The Inspiration Behind The Granola King
Once upon a time, in a land not so far away. . .
Have you ever had the experience of being guided? There I was, sitting in my little house in 100 Mile House, wondering what I was going to do with the rest of my life, when I looked up at a photograph of a tiger, covered by a thin blanket of snow, lying in a regal pose and looking peaceful, focused, clear and fearless.
“Always Be a King within, no matter what your outer conditions“, the caption underneath said. And it was as if that tiger was speaking directly to me!
So I declared “I am going to be the Granola King of Canada!”
That was the spring of 2000. A year earlier I had returned from the Czech Republic where the pollution, bad food and maybe some karmic outworking took its toll on me. I was 130 pounds and still losing weight, couldn’t digest my food and barely had the energy to walk up the small hill to my house.
The doctors found nothing, but I knew something was seriously wrong. Looking back it felt like I could have died if I hadn’t willed myself back to health and taken my well being into my own hands.
And so, for the next eight months I ate only organic vegetables from my own garden and fresh whole foods that I prepared for myself. As I got my strength back, I thought, “hey, since I am making all this food for myself, why not make more and see if other people will buy it?”
So I found myself at the 100 Mile Farmer’s market with a cooler full of organic yogurt from a hand-milked Holstein named Tiger and some bags of granola. The granola came from a recipe that had been refined over thirty years or so by some loving cooks in the intentional community where I was living and healing.
The folks in that place wanted to make only the best food for each other and grew and made almost everything themselves, a real inspiration for anyone who cares about people and the animals and land that provide their food.
And one of these folks was a sweet woman by the name of Margaret Hawkshaw, the healthiest lovingest and feistiest seventy year old I ever met. Early in the morning with the sun barely up, she schooled me in the ways of granola.
The yogurt was popular at the farmer’s market, (best ever, really) but the response to the granola took me by surprise.
People returning from their summer resort homes were carting off 10 bags at a time back to the lower mainland and soon I was getting calls from as far as the Yukon:
“Hey, I bought a bag of your granola and I ate it by the time I got to Liard, could you send me 6 more bags? I’ll send you a cheque, I promise!”
And the rest, as they say, is history. The two year anniversary of The Granola King in May of 2004 was marked by the production of 1000 pounds that week and it is still all made by hand and baked in small batches.
Most important of all, I have fulfilled on my promise and intention of making a real difference for people by providing pure food made with care and love and by finding my way in the world by serving others. Imagine that, a King that serves! Let Gourmet Granola be more than great tasting, nutritious food.
Let it be a conduit for love, power, abundance and generosity and let it embody the qualities of a King and the dignity and majesty inherent in us all!