Granola Daddy

When the community brands you

My life is currently all granola, all the time. I had meant to write you all a bunch of recipes for peaches this week, but I spent my whole week being Granola Daddy (in addition to hosting cookbook dinner club and a wonderful date night at Bhima’s Warung. Bhima’s never disappoints.)

All this means I haven’t been in my home kitchen at all.

Instead, you get stories about granola + some tips on how to cut peaches.

Granola Daddy

During my first week in the granola business I had a date. He asked to buy a bag of granola and said “Thanks Granola Daddy!” while handing me cash.

I shared this story on Instagram and it took on a life of its own. The entire community is calling me Granola Daddy. I’m trying to embrace my new identity as Granola Daddy. 

It makes me slightly uncomfortable, in the way that I don’t like being sexualized and objectified by strangers (or sexualizing granola), but people are using it in a very fun and light way that works right now. My therapist thinks I should lean into the discomfort and embrace it. Frankly it’s a really catchy name for grocery store aisles and farmer’s markets.

It’s not the brand yet, but I am the Granola Daddy now.

Part of what’s helped me accept this new identity is that I asked ChatGPT who Granola Daddy is, and here is what ChatGPT said (unedited):

Introducing Granola Daddy, the enigmatic guru of all things wholesome and crunchy! With a beard as robust as his passion for organic oats, Granola Daddy is a nature-loving, tree-hugging, trail-blazing legend. Born amidst the wild meadows and misty mountains, he spent his early days foraging for forgotten berries and crafting artisanal granola recipes under the moonlit sky.

A former zen master turned granola alchemist, Granola Daddy can often be found barefoot in his sustainably-built cabin, concocting blends that send taste buds on a journey through the cosmos. When he’s not busy spreading the gospel of whole grains and dried fruits, he’s leading meditation sessions in the heart of the forest, connecting with squirrels and sharing ancient tales of chia seeds and superfoods.

A man of many hats, or rather, beanies, Granola Daddy is not just a breakfast visionary. He’s an advocate for eco-friendly living, hosting workshops on upcycling mason jars and weaving hammocks from recycled hemp. Join Granola Daddy on his quest for granola greatness and experience a life illuminated by the golden glow of sun-kissed oats and the sweet embrace of Mother Nature herself.

I mean, it’s not wrong.

I debated if I should rebrand the granola business to Granola Daddy – I bought granoladaddy.com to be safe – but after some very robust conversations on Instagram (and hundreds of poll votes! So many DMs! Y’all have OPINIONS!), I have decided that Granola Daddy will be my title, rather than the brand.

At least, for now.

My friend (and old boss), Nigel, asked if he could help me find retail locations that would be a good fit to stock the granola. This can help build some brand awareness in other cities in Ontario and create some sales stability to invest in equipment. In response to his offer I called him Channel Sales Daddy. We realized that if this business scales we could need a Marketing Daddy. Our CFO could be the Sugar Daddy. I’m not sure how HR Daddy will feel about this, but as a D-Level executive they would be able to enforce a culture of respect.

Daddy listens. Daddy cares.

Daddy Cares will be the brand of some charity initiatives I’ll be kicking off this Fall. Stay tuned. If you would like to be on my list of volunteers to call on, send me an email.

I will also be a lunch vendor at Art Hop on September 9 at the Sculpted event in Uptown Waterloo, with The Granola Daddy Experience. I’ll be making some exclusive KWFamous flavours for the event: like Mayor Berry (all the berries), Mt. Trashmore (every nut and seed), BlackBerry (discontinued), and an Oktoberfest savoury granola (TBD on the dehydrated sauerkraut, probably pretzel flavour). To follow Art Hop’s alien theme, I will also be making a vac-packed granola bar (compostable bag).

I might even make a Bieber Fever flavour (vanilla with a hint of orange, because Florida). The goal is fun. We all need more fun in the world.

On the website, you can now order a bundle with one of every flavour, Granola Daddy’s Bundle of Joy. Save $5 and get free shipping!

Morning Bun is officially Daddy’s Favourite.

And I’m making a fun, seasonal flavour every week with market produce, which I’m calling Granola Daddy’s Flavour of the Week. My Flavour of the Week will be a Kitchener Market exclusive, as I’ll only be able to make 10–20 bags every week.

Last week I bought organic, local raspberries that I dehydrated, turned into a powder, and added to the Hazelnut & Chocolate flavour. It was very popular. This week I’m dehydrating some Ontario organic peaches and adding to the Morning Bun base for a peach cobbler granola.

A few more things. I don’t personally use Facebook, but I have made a Probably Worth Sharing account on Facebook that I guess I’ll have to learn how to use. I have also made a Google Business listing, so you may add reviews there (there are already TWELVE 5-star reviews already! I am crying.)

It’s only week two in business. I am still figuring out how much granola I can make in a day and sell in a week.

Last week I tried to max out oven capacity: I made almost 300 bags of granola. It worked, but the unintended consequence was that weighing and packing granola took 8 people hours (4 from me, 4 from my friend Jin Sol). I can solve this with a weigh/filling machine ($10,000!!!) or hire staff, but until then I’m going to make slightly less granola each week.

Please turn the sound on this video to hear Thompson, who owns The Wooden Boat Food Company where I’m renting kitchen space, refer to me as Granola Daddy while I maneuver 600lbs of oats.

I’m starting to stock ingredients at a larger scale: I ordered a half pallet of local, organic oats from Oak Manor, which got delivered on Thursday, and my half pallet of organic nuts, seeds, oils, and chocolate arrived on Friday. This means, at least for 6 weeks, I shouldn’t be texting my friends to run to the grocery store to buy me more of everything I ran out of because… math is hard. But it also means I’ll be losing a bake day to scaling out 30kg bags of pecans into recipe-sized, vacuum-sealed portions for ease of mixing and freshness.

All this means I will have much less granola for sale this week.

I have also been asked by many people how to eat granola, so I’ve added some flavour pairings and ways to eat on the website. It’s meant to be served on yogurt or with milk as a breakfast cereal, but it’s equally great as a crispy ice cream topping, used to make home-made granola bars or energy balls (for that Granola Daddy Energy), a topping for fruit cobbler (technically a fruit crisp), or straight out of the bag by the fistful. 

I have so many other learnings to share about actually starting the business, but I need to save those for another day because Granola Daddy is tired.

How does so much happen in one week?

My booth at the Kitchener Market, full stocked! I need to work on my signage, which looks great in this photo, and is very hidden in real life. Booth plants and pots were selected by the lovely folks at Talula Fields with the request that they not die easily from my neglect.

Peach is the winner

I asked on Instagram what seasonal fruit to use in Daddy’s Flavour of the Week and peaches won in a landslide.

I love peaches so I was fine with this.

Peach is my preferred Mario Kart character.

I have a peach patterned shirt you will see me wearing around town most of August – it’s made by 18Waits, manufactured in Toronto!

Peaches are this wonderful, magical moment of summer. You can get them all summer, but you can only get the good good peaches for a short window of time.

The kind of peach that’s filled with juice, so tender it could fall apart at any moment, the kind you shouldn’t cook – your only option is to eat it over the sink and wash your face, your hands, your shirt right after.

Free the peach

There are two main variations in peach variety, freestone and clingstone peaches, named after whether the peach pit will give you trouble. Cutting a clingstone peach can often be an ordeal, but last year I learned I was doing it wrong my whole life.

To free a peach, you don’t cut from north to south. I know you want to cut down the peach’s buttcheeks, from north to south, but don’t. Instead, cut around the equator, then twist the peach open like an Oreo. It works every time, for every peach (except for unripe peaches which you shouldn’t be eating anyway).

You can watch how to do this in my video for Peach Caprese salad, below, which includes a bonus apocalypse.

And I’ve shared it a few times, but please make my stone fruit & ricotta toast with the best peaches (or plums, apricots, or nectarines) you can find. It will change your life.

My rushed version of Melissa Clark’s upside down peach cobbler

If you’re thinking about what else to make with peaches, peach cobbler is excellent – I recently made Melissa Clark’s upside down cobbler which is actually a poor man’s Tarte Tatin and very delicious (I made it with apricots and was impatient with letting it cool). It was very fast and very good.

You can, of course, make a peach crisp with any granola (if you’re using mine, I would personally use Morning Bun or Coconut Cream Pie).

Peach compote is an easy stovetop side you can add to basically anything to make it extra delicious.

But really, just stop what you’re doing.

Right now.

Take a break from whatever gruelling activity you’re pushing yourself through and grab a peach and eat it like an apple.

You’ll be so happy that you did.