Nature's Bakery

By Christina Nicholson

On any given Saturday, you will see shoppers standing in the middle of aisle two here at the Wedge, trying to choose from all the delicious granolas our Bulk buyer David Hampton has worked into our display. The tasty granolas are many, and the task is not for the faint of heart. One of David's favorite granola companies is Nature's Bakery Cooperative in Madison, Wisconsin.

David appreciates the co-op to co-op connection, and brought this granola back in February of 2007, after he stopped stocking it for over a year because it was a slow seller.

"I really like the company, so I wanted to give them another try. Now this time around it has sold a lot better. I think more people notice that it's local and it's a co-op. I think shoppers are just more aware than they were." The Wedge currently carries two varieties of granola from Nature's Bakery Co-op, the Six Grain and the Molasses Almond Granola.

All eight members of the worker owned cooperative share in production as well as a specific management duty. Dave Zoesch, Granola maker extraordinaire, is one of the managers/members of the worker owned Nature's Bakery Co-op. In addition to baking great granola, Dave is also in charge of ordering ingredients. When we spoke, he was getting ready to put together the production list for the granola that was going to be made the next day. Both of the varieties that the Wedge sells are big sellers nationally according to Dave. "We make fifteen batches of granola on Tuesdays. The total is between 1,000 and 1,500 pounds of granola every week."

Nature's Bakery is committed to using organic grains in their granolas and other products, and they source as many of their ingredients locally as possible. This includes their flour and oats. "We had been [just] getting our flour from Natural Way Mills in East Grand Forks [Minnesota]," Dave explained. "Getting oats has been tough though, so we approached [Natural Way] about the possibility of selling us oats - we told them we would buy between 35,000 and 40,000 pounds a year. Now, they [also] carry oats."

Nature's Bakery also takes their sweeteners very seriously. They only use honey, molasses, and maple syrup in their granolas, and a limited amount of fruit derived sweeteners and turbinado sugar for select recipes. In addition to granola, Nature's Bakery makes a line of fresh breads for local grocery stores, and a line of veggie burgers that sell at local restaurants as well as larger wholesale companies.

With all these great products, I asked Dave when do they find the time to work on new recipes. He laughed, "The recipes have pretty much stayed the same for years. We find that any new ones turn out to be miserable failures."

So here's to tried and true recipes, with great, wholesome ingredients, and a co-op to co-op connection to boot.