might do for your love life.

We churned around the other Halloween related suggestions—pumpkin spices, pumpkin seeds, apples, caramel, cinnamon. I continue to get a lot of requests for savory granolas, but the idea’s on hold for the moment until we can work out some of the texture challenges. It can be done. We’re going to do it. But it’s going to take some time.

The result is an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink Fall/Halloween idea—which is usually a recipe for disaster (pun intended) except when your prototype ends up tasting really good. We’re calling this one Caramel Apple Corn. One of the little jokes my kids love about Halloween is that candy corn is actually really corn—which I know is a sign that they’re developing a taste for irony and deconstruction—which warms my heart even if I tend to have little hissy fits about corn syrup (a violation of nature and that sort of thing). But this was what got me thinking about adding in popcorn: real, actual, unprocessed, organic corn. You can thank Geoff that we’re not marketing it with “Got Corns?” Creepy—yes; tasty—I guess not.

To help keep down the calories, I bought a hot-air popcorn popper at Walmart and pulled out some 80’s music to keep me company while I popped it. We caramelized some Sucanat and turned it into a sauce using a little coconut cream (rather than butter, so it’s still non-dairy), and then thinly coated the dried apples and popcorn with it in hopes of keeping the apples from drying out (as unsulfured apples are prone to do) and to keep the popcorn from getting soggy. The caramel gives the corn a delicate, incredibly pleasant crunch that’s both complex and comforting. Like Cracker Jack or Fiddle Faddle or Poppycock without the high-fructose-corn-syrup goo. My hope is that kids will love it almost as much as grownups. (Maybe you parents can trade for some of their made-entirely-out-of-real-corn trick-or-treat candy and save them a few calories and chemicals.) I expected pumpkin seeds would be overkill, but they’re actually really wonderful combined with the walnuts and highlighted by cinnamon—so in they stayed. We didn’t add any all-spice or mace. Fleur-de-sel?—that will have to be our little secret. Halloween is never a time to play it safe.

We’ll be in production tonight. Our web site should be updated now. Orders should be ready to go out by the end of the week.

One last thing. October promises to be something of a watershed month for PGP as I (Keith) enter my 4^th month of being unemployed and we continue mapping out the shape, mission, and future of our business. One simple and free way that you can help us during this time would be to promote our social media efforts. I’ve already confessed how Twitter, Facebook, and even blogs threaten to fill me with some strange sort of dark matter. Nevertheless, I have become convinced that a business like ours cannot survive without a dynamic presence in the internet universe, so we’ve jumped in. I’ve already tweeted 101 times. The good thing is that we do love connecting with our customers—that part feels real and meaningful. And we are finding ourselves reasonably “good” at tweeting—meaning our followers seem to be entertained and appreciative. And we’ll get better.

We are aware of living under a steady shower of goodwill from many of you who enjoy our product and/or believe in our mission. A very practical way to keep helping us would be to keep spreading the word about Providence Granola: re-send or re-post our blog entries, link to our page, tweet, “like,” “follow,” “poke” or do anything else that might help get us in touch with the kinds of customers who really want to be involved in what we’re doing. Building up a following and some momentum now could help prepare us for a strong holiday season. Our Twitter handle is @provgranola; our Facebook link is http://www.facebook.com/TheProvidenceGranolaProject, and you have already found our blog.

Caramel Apple Corn Ingredients: oats (org), honey (pesticide-free from Aquidneckhoney), canola oil (org), granulated cane juice, coconut (org), barley (org), sesame seeds (org), almonds, cranberries (cranberries, sugar, safflower oil), raisins, apples (unsulfured/unsweetened), oat bran (org), wheat germ, pecans, pepitas, flax (org), walnuts, popping corn (org), oat fiber, coconut cream (org), vanilla extract, cinnamon, sea salt, nutmeg.

Thanks,
Keith

On becoming a social entrepreneur

2011-09-21T06:25:00.000-07:00

I had never heard of “social entrepreneurs” before I became one. Now that I am one full-time (albeit, unpaid) I'm forced to wrestle with what it means and whether I want to be one. I don't especially love being "the granola guy," but granola tycoon? Now that sounds a little more catchy.

A few random thoughts:

I—International Institute. Two student volunteers got involved when I worked there. Both from the same local college, both designing projects related to their coursework, both tremendously gifted; both genuinely seeming to care about investing their energy in something that might empower refugees. (Both took a lot of my time.) One eventually led the photography class she had designed and enabled a group of refugees—none of whom spoke English—a powerfully moving way to communicate their perspectives on their experience South Providence. The other—he was redesigning our use of space to help us be more effective in our work with the kids—apparently made a public presentation on his work. I looked it up on Facebook. I’m sure he got an A in the class. But I never heard from him again.

II—Brown. A few weeks ago, I attended an event where aspiring social entrepreneurs pitched their ventures with three minute elevator speeches. The atmosphere was an interesting mix of MBA carnival cruise with church-basement earnestness: small mountains of cheese, nice coffee, a bar, high-heeled technical assistants advising attendees on their Twitter accounts; presenters discussing disease, dying children, mosquito nets, and water purification. I’m a sucker for this kind of thing. The presenters did a nice job and the cheese was excellent. Plus I tend to think that without youthful idealism a lot of innovation never happens. It’s old farts (like me?) who tend to believe the lie that nothing can ever change.

Still, I left asking the same question I asked about the two students: how much does it matter whether a socially minded venture is intended for impact or for self-promotion? If one out of 15 actually reaches the stage of implementation, then it’s probably worth it. But what if an endeavor to nourish dying Somalian children is, in reality, a tactic to get accepted in a top-notch MBA program? What is lost? Does it matter?

III—Providence Granola Project. Bringing this closer to home—I find the overlap between mission and marketing disorienting. Certain rules apply at a farmer’s market: If I engage someone in conversation, they are twice as likely to buy our granola. (Or, I like to think, more likely to taste the granola and then buy it.) If, in the process of them tasting, I have the chance to tell them a bit about our mission, the odds of them buying double again. I assume this is a good thing. It represents an eagerness of customers for their daily purchasing choices to positively impact their world. Nevertheless, I sometimes feel self-conscious when I’m standing right next to Zaid, one of the refugees we employ, and I’m telling a stranger how we help refugees. I wonder if he feels like I am using his problems simply to market a product.

I asked Zaid about this. He was gracious. He said, “I am a refugee. That’s what I am.” I took this to mean that we are both dealing in realities. He’s not ashamed of what he is. And he knows his job is dependent on granola sales. Zaid is a great guy and we are pressing on in this together.

IV: Henrietta Lacks. One of the books that my wife was (unsuccessfully) bribing our teenage daughters to read this summer was The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. The shocker of the book is that one of the ultimately worthy aspirations of modern medical research—to understand and conquer cancer—has been dependent on one woman’s cells; yet her family never gained a penny from their contribution. Billion-dollar medical businesses and perhaps billions of grant dollars were funded out of a woman’s cells, yet that woman’s family doesn’t even have health insurance. It’s a good book. It doesn’t talk about evil people or evil corporations—just distracted, myopic ones that, over many decades of pursuing the common good, never noticed the human beings behind their immortal golden cells.

Social entrepreneurs sometimes talk about a triple bottom line: (profit, people, environment). Perhaps the back side of social entrepreneurship is the potential contribution to a triple abuse of those we are trying to help, namely:

a) the original trouble they are in;

b) the oppression that comes from one person helping another (which, as I see it, is just a fact of being anyone’s benefactor. Helping another person places them in a position of the receiver, which threatens to disempower them).

c) that in the process of trying to build a business that serves suffering people we end up primarily (or exclusively) helping ourselves.

The first, of course, is just a fact. And there are ways—primarily through respect and embracing partnership or vulnerability or honesty—that can cut through the pain of being someone’s benefactee. The third could hold a particularly poignant pain for people in great need. What if someone got rich (or got their PhD, or an A in a class, or wrote their novel, or built their career) on the back of my pain and I gained nothing from it?

I haven’t heard of a code of ethics for social entrepreneurs, but if there was one, a first simple tenet could be that marketing based on human suffering needs to genuinely benefit the people suffering.

Marketing is tricky business. This week I met Ben, the owner of Abyssinia, an Ethiopian-Eritrean restaurant on Wickenden street. We have a lot in common in that we’re both actively hiring refugees, which introduces hidden costs (primarily in training and efficiency) into our business plans. Yet we’re both captivated by the tremendous capacity for good that business has. Even a tiny business. Just giving someone a job in this economic environment is itself a big thing. In Ben’s case, the jobs he provides also help promote, honor, and stabilize a nascent community in Providence, while enriching the culinary wealth of our city. Together we marveled how simply paying his cooks means that a quarter of those paychecks are, probably within the week, entering the hands of people who are deeply affected by the famine in the horn of Africa. Talk about an economy of good! Most contributions to non-profits doing famine-assistance require a significant overhead for operations. Even so, there are huge mysteries about the long-term effectiveness of that kind of aid. Yet, when money passes through newly arrived refugee hands to their overseas families enduring a famine, there is pressure on every penny to have the greatest impact at greatest possible speed. Who would imagine that ordering the vegetarian special for lunch on Wickenden street might be a less roundabout way to impact suffering than a donation to Oxfam?

Unlike Providence Granola, Abyssinia does not market by talking about refugees—so in that sense, what distinguishes me as a social entrepreneur is precisely the intentional marketing. That may sound cynical—but I’m not against marketing. I like knowing the impact of what I’m buying. (And I’m excited to promote Abyssinia).

All this may just be another way of saying it’s a jungle out there and students, businesses, scientists, authors, eaters—all of us have opportunities to make a positive impact in the choices we make.

This blog takes comments—so please feel free to weigh in. What do you think?

While you’re at it (here's my shameless marketing) don’t forget to buy some granola and stop in at Abyssinia.

Keith (the future granola tycoon)

On the Making of Peanutty Goodness

2011-09-14T05:23:00.001-07:00

As a child, there were four foods I hated: blue cheese, green peppers, hot dogs, and peanut butter. Thankfully, taste buds mature. I mean, what would a tongue be like without blue cheese? * Peanut butter, however, I never grew into. I like peanuts just fine. And in the last few years since I discovered that I liked almond butter, my cholesterol numbers have dropped about 40 points. But even almond butter was no onramp to peanut butter. My wife eats PB for lunch every day—the healthy woman’s version of SOS—on apple slices, little raisins dotting the brown goo. I can smell it on other side of the house.

The aversion can’t be entirely genetic. My brother’s been asking for a peanut butter granola since I launched this business. To this day, my uncles and aunts love to razz my dad about rolling up balls of peanut butter and keeping them in his pockets when he was a kid.

This month I decided the time had come. It is September. School is starting. The air is thick with nostalgia and patriotism. Peanut butter sandwiches may not be allowed in school anymore, but back in the good old days, like it or not, that’s what children ate; so peanut butter just seemed like the right thing to do. For better or worse, here at PGP, we are at least trying to do the right thing.

My thinking was that by making the granola taste as peanutty as possible, as opposed to peanut buttery, I would survive. I went to visit our local peanut aficionados, the Kaloostian clan at Providence’s own Virginia and Spanish peanut company on Dexter Ave. Their peanut butter is made with Spanish peanuts only and nothing else—no salt, no preservatives, no sugar. I almost liked it. I caught myself dipping in my pinky finger in for little nips, just to make sure I wasn’t totally grossed out (maybe a bit like some people—I assure you this is not personal experience—keep smelling their underarms). Yes, it was actually almost good. Gross, but good. Still slightly gross. I tried closing my eyes. Actually kind of good—just like peanuts. The goodness of peanuts.

With the Koloostian’s help, I decided to use both ground peanuts (otherwise known as butter) and granulated Spanish peanuts, complete with the skins which add taste and nutritional value (a source of resveratrol—bet you didn’t know that!), along with some whole Virginia peanuts for show. (Actually one of the Mr. Kaloostians voted against the skins for fear they’d be ugly and “all over the place,” but I explained that our granola is made to clump and our customers understand that being healthy has a beauty all its own.)

That decision made, I could see three potential paths: a) Beer. Don’t laugh—what is beer other than liquefied, fermented granola? b) Bankok—with coconut, a scrape of jaggery, and sizzle of hot pepper; c) Jelly.

Making the trial batches was fun, though it involved eating an awful lot of peanut butter granola. It took me about 5 tries. A few were not so good, but the beer version was excellent and surprisingly breakfast-appropriate, though cost-prohibitive. I estimated that achieving the taste we were looking for would require about 60 bottles of reduced Guinness per batch. And Bankok granola, I decided, was just a bit ahead of its time. So jelly it was. To avoid any additional refined sugar or corn syrup, I relied on grape molasses, which is simply grape juice reduced to a thick syrup. We did throw in some hot pepper (you might not taste it but it’s part of the goodness). V&S Co. was kind enough to grind and granulate the peanuts the morning we made the granola.

I’m pleased. I have conquered a personal fear and Maitham, who is from Iraq, proclaimed it our best granola yet. But, as always, you must be the judge. The first bags have gone out to granola of the month customers and you can find it at our farmer’s markets. Those of you who have tried it, please feel free to weigh in here with a comment or suggestion. (And any granola of the month customers who are either peanut allergic or peanut phobic are welcome to contact us for a replacement.) While we’re almost sold out of the first batch, a second will go into the ovens today. By the time you read this it should be up on our website.

This is our first attempt at low-gluten granola. Low—not free! While oats do contain some gluten, there are no wheat products. Also, we substituted ultra-healthy organic quinoa for a third of the grains, making this our highest protein granola to date. (Note: there is an error in some of our labels saying there is wheat germ—the one below is correct:.) And fair warning: this granola is neither very sweet nor salty. If you want a more traditional peanut buttery taste, a few shakes of salt might do the trick.

Ingredients: Oats (org), Spanish peanuts, honey (pesticide-free from Auidneckhoney), cranberries (cranberries, sugar, safflower oil), quinoa (org, tri-color), canola oil (org), granulated cane juice, coconut (org), sesame seeds (org), raisins, Virginia peanuts, oat bran (org), almonds, sunflower seeds (org), grape molasses, flax seeds (org), oat fiber, sea salt, peanut oil, cinnamon, almond extract, vanilla, chili powder, nutmeg.

As always, we encourage you to keep your granola fresh in the fridge or freezer.

*Old style SAT analogy question—just to get you in the mood for schoolish things.

Tongue : blue cheese

Ears: a) Barry Manilow, b) Bach, C) Bengal Tigers, D) Bay City Rollers.

Presenting our new back label with nutrition information

2011-08-31T09:23:00.001-07:00

Hey folks,

We are pleased to finally have nutrition facts ready for you. Voila, our new back label. Starting Saturday we’ll have a handout available at farmer’s markets. Wholesale cases of the 12 oz Originola bags should start going out with the nutrition facts on each bag starting this week. Within another month we should have it on all our 12 oz bags of Originola.*

A few thoughts: Granola is not Brussels sprouts, and the truth is, our granola is high in calories. While it’s an exceptionally healthy alternative to potato chips or tiramisu, it shouldn’t replace Brussel sprouts (or tiramisu either, in my opinion).

Still, for most people, eating high calorie granola for breakfast would be far better then their current choice.

Here’s my misgiving about nutritional labels: they seem to imply that we should all be obsessing over calorie counts. To me this seems similar to obsessing over how much gas I put in my car. I could feel great about only putting in a half gallon—that is, until I actually need to go somewhere. Then I’d need another half gallon, then another, and another. The only guarantee of focusing on how little I could put in would be that I’d obsess about it as I keep running to the gas station. The 100 calorie fad seems grounded in this kind of craziness.

I mean, God save us from getting fat off of low-fat Crème Brulee flavored pudding pops or 100 calorie packs of whole wheat breakfast thingys. And if your low-fat frozen waffle (which you covered in margerine and maple flavored corn syrup) leaves you craving a full-fat deep-fried, sugar coated donut by ten, then maybe you should re-think your breakfast.

Granola needs to be high in calories in order to keep you going through a morning of hard work without getting hungry. Brussels sprouts are not intended to sustain anyone for 5 hours. Personally, I try to eat a large bowl of granola or muesli around 6 or 7—usually about as big a bowl as I can possibly eat. Usually it lasts me until 1 or 2. So even if this involves, perhaps, 600 plus calories for breakfast, it averages out to a hundred calories or so per hour without feeling hungry. Plus I thoroughly enjoyed it.

At some point I’ll plan to spell out some of our thinking behind our various ingredient choices. Certainly there’s thought behind each of them, even though we are still learning, adjusting, and striving to make our granola as healthy as it is tasty.

Disclaimer and invitation: While I’m a hack nutritionist—just like I’m a hack chef—one reason we chose to make granola rather than Crème Brulee flavored pudding pops is that we value health and health education and hope our refugee employees (and their communities) and customers alike will benefit health-wise from their involvement in our company. If any of you have training in nutrition and would like to offer suggestions on making our products better for you (without compromising taste) we are eager for your input. Just email us at providencegranola@gmail.com or feel free to comment on this blog entry.

* This label is for Originola only. We don’t have the analysis for muesli, yet, though we plan to fairly soon. While it’s impractical expense-wise to order a nutritional analysis for our changing recipes of the month, most of our granolas use similar ingredients and quantities, so it’s safe to assume that the calories and nutrition will be in the same ball park. Also, we intend to put the 12 oz label on the one-pound bags for the moment, at least until we can adapt that label to reflect servings per bag accurately.

Thanks,
Keith

The 27th Culinary Education Graduation at Amos House

2011-08-26T13:31:00.000-07:00

Speaking at a culinary education graduation was certainly a first for me... but still a good experience. And since it involves our granola and Amos House who hosts our little company, I thought I'd post part of my little speech.

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I’m not really a chef, but I like to cook. Though to be honest, I’m not sure my father really approved of my cooking. He never said so, but I could kind of feel it—that the kitchen is a place for women. Men go in there to fix the toaster or maybe change a light bulb, but they don’t mess with a garlic clove. They certainly don’t mess with a turkey. I can’t be too hard on my dad since he’s not here to defend himself. He’s never asked me what I love about the kitchen, so I’ve never told him. But as your graduation speaker, I figured I could at least tell you.

One thing I love about the kitchen is that cooking involves reality. To cook well, you’ve got to respect and understand your ingredients and it’s good for the soul to live in reality rather than some fantasy world where there’s no pain and always a happy ending. Ingredients are like that. Making food taste good is an exercise in reality. If you want a certain bite to your pasta then you can’t let it boil until you feel like taking it out. And if you want a pie crust that’s flaky, you can’t treat the dough like playdo. Sure, there are mysteries: sometimes, when we make granola, five minutes in the oven is the difference between an amazing batch and a boring one. That’s a mystery—but there’s something real behind it—we just haven’t figured it out yet.

Each ingredient has its own qualities and requirements and possibilities and limitations. An almond won’t ever be a walnut. And it all matters: technique, attention, timing; the humidity in the air, what you chop off and throw away. The ordering, portions, and temperature—they all matter. So the kitchen can be a good place to develop respect for the little things that matter. I, like you, only get one life, so letting the kitchen teach me to live in reality has got to be good for me. It encourages respect, and attention, and curiosity, and groundedness.

The second thing I love about the kitchen is the way people have to work together. This is especially true in a commercial kitchen where all the pieces need to move together and with and around each other in order to function. That’s a picture of what relationships can be like. All the jobs in a kitchen matter. I love walking in this kitchen when people are cooking with Cornelius. It’s tight quarters. People have to look out for each other, and think ahead, and estimate how many seconds it’s going to take someone else to open and close that oven. It’s like a dance. And when it’s done gracefully it’s kind of magical. When it’s not, it can be a disaster.

I know kitchens are stressful. Believe me, we have our moments making granola. At the first job I ever had in a kitchen, one of the chefs got mad and picked up knife and nicked somebody. But that didn’t stop the dance. Someone cleaned up the blood and someone else got the fighters out the door, and someone else started pounding the veal picatta… and together we got back to the real business of getting the food on plates and out to the customers. That little dance had a purpose—a job to do that couldn’t be stopped. At its best that dance is a picture of what meaningful relationships are like. Each person is looking out for and interdependent on the other. Life outside the kitchen can be like that too, especially when a family or team of people know they have something important to do, and the kitchen is a great place to learn how those kinds of relationships work.

The third thing I love about the kitchen is the reason we do all this taking the ingredients seriously and working like dogs in a hot kitchen: it’s so people can enjoy the food. Cooking is an act of love to bring joy to other people. A nourishing joy. The other day I came in here Cornelius was alone working on these beef short ribs—making a little gift for his class. He was obviously happy. He knew you were going to love those ribs. He wanted me to try one because he knew I was going to love it. And I did. I feel that way when we make good granola and people get to eat it. It’s nourishing and sustaining; it tastes good, and makes people happy. I hope some of you walk or drive through this neighborhood on Tues or Wed nights and get a whiff of nuts roasting and honey caramelizing. It’s wonderful—a smell that brings joy. I think of it as our little gift to the neighborhood.

I’ll tell you something else I’ve realized: when my father comes for dinner, I think he forgets that men aren’t supposed to be in the kitchen. He gets busy enjoying the food, and you can tell he likes it because he always wants more. That may seem like a small thing, but not every son gets to bless his father. I get to do that when I cook. I get to bring some joy into his life. Maybe that’s what cooking is all about. It’s not a great way to get rich, but it’s a way to pay your bills and keep things real and count as part of a team by doing something that matters. And one way we know our life matters is if we’re blessing other people.

I’d like to say congratulations. We’re all here to say congratulations for your hard work. And we want to wish you well as you look for jobs in the kitchen. And we are happy for you that the way you live and cook could be blessing to other people.

Zaid and Maitham in Stockholm

2011-08-17T07:55:00.000-07:00

(continued from August 2nd)

Zaid told me about defacing his new fake identity card on the flight from Madrid to Stockholm. The idea was to remove all traces of traveling from or through Greece so as to avoid getting sent back. Maitham went first, using the rear airplane lavatory. Then Zaid went to the front. He took the sim card out of his phone and snapped it. The passport wasn’t so difficult, but the id card was made of plastic—Zaid pulled out his RI driver’s license to demonstrate the similarity—and a lavatory designed for turbulence was not an easy place to destroy it. He didn’t have car or house keys because he no longer had a house or a car. In the end he chewed off the face and decided that would have to do and stuffed the pieces in the trash. This took about 15 minutes.

Zaid usually sticks to the facts, but some of the stories he chooses to tell feel like invitations to grapple with the perplexities of being a displaced person. The few Americans I know who had fake id’s, bought them in college in order to get into a club call Toad’s Place to see a show and drink a beer and dance on a sticky floor. I didn’t have the nerve. I wonder how it might impact my sense of identity to chew my own face off my only id—even a fake one—for a chance to live in a country that I knew very little about and where people spoke a language I didn’t know.

By the time Zaid and Maitham found their way to baggage claim in the Stockholm airport the huge room had already emptied out. They wandered around in their stiff new suits and fake glasses with their computerless computer bags trying to look like Europeans who knew where they were going and what they were doing. But they couldn’t find the door.

There was an Arabic-looking woman in a head-covering at the far end of the room, so Zaid went to ask her. She pointed back towards the gray wall near where they’d been waiting. On closer look they did see a small sign representing a person walking, but still no door, so Zaid went back to the woman to ask again. She was from Egypt and spoke Arabic, but she also seemed to think Zaid might be making fun of her. She pointed back at the same gray wall. Still, a door that isn’t a door—even if it’s the door to freedom—isn’t very obvious to people who don’t know how to see it. Zaid was laughing when he told me the story. (It reminded me of Harry Potter needing to walk into a brick to catch the Hogwarts Express.) Then, sure enough, someone else rolled their bag towards the spot and the wall opened up and allowed them through.

Sweden, however, turned out to be the brick wall. Zaid and Maitham went to the authorities and formally requested asylum. The government offered to place them in a camp in the north. This was February, mind you, and northern Sweden is very near the Arctic Circle where winter nights last most of the day. Instead they found a small apartment in Stockholm. Eventually, Maitham found a job selling hot dogs, leaving Zaid alone in the apartment to watch people walk by on the street. He told me how he’d see fathers walking hand in hand with their daughters—little girls about the age of his own—and he’d cry. He cried every day. There is sometimes a refreshing bluntness in conversing with someone who is still learning English. By the time he found a job, like Maitham, selling hot dogs on the sidewalk outside a popular bar, it was winter again. Sweden has, as Zaid described it, the coldest weather in the world. He’d wear 2-3 pairs of pajamas under his clothes.

They bought phone cards and called their wives. They debated the usefulness of trying to learn Swedish. Since most Swedes speak English anyway, they hedged their bets and tried to speak English to each other in their own apartment. Their wives tried to convince them to return to Syria. “Give up, come back,” their wives said. They waited a year and a half. During that time Sweden went from being a country that granted 90% of asylum requests to 10%. Apparently Prime Minister Maliki visited Sweden and after that Iraq was deemed “safe.” Zaid and Maitham were each promised the equivalent of $5000 and given plane tickets to Mosul in northern Iraq. They stayed until the money came through and then joined their wives in Syria to start over again.

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I hope some of you get a chance to meet Zaid or Maitham at one of farmer's markets. While you're there pick up a bag of our August flavor, Maple Rosemary. We almost sold out of our first run already, but we will make more this week and offer it on our web site.

Thanks,

Keith

Technology Updates & Maple Rosemary Arrival

2011-08-16T10:09:00.000-07:00

Hi friends,

We have added our Maple Rosemary granola and muesli to the online store! A new batch is being made tonight, so make sure to order yours soon.

We are always growing here at the Providence Granola Project. This week we have revamped our Facebook fan page. Please look for it, "like" it, and share it with your friends. This *new* page has photos and will have frequently updated information; it will replace our former "Friends of the Providence Granola Project" group. You can also share this blog on Facebook or Twitter.

Zaid's story

2011-08-02T06:26:00.000-07:00

Last week Zaid Wadia and I stopped in at Fratelli’s Pastry Shop in Quincy, Mass to reward ourselves for maneuvering a 55 gallon drum of organic, expeller pressed oil into my Volvo. No pulled muscles or broken toes, although the oil was sloshing ominously back there and that thing weighed about 450 pounds. I am enjoying the adventure of starting a granola company though I confess I get nervous about testing the infrastructure of our family vehicle. I get nervous about a lot of things. One great thing about Zaid and his brother Maitham—both refugees from Iraq who now work for PGP—is that they are marvelously comfortable with adventures. Zaid was clearly having a good time.

“I have a funny story for you,” Zaid said.

I had ordered coffee and Zaid hot chocolate. Both cups had tear-tab lids. Zaid said that the first time he’d used one of these lids he didn’t understand how the chocolate was supposed to come out and it had spilled. He was in Athens, Greece, wearing a new suit with a new white shirt, and en route to the airport to make his second attempt at an escape to Sweden. He laughed and demonstrated the size of the spill on his chest. “Everywhere. Like this.”

Zaid and his brother Maitham spent 3 months in Greece as part of an adventure that included being jammed with 16 others in a van across the Turkish border, a middle-of-the-night voyage over open water in a tiny inflatable boat, and four days of literally round-the-clock bar-hopping on a remote Greek island with vigilant local authorities and no cheap hotels. They’d taken turns dozing and keeping look-out in the back rooms of bars. The voyage to Athens was another 14 hours. There the “hotel” was one of the dirtiest places he’d ever been. A “zero-star” hotel he called it. Zaid has a great sense of humor and his English is getting to the point where he can express it. And yet, after all that, their fake passports weren’t good enough; they got pulled out of line by airport security and escorted to jail.

Their injunction, upon release, was to return to Iraq in 30 days. Instead, they returned to the zero-star hotel. They visited a relative in the north of Greece who gave them more money. They called their wives and parents back in Syria and told them they were pressing on. They switched guides to someone who was more adept at faking id’s and passports. All this took 3 months and more of their life savings. Their new guide required them to buy suits, glasses, and laptop bags. This time Zaid could tell that the ids looked genuine. Zaid was now Belgian and Maitham was Italian. Zaid pulled out his shiny new RI driver’s license to show me. “Just like this,” he said. “Plastic.”

When he spilled the chocolate, the guide got upset. He’d already gathered all their remaining clothes and possessions mailed them ahead to Madrid. There wasn’t much time to shop for a shirt. I suspect he mostly didn’t like the idea of helping someone who was too nervous to make it past the police.

“Were you nervous?” I asked.

Zaid grinned and pointed at the coffee lid. For people who’ve been through what they’ve been through, both Zaid and his brother have incredibly open faces. They’re curious and friendly, interested in other people and new situations, seemingly glad to be in America despite what they left and lost. This is part of what I love about working with refugees: it’s a daily reminder that we—our city, our country, and despite all our own problems—can still be a place of hope and refuge and opportunity for people who feel lucky to be alive. My feeling is that now is an important a time as any in our country’s history to be welcoming refugees—and for our own sake. We have a lot to learn from them.

By the time he spilled chocolate on his shirt, Zaid understood that Greece didn’t deport refugees back to Iraq. They’d made friends with the jailer enough for him to wish them better luck the next time. At least their lives weren't in danger. The worst that would happen would be another week in jail and a few more months preparing for their next attempt. So they found a public restroom where he washed his shirt in the sink and dried it under the hand-dryer and headed for the airport.

“No problem,” Zaid laughed. “Good as new.”

A big welcome to anyone who arrived at this site via our new QR code. I’ll fill you in on more of Zaid and Maitham’s story next week. In the meantime, check out the rest of the blog and our on-line store. While you’re at it, why not support job training and opportunity for refugees in Rhode Island by enjoying or sending a gift of some of the best granola on the planet?

Keith

Bananas Foster Baby!

2011-07-26T20:38:00.000-07:00

It's almost midnight and I just got back from making a second batch of our new Bananas Foster granola. Personally I thought our first batch was pretty good. But by comparison, this one really rocks. Or should I say sizzles! We softened it slightly, toasted the black walnuts to brighten the flavor, and then dumped in the bottom half of a bottle of dark rum. Actually, it was the bottom half of the bottle of Mt. Gay Barbados dark rum that Geoff brought me on June 30, my last day of employee-dom, to celebrate my going full time with the Granola Project. Maybe it’s the celebration in that bottle that did it. I almost feel like I should apologize for not making it this good the first time around, but hey, it’s live and learn around here and sometimes something really special happens.

You can decide for yourself if I’m right about this recipe as long as you don’t tarry. Get your orders in. The last batch of 120 lbs lasted only two weeks. And here’s an offer: the first person who orders along with a solemn promise to eat a big clump of it on top of a home-made Bananas Foster—with fresh bananas and real butter and ice cream and a bubbling inferno of brown sugar and rum—we’ll include an extra bag for free. Somebody has just got to take this granola to it’s logical conclusion and we’d like to be a part. We’d also love a picture of your happy face.

So that’s my report and offer for the day.

FYI: I’m working on a little story about Zaid and Maitham, the two Iraqi refugees who have been working with us the last few months, so make sure you check back in with us in a few. Especially those of you who frequent the farmer’s markets where they sell our granola might enjoy hearing more about these brothers and their adventures on their journey from Baghdad to Providence.

Keith

Pina Colola

2011-06-22T21:26:00.000-07:00

Summer is officially here and June's flavor, Pina Colola will amaze you if you're lucky enough to get some before we sell out. It's made with low-sugar pineapple, premium macadamia nuts, and organic coconut flakes.

If you are looking to pick up some granola at a farmer's market this summer, we are at several throughout the week (Providence, RI area):

Wednesday evening: Hope Street (Lippitt Park)

Thursday evening: Armory Park

Friday daytime: Downtown market

Saturdays: Coastal Market in Saunderstown. Starts June 25

Sunday daytime: Fargnoli Park, North Providence

Please feel free to contact us (providencegranola@gmail.com) with any questions or for more information.

It's BACK!!!!

2011-05-11T10:36:00.000-07:00

We are so happy to announce that May's Recipe of the Month is Salted Mango Pomegranate. Mmmmm...

What IS Muesli??

2011-04-26T08:19:00.000-07:00

Perhaps by now you've tried Keith's Originola and even branched out a bit, sampling some of our delicious and unique flavors of granola - Pistachio Cardamom, April's latest Apricot Marzipan...but, you find yourself wondering, what in the world is muesli?? Basically, muesli is a breakfast cereal, similar to granola, consisting of rolled oats and fruit. Here at the Providence Granola Project, we often offer many of the Recipe of the Month flavors in the granola variety as well as the muesli variety. Our muesli is always available in Keith's Originola variety year-round. You can enjoy it with milk, heat it up or eat it cold; add some fresh fruit to it for a new take breakfast!

Quite a testimonial!

2011-04-07T09:34:00.000-07:00

This just in from a fan in Indiana:

Dear Keith and Geoff: This is well deserved praise. A friend of mine, Laura Boynton Johnson, has this to say after I sent her an inaugural gift of the "original":

"I fed a friend the last of that granola after a hiking misadventure trapped him and his friend in a snowstorm for 7 hours on a ridgeline until they could get to a road where I could rescue them.

He's still alive. Don't underestimate the power of the granola."

I thought you might enjoy this testimony.

An artisal granola fan,
Tarez Graban
Bloomington, Indiana

Spring is here!

2011-04-06T07:24:00.000-07:00

Spring is here and it's brought a delicious new flavor with it, Apricot Marzipan! Place your orders now so you can enjoy this confectionary treat with family and friends for Easter. Or snag some just for yourself!! With the warmer weather approaching, the winter's farmer's market at Hope Artiste Village will be coming to a close. The farmer's market is a great place to pick up some granola and sample other local products. It also gives us the chance to meet you, our loyal granola fans! We'll keep you posted on which markets we'll be at during the summer season.

February's Recipe of the Month: Cherry Chocolate

2011-02-10T14:10:00.000-08:00

In honor of Valentines Day, February's Recipe of the Month is "Cherry Chocolate," a delightful combination of Ghirardelli chocolate, and bright, tart cherries, orange peel, kirsch, zante currants, (along with all the other good granola-y ingredients). Enjoy!

Good press:

2010-12-09T18:06:00.000-08:00

A nice mention of the Granola Project in golocalprov.com: http://www.golocalprov.com/food/great-gifts-for-food-lovers/

FREE GRANOLA - HOLIDAY PROMO #2

2010-12-02T11:02:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends

Beginning today and ending December 24th, we will give you TWO FREE 12oz BAGS of GRANOLA and/or MUESLI for every 6 months of Granola-of-the-Month club subscriptions you order. With the Granola-of-the-Month club two 1lb bags of granola are shipped each month - always a bag of Keith's Originola and that month's special recipe. Last year we limited this offer to "gift subscriptions" but this year it is available for all subscriptions ordered totaling at least 6 months. Our hope is that this will promote gift subscriptions, but don't want to limit people who'd like to "gift" themselves. The other difference is that this year we will send you the granola right away (also what flavors you get will be a surprise). Each gift subscription comes with a brochure telling the PGP story AND a card letting them know who the gift subscription is from and how long they can expect to receive shipments. Orders can be placed at shop.providencegranola.com.

Here's the breakdown. It works like this:

Order (2) Three-month subscriptions to GOTM and we'll send you TWO free 12oz bags of Granola/Muesli

Order (4) Three-month subscriptions and we'll send you FOUR free 12oz bags of Granola/Muesli

Order (1) Six-month subscription and we'll send you TWO free 12oz bags of Granola/Muesli.

Order (2) Six-month subscription and we'll send you FOUR free 12oz bags of Granola/Muesli.

Order (1) Twelve-month subscription and we'll send you FOUR free 12oz bags of Granola/Muesli.

Order (4) Three-month subscription, and (2) six month subscriptions and we'll send you EIGHT free 12oz bags of Granola/Muesli

OK by now you get the picture. The more months you order the more granola you get.

A few Terms:

Orders placed by December 15th will be shipped in time for Christmas unless you specify that you'd like the subscription to start in January.

Orders placed after December 15th will automatically begin in January.

Unless you buy a Pre-Paid subscription option, your credit card will initially be charged for only the first month of the subscription to the GOTM club. It will be automatically charged after that each month for the length of the subscription.

Orders can be placed at shop.providencegranola.com. Please don't hesitate to call or email with questions: 401-316-1423.

Thanks everyone - and Happy Holidays!

Geoff and Keith

A good column from the Projo about Social Ventures in RI

2010-12-02T08:34:00.001-08:00

Sandra Enos/Kelly Ramirez: The potential good of social enterprise
01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, November 2, 2010
By Sandra Enos Kelly Ramirez

Under the umbrella of for- and nonprofit social enterprise or social entrepreneurship, communities are organizing themselves to address challenges that old ways have failed to solve.

Social enterprises apply market-based strategies and entrepreneurship to maximize social impact. Imagine a restaurant whose employees work their way out of homelessness and whose profits are directed back to serving other clients. Envision artisanal granola prepared by refugees from Iraq, Sudan and Burundi cooked up in the kitchen at Amos House. Think organic soda produced by high-school students learning business skills and funneling the profits to support college scholarships.

These are just a few examples of the more than 100 homegrown social enterprises in our community. Because of the size, creativity and critical mass of this movement in Rhode Island, the state is emerging as a national leader in the new and exciting sector of social enterprise.

Eight factors contribute to this development. Rhode Island has a concentration of social ventures — 100 strong and still counting. Amos House, a leading social-service agency, manages five social enterprises, all training and employing former Amos House clients and achieving the organization’s mission to move people from homelessness to self-sufficiency. Edesia, which employs recent immigrants and refugees, makes nutritional supplements shipped to Haiti and other nations. Social ventures elsewhere across the state include copy and print businesses, bakeries, green-energy enterprises and a piñatas business.

Social Venture Partners Rhode Island (SVPRI) is taking the lead in convening this new network of innovators. In the inaugural year of SVPRI’s annual Social Enterprise Rhode Island (SERI) Summit more than 350 people attended. (Don’t miss this year’s summit on Thursday at Bryant University, in Smithfield.)

At the recent launch of SVPRI/SERI in Newport County 125 people crowded into a room at Salve Regina University. Why? Because the double-bottom-line approach that combines consumer power with social mission makes sense. The state’s concentration of high-quality universities provides a strong pipeline of new ventures. Brown University’s Social Innovation Initiative, Bryant University’s new concentration in social enterprise, Providence College, Salve Regina, Johnson & Wales University, the Rhode Island School of Design and the University of Rhode Island are partners in offering programs, courses and concentrations in this rapidly growing field.

Students are developing initiatives while in school and upon graduation launch these ventures in Providence. The Capital Good Fund, a micro-lender, and Generation Citizen, which brings civics education to public high schools, are a couple of great examples.

Individuals successful in business and looking for a compelling second career are also providing leadership, some by building such new enterprises as Solar Sister and Maternova, others by taking the lead in creating social enterprises that support some of the state’s leading nonprofits, such as Amos House and Crossroads.

The creative talent that is one of Rhode Island’s core competencies makes our state ripe for developing this sector. Social ventures are innovative — similar to how businesses develop in response to market needs, social ventures arise from social needs.

Social entrepreneurs tell us that Rhode Island has unique capabilities to nurture the sector. Arising from our pride of place is a grassroots movement that has yielded powerful results. Companion movements such as “buy local” and Farm Fresh Rhode Island require developing infrastructure and material and social capital.

These efforts energize communities and make Rhode Island a galvanizing point for economic revitalization. The Ocean State offers a pipeline of capital — human and intellectual as well as financial — directed toward social ventures. Through SVPRI programs, community leaders have contributed more than 3,000 volunteer hours to support social-venture sector and individual ventures.

Partners invest funds in developing enterprises, but more sources of capital are needed. Consciousness about social enterprise and social ventures is growing, but we aim to build greater awareness through the SVPRI Buy with Heart program and matchmaking campaign to drive traffic to the soon-to-be-launched www.buywithheart.org portal for social ventures. The matchmaking campaign will encourage large businesses and government agencies to contract and buy through social ventures.

Finally, Rhode Island leaders now recognize the social-venture sector, which now employs hundreds of Rhode Islanders — many of whom have barriers to employment.

For too long, and with mixed results, we’ve ceded job development to large public investments and the promise of tax breaks for large corporations. We are interested in exploring the impact of social enterprises on the community, reducing costs to welfare and income supports, and generating economic benefits for our localities.

While no one would argue that social enterprises can replace the jobs and opportunities that decades of disinvestment have lost, this movement places the core of economic creativity with small entrepreneurs building local capacity.

Sandra Enos is an associate professor of sociology at Bryant University. Kelly Ramirez is chief executive of Social Venture Partners of Rhode Island.

A write-up in the Providence Phoenix

2010-11-30T08:42:00.000-08:00

Check out this cool article in last week's Providence Phoenix. (Click here to read it )

Free Granola Offer - Check it!

2010-11-16T08:25:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends of PGP,

It took a few months but we now have a fancy, new online store to show off. The hope is that it will be simpler for our customers to navigate and easier for us to update with new products. You can visit our new store by going to our website (ProvidenceGranola.com) and clicking the gigantic "Click Here to Buy Granola" button.

And as an incentive to buy something - anything - we will include a FREE 6oz bag of Keith's Originola with your order. This offer is available on all orders placed by midnight on Saturday, November 20th.

You will notice that all our granola now comes in clear, resealable plastic bags which significantly extends the shelf life. We also are now offering granola in bulk 5lb bags, Originola 6-packs, and pre-paid granola of the month subscriptions. Remember to consider a Granola-of-the-Month club subscription over the holidays for those hard-to-buy-for people in your life (your boss, special clients, your Aunt Tilly...)

Thank you all for your support - and look for more promotional offers coming down the pike as we move into high holiday season.

Love,
Keith and Geoff

Salted Mango Pomegranate

2010-10-01T09:39:00.000-07:00

Hi faithful and most patient granola friends. Contrary to any rumors or assumptions based on our hiatus in communication, the Providence Granola Project is very much alive. It was an exceptionally busy summer for me and Geoff—both in our regular jobs and with the Granola Project—and updating our blog was one of the first things to go… but we are still here and kicking. Here’s a little update on what’s happening:

September’s recipe of the month is Salted Mango Pomegranate. No doubt, a granola-maker may love all his children, but I think this one is especially wonderful. Pomegranates are supposed to be like the holy grail of healthy fruit (I’ll let you google the benefits yourself) so it made sense to cram as much concentrated pomegranate juice (called molasses) into our recipe as we could. I was a bit worried that it would turn out too tangy as a result. Actually, right out of the oven it was pretty sour, but within a day it mellowed so that the pomegranate seeds now stand out as distinct little bursts of flavor. The unsulphured mango looks beautiful. And don’t be fooled by the salt in the title. The larger grains of Tripani salt we used don’t dissolve completely, so you’ll occasionally taste the concentrated flavor—but overall it has less salt than our regular granola. We just made it last week, so it’s fresh and waiting to jump in a mailer so you can dive into your bowla granola.

Ingredients: oats (org), barley (org), Sucanat (org minimally processed cane sugar), honey (Native, RI), canola oil (org), raisins, sesame seeds (org), sunflower seeds (org), wheat germ, oat bran (org), almonds, cashews, dried mango (w/sugar, unsulphured), coconut (org), flax seeds (org), pecan meal, dried pomegranate seeds, pomegranate molasses, oat fiber, course sea salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cayenne pepper, almond extract.

Production: We’ve been holding steady at slightly above 500 pounds a month. 500 is an important number because it is about the maximum we can produce per month under our present operational set-up. This is one reason marketing’s been on a back burner. We knew we needed to get our infrastructure in place to produce should sales increase. We’ve been arranging to use a separate packing /shipping facility and at this point a sudden spike in sales would be okay.

A growing team: We’re pleased to have hired Krystal Alves as our accountant/shipping/customer service manager. She’s great—smart, fast, efficient, and able to pick up the pieces we’ve dropped. She’s helping us get more organized. Please feel free to address customer service questions directly to her using our providencegranola@gmail.com account. (But please don’t swamp her with special requests either—one realization of the last few months is that in trying to accommodate too many requests, we started to drop balls.) Also, we’re very thankful for Marie Kaziunas, who, on a volunteer basis, is representing us at a local farmer’s market, and will be the face of PGP at the upcoming Winter Market at the Hope Artiste Village in Pawtucket. She’s been amazing and so generous with her time—even spending an evening helping make the granola in order to better understand our process and mission and get to know our employees.

Refugees: Our mission continues to be what we are most proud of—and it’s been a successful summer. The three Burmese men who worked for us this spring are now all employed full time. Even Christopher Dusengimana, a high school student who worked for us this summer, found a steady part-time job. And just this month Fatu Kollie, a young woman from Liberia started a steady job at a sport’s club. Our latest hire, Habtom Beyene (from Eritrea) started last week. When I paid him with his (first ever!) paycheck he had no idea what it was. Now he knows. He’s been to the bank and Western Untion. When I asked what he did with his first pay check, he said he’d sent some back to his sister and brother who are suffering in a camp in Ethiopia. He works hard and will probably move on soon. So we’re thankful. Our two regular production staff are making progress is learning how to provide constructive feedback to new hires to better equip them for success when offered other jobs.

Sales: The bulk of our orders has been shifting to local hotels and restaurants. This is a pleasure for us, in part because most are buying (we have data to prove this) with no knowledge of our mission. They just like the granola. It’s also helping us establish more of a presence in the state, which should come in handy when we develop a retail outlet. Not that we’re giving up on direct internet orders. With Krystal’s help, we’re ready to expand.

Serious Business: This summer a group of 4 MBA students assisted us with our short-term business plan. And wow, were they intense. They took the time to understand our mission and grapple with our multiple goals of helping refugees, making great granola, and becoming profitable (while working other full-time jobs). They collected data by running surveys, visiting our customers, and assessing our operations. They printed out an entire book of data and analysis. Geoff and I had extra meetings, conference calls. Two of them even listened in on an excruciatingly long phone call as Geoff and I balanced our accounts. Although sometimes embarrassing, their involvement was tremendously helpful and helped pave the way for forward movement. You may already be seeing the results in improved packaging and better customer service, and this is just the beginning. A big thank you to Denise, Elizabeth, Nichole, Sharra and the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University.

Evon and her driver’s license: Evon, our production manager and chief granola chef, is now finishing a series of road-driving lessons and plans to take the driving test in November. This has been a greater challenge than any of us expected, but we know it’s important. We are all thankful for those of you who helped make it possible. One of our goals for the next year is to hire Evon half-time, so her ability to drive is a key step towards this becoming a reality.

And just for the record: Our summer offerings included Pistachio Rose Cardamon, Pina Colola, and Maple Rosemary. Alas, they have gone the way of all our best granola—sold out and eaten.

That should do it for now along with a big thanks from Keith and Geoff.

Summer Slow-down

2010-06-29T12:43:00.000-07:00

Dear granola friends,

No doubt some of you have noticed a fade in communication. That’s a euphemism for sudden stop. We apologize.

We have been making granola. We sold out of Mochaccino Hazelnut (which Evon proclaimed our best ever). Our month club members should have already received our Pina Colola which is made with low sugar/no sulfur pineapple, large flake coconut, Brazil nuts, and a boozy hint of rum. We even made limited editions of Mochaccino Muesli and Pina Colola Muesli and Ginger Muesli which are available by request (just order the recipe of the month muesli and tell us in the note what kind you prefer). And thanks to a good deal we found on organic oil and organic raisins, our Originola will be healthier than ever as long as supplies last.

We’re also pleased to announce two new employees (Fatu and Christopher) who joined us when Men Tu and Kyaw Hlaing, the two Burmese men who were with us for several months, started full time jobs in May. They are all doing well. And we’re thrilled that our manager, Evon, is now moving forward with driving lessons. I've already started calling her Queen of the Road.

But alas, busy we were. Our day jobs did their best to swallow us whole. Why is May always so crazy? Plus we’ve had to pull back a bit in order to overhaul our frustrating ordering system. Bear with us.

Our big news right now is that for the next couple weeks I (Keith) will be away on vacation. I’ve sent out all the orders I’ve received up until today, but please note that starting today no more orders will go out until around July 17^th. This includes both single orders and granola of the month shipments. We hate to deprive anyone of granola even for a day, but believe me this is all for the best. The ordering system is working fine, so keep on using it to order your Pina Colola, but don’t despair when it doesn’t arrive right away.

We’d also like to request that anyone making orders (aside from restaurants and hotels who use another system) do it through the online ordering system. It’s been a challenge to keep on top of special requests and phone or email orders, so in order to minimize errors, please order through the providencegranola.com website.

Thanks again for loving our mission and our granola. Vacations always seems to go by in a flash. We’ll be back to blogging and sending out orders soon enough.

Keith (and Geoff)

Tip #3: When you go out to eat, order something you can make at home.

2010-05-10T18:09:00.000-07:00

By “going out” I mean a real restaurant, not some Olive Garden or Applebees. Not that I have anything against Applebees, but when I picture myself going through their back door from the dining room to the kitchen, the image that comes to me is a bit like Sam’s Club with a cement floor, florescent lights, and a bank of glass-doored freezers behind a waist-high conveyer belt. As waiters or waitresses come in with their orders, a microwave-chef reaches into the correct freezer for the correct breaded cordon bleu or pasta with alfredo sauce, inserts it first into a microwave, then into a convection oven for crisping before plating it and placing it on the conveyer belt. A few feet up the line it is joined by the little glazed carrots or sautéed spinach in garlic sauce, which, of course appeared out of their own appropriate freezer.

Then there are the salads! The one thing they don’t really have to cook at all comes out (in my imagination) of bags removed from glass-doored refrigerators, and gets deposited into large chilled neoprene bowls—this is family style, after all—and then journeys a few feet up the belt past the squeeze-chef who dispenses the requisite copious amount of Italian dressing, which has been perfectly and uniformly emulsified (stirred, not shaken) by an ingenious infusion of xanthum gum. Or whatever.

I’m not entirely against uniformity in salads, but whose idea was it to make them uniformly bad? Really, a salad shouldn’t be so difficult. My guess is I could teach my dog, Sophie, to make a better salad than the Olive Garden. Just take her to Stop and Shop and let her pick out what to put in it. The end result might turn out a bit heavy on the carrots and cucumbers—but for sure she’d pick out a nice cheese to throw in. (Sophie has great taste in cheese. In fact, left on her own, with no direction, a selection of nice cheeses is about all she’d want in a salad. Though, come to think of it, that doesn’t sound half bad. Why not an entirely cheese salad anyway?) We could even rig up her kong with a seal and pour a little oil and vinegar in there and she’d come up with a dressing that could knock the socks off that xanthum gum stuff.

Hmm. I was planning a helpful hint rather than a rampage.

As I was saying, when you go out to eat, order something you can make at home. That way, if it’s really good, you can start making it at home.

Case in point: for our anniversary last year, my wife and I went out to Al Forno (which can feel a little closer to going broke than going out, especially when there is genuine real food down the street at Apsara’s or the Libery Elm Diner—but, hey, you only live once, right?) As I recall, Kathy ordered some chicken thing, which I’m sure was fine even if I tend to think it’s an error in judgment to order chicken when you go out. I, on the other hand, ordered braised oxtail ravioli—an entirely different order of magnitude as far as judgment errors are concerned. Sure, I enjoyed it. But even if I had adored it, I assure you, I will never make oxtail ravioli myself. I wouldn’t recognize an oxtail in the grocery store if one were staring me in the face.

The real error was I’d forgotten tip #3. The evening, however, was a success thanks to the beet and fennel salad we shared as a starter. I never would have put beet and fennel together, but it was amazing. Roasted beets, thin sliced fennel. Olive oil. A hint of citrus. We ate it all summer and started up again this spring when the beets came in. So here we are a year later and, thanks to our unintentional adherence to tip #3, we’re still eating at Al Forno. Not bad for an $11 salad.

Cooking Tip #2: Buy a new ingredient, then learn how to use it.

2010-05-03T04:07:00.000-07:00

My first year out of graduate school, I found myself in graduate student housing in at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. I was a young fiction writer with precious few blocks of uninterrupted time for writing, a slow internet connection, a finicky computer, no television, some noisy neighbors, a dearth of space and friends and time with my graduate-student wife, and an profusion of children, including wild pre-schoolers (friends of my own wild pre-schooler), stopping in for a visit.

As therapy, I turned to shopping—most of which occurred at a little Asian store called New Apple Farm on West Broadway in Kitsilano. Not only were the prices good but it had 10% off Wednesdays. Tiny as that store was, it seemed to stock more items than the Safeway across the street. Ajuwain seeds, fresh galanga, lemongrass, large pearl tapioca, pomegranate molasses, wide fresh rice noodles, tamarind pulp, flax meal, dried guavas, triticale flakes… you name it. So every Wednesday I picked up some ingredient I’d never used or even heard of before, then went home to the challenge of figuring out what to do with it. It was a bit like my own American-Canadian version of Iron Chef with a shoebox kitchen for an arena and my 3 kids as unfailingly honest, though not unswayable judges. Wednesdays became “challenge day” when the kids found some adventurous new dish on their plates. Deep fried bean curd, Jerusalem artichokes, celeriac, fresh fennel, rambutan (otherwise known as “hairy strawberries with a grape inside”), star fruit, gold kiwis, longan, frozen durian (just kidding, but Vancouver is not known as a fruit tourist destination for no reason), hoisin sauce, sweet potato noodles, rose water, fresh and pickled diakon… The results weren’t always spectacular, but the process was entertaining and educational, and I usually influenced the judges by stationing a tried and true dessert like steaming chocolate pudding cake on the counter.

I've moved up in the world--from Vancouver to Providence. I've never managed to find long blocks of uninterrupted time for writing, but I have figured out how to re-imagine coping mechanisms as disciplines, so this one can be cooking tip #2. To me it feels like expanding my vocabulary—working from word to sentence or ingredient to dish rather than thinking of food as a recipe broken down into it’s parts. Living in Providence, I now (almost) miss the good old days of being a carefree househusband in Vancouver. My wife does a lot of the cooking, but she occasionally stops by the Lao Lanexang Market on Smith Street and picks up something for me to experiment with. I suppose she misses the good old days too.

One warning: every discipline has its dark side and this one’s rears its head when it’s time to clean up the pantry or freezer—such as when my parents plan to visit, as they are planning to this month. No doubt, this week my wife will start interrupting me with questions about “the green stuff” (naranjilla pulp) or “little white cauliflower-looking things” (kefir grains), or “suspicious-looking little black things” (black glutinous rice) resting in our freezer. Do I need them? Do I want them? It’s usually best to just say no.

In other news: It’s May and, while supplies last, we are proud to introduce Mochuccino Hazelnut--a dark, complex, mildly sweet, very grown-up granola with hazelnuts, Zante currants, coffee, and organic Dagoba cacao, laced with 3-fold top-notch vanilla, and oh-so-sophisticated roasted hazelnut oil (and, no doubt some top secret ingredient that even I’ve probably never heard of before). Need a Mother’s Day gift? We’re making 120 pounds, so get your orders in while it’s still around.

And if you’re still around—reading the end of a blog entry—and believe in what we’re attempting here at PGP, please do feel free to follow our blog. Maybe even send a link out to your friends to let them know about it.

Helpful Cooking Suggestion #1

2010-04-24T07:12:00.001-07:00

Read Recipes—just keep them out of the kitchen.

It’s not that I don’t love cookbooks. There’s a stack on my coffee table and another on the floor in my office. (The rest are behind the couch). I love technique manuals, and even keep a food science reference on my nightstand so I can put myself to sleep by learning about chlorophyll or MSG. But I generally try to keep cookbooks out of the kitchen. If I plan to try a new dish, I’ll find a few recipes that interest me and compare them. If there’s some crucial measurement I don’t want to forget, I’ll jot it down on scrap paper and take that to the kitchen.

I started doing this out of laziness—I mean who wants to look up how many eggs to put in when you can just guess?—but it’s turned into a discipline of sorts that I think helps build a good sense for what holds a certain dish together. More often than not, I can cut down on some of the unnecessary salt or butter that so many overly ambitious recipes call for. And if some measurement just doesn’t make sense, it’s usually worth questioning. One discovery I made from reading scores of granola recipes on line (especially in blogs like this) is that there are a lot of internet “scientists” out there, explaining with authority that some step or ingredient or temperature setting is “crucial.” Half the time they’re just wrong.

But here’s the best benefit: If I follow a recipe exactly, then I’m usually dependent on it—whereas if I force myself to reason it out, I can usually remember how I did it even a few weeks later.

Which, of course, seeing as it’s a Saturday morning and my kids are waking up, brings me to the most crucial part of Saturday mornings:

Equal parts flour and milk. A little more than a 1/3 part powdered sugar. About 1 egg for every ¾ cup flour. A bottle cap full of vanilla or almond extract or kirsch. A dash of salt. Whisk the wet into the dry and voila—“Uncle Doug’s pancakes.”

Really they are crepes. Use a hot pan, rubbed with oil, and tip the pan in a slow circular motion to keep the crepes large and thin. When you have the time, it seems to help the batter to let it rest so the bubbles pop. To determine quantities, I usually figure about half an egg per person (for any kind of pancake). Although for 5 this can get a little tricky.

Hmmm. Actually this whole recipe is getting tricky. On second thought, maybe you should skip this point and wait for a more helpful suggestion number 2. Maybe order some granola instead. Somehow I knew I was going to be lousy at writing an advice column.

Someone emailed for ingredients on April’s Got the Blues which I’d promised but forgot to include. Here they are—by memory, no recipe: oats (org), barley (org), sucanat, coconut (org), Zante currents, apricot kernel oil, canola oil (expeller pressed), dried blueberries, ground pecans, sesame seeds (org), sunflower seeds (org), oat bran (org), wheat germ, honey, CA apricots (unsulfured), flax seeds (org), apricot fruit spread (org, fruit-sweetened), walnuts, pecans, vanilla, almond extract, cinnamon, nutmeg, sea salt. We have exactly 10 bags left, so today’s probably your last chance to order one.

Ten Cooking Tips from an Amateur Professional Granola Chef: An Introduction.

2010-04-15T12:08:00.000-07:00

I learned from my Inc. magazine that any business blog worth it’s organic salt needs to be about something bigger than the product it is marketing. So, after over a year of establishing myself as an amateur professional granola chef, I’ve decided it’s time to get more serious about blogging.

But what can I write about that’s bigger than granola?

My first idea was to make every recipe in “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” and serve it to my daughter Julia and then blog about her reactions. I could call it “Julia Disses Julia.” But Julia—meaning the famous one—was way too fond of things like cow brains and kidneys and short on things like cupcakes and brownies (not to mention not a single granola recipe!) which makes for a too easy target. So, I decided I’d better free that idea to find a better home.

My second idea was to go on a “granola only” diet and turn my own body, or better yet, Geoff’s, into a living science experiment. We could take an unflinching look what happens to biceps, skin, hair, and cholesterol counts when nurtured on a diet of only granola. “Providence Granola Project Me” we could call it. Not bad… although, with all those close-ups and graphic visuals, it might make a better film than blog. Neither Geoff nor I are aspiring actors. Plus, even with the hard truth on our side, I’m not sure it would be such a good idea for a little company like ours to go up against the likes of Pfizer and Lilly and AstraZeneca as the solution to 21^st century American ailments. Sure, David slew his Goliath, but he didn’t go looking for an entire posse of them.

Maybe someone out there can dream up a good bigger-than-our-business blogging idea for us. In the meantime, I think I’ll just do what every other bloke on the blogosphere seems to be doing and offer some unsolicited advice. Geoff could enhance each entry with an attractive photograph. To keep it completely predictable, I could format it as a top ten list: Ten Cooking Tips from an Amateur Professional Granola Chef. One per week. I'm approaching 50 which means I've logged plenty of kitchen hours by now--so I should be able to come up with ten directives right?

Surely.

Although, I’m afraid this entry has already reached optimum blog length so I’ll have to wait until next week to dream up my first tip.

In the meantime spread the word—the Providence Granola Project blog is getting bigger than itself. Sign up to follow us!

And don’t forget to order your granola. “April’s Got the Blues” is awfully tasty and wonderfully healthy. So good for you, in fact, that, aleast someday, it might just put Pfizer out of business. Wouldn't that be sweet. Nothing but granola commercials on the 6:30 news.

Ladies and Gentlemen...."April's Got the Blues!!!"

2010-03-29T08:43:00.000-07:00

Hi folks,

What happened to March?

Actually, we know. We got so busy trying to keep up with our Originola orders from local RI restaurants and hotels that we neglected a lot of things including putting out an update on our flavor of the month. So, just for the record, March was Chaat Masala Snacking Granola—one of our healthiest granolas yet made with hand-popped high-protein amaranth, chipped coconut, brown rice syrup, and organic dates; it was low gluten, almost no sugar at all, and had a fusion of spices like mango powder, fennel, cardamom, tamarind, chili, and fenugreek to start waking up your taste buds after a long cold winter.

We still have some left if you want to special request it (please put a note at the bottom of the form when you order), but we need to move on and the big news now is that April’s Got the Blues is already on her way into town.

Longtime blog followers may recall April’s former journey through the streets of Providence (go back a year, if you’re interested) or the way Providence’s very own recording artist, Allysen Callery immortalized her spirit in an original recording. Of all our granolas, this was my favorite of last year. And now she’s not only back but improved with unsulphured California apricots, a double load of dried blueberries, currants (no raisins!), both pecans and walnuts, and a healthy dose of very healthy apricot kernel oil. Full ingredients below.

I’ll try to get the technically savvy Geoff to insert Alleysen’s voice here for you to enjoy.

Even better, catch one of her upcoming shows by visiting: http://www.myspace.com/theallysencallery/.

Do get your orders in early. We’re growing, and because of limitations in kitchen access, we need to limit our recipe of the month production to 120 pounds, so it’s first come first serve.

Don’t forget to try the muesli—right now we’re offering Ginger Zinger.

And stay tuned. I’ve made an April resolution to expand our blog entries. This month I hope to offer an untrained granola chef’s top ten culinary principles. Hmm... don't you wonder what they will be? (So do I, but stay tuned.)

Just discovered this article featuring PGP....

2010-03-10T13:00:00.000-08:00

http://www.theindy.org/?p=2255

Special Valentines Offer

2010-02-03T10:36:00.000-08:00

In honor of Valentines Day, February's Recipe of the Month is "I Heart Cherry Chocolat," a delightful combination of orange peel, kirsch, zante currants, Ghirardelli chocolate, and bright, tart cherries (along with all the other good granola-y ingredients). We hesitated to have two special recipes in a row featuring chocolate, but February can be a rough month. And besides, chocolate and Valentines Day go together like, well, chocolate and lots of special occasions.

Starting today (Wednesday Feb. 3) and going until next Tuesday (Feb. 9) we will be offering a free bag of Muesli with any order of Three or more bags of Granola (Orignola or this month's special recipe). Artisanal Granola makes a wonderful Valentines gift.

No need for special codes or anything. Just go put three bags of granola in your shopping cart and we'll make sure you get that free Muesli!

Thanks!
Geoff and Keith

Chocobanola, Baby!

2010-01-09T09:49:00.000-08:00

A quick note to say we’re back on the job with plenty of Chocobanola already in the mail, and more, fresh from the ovens, awaiting your discriminating palates. Ghirardelli chocolate, bananas, a hint of molasses, even some those extra-healthy chia seeds that are supposed to help detoxify and hydrate you at the same time. Go figure. You could even try putting this granola on your head and seeing if you sprout green hair--I highly recommend it. You can think of it all as our little way to help you make good on at least one of your New Year’s resolutions. Let’s face it—probably everybody needs more granola in their lives.

For us, the new year also means our second year in business and a new process of revisiting and refining recipes. While December was a blur, it was definitely a productive one. Now, with our club membership nearly doubled, we expect the busyness to continue. In fact, we were so busy in December that we hired a second Burmese (ethnically Karen) man named Kyaw Hlaing to help us. Already this week, both he and Saw Kay (hired in October) are scheduled to start full time jobs at a warehouse. We’ll miss them. They were both exceptionally good-natured and hard working.

A huge thanks to those of you (including a generous donor from Canada, who can’t even order our granola without paying customs charges) who have made it possible for our manager Evon to start driving lessons. She says she’s scared to learn, but I know for a fact that driving is way easier than making granola. I’m also looking forward to training her on a computer so she can take on more aspects of the management. As soon as she’s able to drive, she’ll be able to start making deliveries—maybe even to farmer’s market around the corner from you.

Ingredients for our new and improved Chocobanola: oats (org), barley (org), Sucanat (minimally processed sugar), honey (native RI), canola oil (expeller pressed), raisins, Craisins, wheat germ, oat bran (org), almonds, walnuts, sesame seeds (org), sunflower seeds, coconut (org), Ghirardelli chocolate, pecan meal, flax seeds (org), dried bananas, molasses (org), oat fiber, chia seeds, vanilla extract, cinnamon, sea salt, nutmeg, almond extract.

Gone Fishin' But Still Tickin'

2009-12-20T09:50:00.000-08:00

Hi folks,

The granola’s in the mail and Geoff, Evon and I are taking a short break to recoup and eat unhealthy things like fruit pudding and cheesecake. Who knows?—maybe with a little hard sauce on top. We’ll be back soon enough with refreshed minds and more personal incentive than ever to make the world a healthy place. Maybe we’ll even reach a decision about our logo.

But just because we’ve gone fishin’ doesn’t mean you can't keep on clickin'. Our gift-subscription offer is still valid up through Christmas Eve (and maybe even New Year’s if you ask nicely). So you can be good to yourself, avoid that last minute trip to the mall, and make this the last stop for those last minute holiday gifts.

We’ll need a week or so of the new year to perfect our latest recipe and crank up the ovens at Amos House. We’ll plan to get orders in the mail out around the 8^th.

So Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and all that sort of stuff. If you’re feeling bored, try sending a link to our blog to all your friends—it’s almost as fun as watching the cooking channel and it has a huge impact on our business. Don’t forget to eat your oats. We love you.

PGP

"Thank you for you!"

2009-12-05T12:27:00.000-08:00

To distract myself from getting too obsessed with sending out boxes of granola, I took some time to look through our checkbook this morning.

So far, with your help, the Providence Granola Project has paid about $9,000 in salaries this year and provided approximately 1,000 hours of job experience/training for new refugees. This on top of the fact that 5 out of 6 of our refugee employees have gone on to “real” jobs. When I compare this to the some of the Department of Human Service programs (that I help refugees access in my day job) it’s not bad at all. It wouldn’t be abnormal for the state to pay nearly $4,000 to provide an initial job training/experience for one welfare client—and this comes with no guarantees for further employment. So one way to assess the value provided by PGP this year (beyond the $9,000) is about $24,000. I think that’s pretty good.

As long as I was crunching numbers, I did a little assessment of PGP’s financial health. Knowing how risky it would be, Geoff and I didn’t want to take out a loan to begin this venture. And not surprisingly, the risk incurred has been personal—to the tune of about $4,500. (I was taken aback to realize it was that much.) But we are grateful that the business is now reaching a healthier stage. Sales are picking up. Producing about 500-600 pounds per month has been, as expected, the threshold for the bottom line moving up rather than down. At present, our licenses and insurance are paid for and we’ve built up a little inventory of supplies. Even then we still have a little money in our checking account and we’re considering paying ourselves something back. Perfect timing for the holidays. While we’ve yet to take anything in terms of salary—other than eating ass-kickin' good granola nearly every day (if we don't say so ourselves, but we haven’t gotten tired of it, which seems like a good sign)—refunding ourselves will make it feel like we’re getting one.

It feels good. “Thank you for you,” our manager Evon always tells me when I drop her off after our shift. It’s a nice expression. So I want to pass it along to all of you who keep buying and eating and giving our granola and then keep coming back for more. Thanks for your encouragement, your advice, your input on everything from our labels to the size of our clusters. Thank you for you.

And keep it up. Holly Jolly Ginger is my personal favorite of all our granolas. I especially love it in muesli form. If the orders keep coming, we’ll double our shifts the next two weeks. We’re currently running a special on gift orders (see below) so this is your chance to bring other granola lovers on board. If anyone else wants to play Santa and donate a driving lesson to our manager, we would be grateful.

We do plan to take a break and leave town for the holidays, so get your orders in by the 15^th if you want them to go out before Christmas.

Two Delicious Holiday Promos....

2009-11-25T07:34:00.000-08:00

In the spirit of Black Friday, we are offering two promotions to inspire granola gift-giving over the holidays.

Many of our fans are planning to give 3,6, or 12month gift subscriptions to our Granola-of-the-Month Club - the definition of a gift that keeps on giving, and perfect for that hard-to-buy-for friend or relative. Each month they will receive two 15oz bags of artisanal granola which, as you know, not only tastes really good, but is also helping "do good" for a community in need.

Or consider giving single bags of December's recipe: "Holly Jolly Ginger" as gifts to neighbors, co-workers, clients, etc. Stock up on 15oz bags, keep some nearby, and never again utter, "but I didn't get anything for you..." We have one fan who has said she plans on giving granola to hosts on the holiday party circuit instead of the traditional bottle of wine.

So to make it easy for you:

Promotion #1 (for people who want to stock up on individual bags): FREE SHIPPING.

This is a limited time offer: Between NOW and THIS SATURDAY (the Saturday after Thanksgiving...Saturday November 28th, 2009) we will waive the shipping charges for all orders of four or more bags. During checkout, simply check the box that says: "I have arranged for my own pickup/delivery." Orders will go out the first week of December and we'll include a card with the Providence Granola Project story on it for each bag ordered. FYI: for those of you who want to take advantage of this offer, but won't be giving gifts until later in December, our granola keeps really well in the freezer.

Promotion #2 (for people who want to give gift subscriptions): FREE GRANOLA

For every six months of gift subscriptions to the Granola-of-the-Month (GOTM) club ordered between now and December 24th, we will send you - the gift giver - a free installment of the Granola-of-the-Month (a 15oz bag of Keith's Originola, and a 15oz bag of that month's unique recipe). All you pay is shipping ($5.95 which won't be charged until after you receive the granola).

It works like this:

Order (2) Three-month gift subscriptions to GOTM and we'll extend ONE free month (except for shipping) of the GOTM club to you.

Order (4) Three-month gift subscriptions and we'll extend TWO free months to you.

Order (1) Six-month gift subscription and we'll extend ONE free month to you.

Order (2) Six-month gift subscription and we'll extend TWO free months to you.

Order (1) Twelve-month gift subscription and we'll extend TWO free months to you.

Order (4) Three-month subscription, and (2) six month subscriptions and we'll extend FOUR free months to you....

OK by now you get the picture. The more you order the longer your own FREE subscription to the GOTM club becomes. If you are already a subscriber, we can either extend your subscription or apply the offer to the months you have remaining.

A few Terms:

Orders placed by December 15th will be shipped in time for Christmas unless you specify that you'd like the subscription to start in January.

Orders placed after December 15th will automatically begin in January.

Your credit card will initially be charged for only the first month of the subscription to the GOTM club. It will be automatically charged after that on the 20th of each month for the length of the subscription.

Please feel free to email us at providencegranola@gmail.com with questions.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. There is much to be thankful for. We are especially grateful for you - our friends, fans, and partners.

Geoff and Keith

December's Recipe-of-the-Month

2009-11-25T07:20:00.000-08:00

December's recipe of the month is “Holly Jolly Ginger.” This recipe was a crowd-pleaser last year. It comes with red sweetened cranberries, snowy coconut flakes, and little gold morsels of crystallized ginger. Very festive and great for gifts. (stay tuned for two exciting holiday promotional offers...)

Here is a quote from last years blogpost: "I’m especially pleased with the ginger. After visiting Vietnam earlier this year I went on a quest for a ginger that came close to what the street vendors there have to offer. The stuff I’ve sampled from health food stores here has a lousy texture and tastes kind of soapy. While I never did find Vietnamese ginger, I did come across these little chips of Australian baby ginger made by Ginger People, which are great in granola. They’re mildly spicy with fresh flavor and no aftertaste."
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Full list of ingredients: oats (org), spelt and/or kamut or rye flakes (org), Sucanat (org minimally processed sugar), honey, canola oil (expeller pressed), Craisins, raisins, wheat germ, oat bran (org), sunflower seeds (org), sesame seeds (org), pecans, almonds, coconut (org), coconut flakes (org) pecan meal, crystallized ginger, flax seeds, oat fiber, vanilla extract, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, almond extract.

Vote for the label you like best!

2009-11-20T05:50:00.000-08:00

Here are a few "rough" versions of new label designs we are considering for our bags. Please post a comment letting us know which you prefer (A,B,C...etc.) and, if you don't mind, why?

Two Introductions

2009-10-17T13:23:00.000-07:00

First of all: Our newest employee. Saw Kay, a refugee originally from Myanmar (Burma), arrived in Providence about 4 months ago along with his wife and 5 children after spending years in a camp in Thailand. Saw and his wife Sa Nay are Karen—one of the ethnic minority groups who have been persecuted for years by Burma’s military government. Aside from one other family who arrived with them, they are—if you can imagine this!—the only speakers of a language called Karen Sgaw in the state of Rhode Island. Saw does speak some Burmese and seems to understand a bit of Thai, but he and I are learning to communicate primarily through pictures and charades along with a lot of smiles and a resilience for being misunderstood. The day I hired him, I wasn’t really sure he understood that I was hiring him or whether he wanted to be hired, but sure enough he showed up at my office at 3:45 and off we went. One thing he does understand is hard work; he clearly enjoys making granola and is even learning to joke around with the rest of us. He even seems to like the granola and gladly takes a pound home for his family. To learn more about refugees from Burma, check out http://www.cal.org/resources/pubs/burmese.html

Secondly: Our newest product line, which we are calling Muesli, is a lower-cal, Swiss style breakfast version of our granola. Like many of you, Geoff and I tend to think of our granola as a snack food as much as breakfast, which is why we put so much effort into keeping it chunky. For my own breakfast, I’ve developed a technique of sifting out the “the dust” (as Geoff and I call it) from the bottom of the bag and mixing it in a bowl with a handful of dry oats. The oats cut the sweetness, lower the calories, plus I love the taste. If I’m feeling really ambitious, I’ll even pre-toast a week’s supply of the oats in the oven for a about a half hour to bring out their flavor. Believe me, I always feel very Swiss when I do this—and now for an introductory sale price of 4.95 (Original)/5.95 (Recipe of the month) a pound you can too. Providence Muesli uses the same recipes as our chunky granola and is mixed at a ratio of three parts un-chunky granola per one part toasted organic oats.