Maker: Emilie of Daughter’s Granola

As a legitimate lover of all things granola, I’m thrilled to feature Emilie of Daughter’s Granola today.  Give me a bowl full of granola and I’m a happy camper.  Or a baggie…I’ll skip the bowl.  Less dishes to wash. Meet Emilie and if you’re able, go munch on some of her delicious granola!

~Angie~

Please introduce yourself. 

My name is Emilie and I am from a small town in Northern Wisconsin, and I now live in Southern California. My experiences in these two places have shaped who I am and how I work.

What do you make or do?

I own Daughter’s Granola, a small-batch cereal company. My two original blends are named for the place I grew up and the place I live now, Door County, Wisconsin, and Orange County, California. Each features ingredients from these two places I love, including tart cherries from the orchards of family friends and local orange blossom honey. I also have a Granola of the Month Club, through which members receive a new blend of granola in the mail twelve times a year.

Where can we find your creations?

My granola is on the menu at some of my favorite cafes, coffee shops, and restaurants in Orange County, and you can purchase Daughter’s Granola to take home from a few of them too, including Alta Baja Market—run by Dear Handmade Life cofounder Delilah Snell—in Downtown Santa Ana, California. All of my granolas are also available from my online store, and that’s where you can sign up for the Granola of the Month Club (and preview the twelve featured blends of the year)!

Is there an interesting story behind the name of your business?

I grew up in my family’s restaurant in Wisconsin, The White Gull Inn, and I ate my parents’ granola with yogurt just about every morning. When I moved to California, I couldn’t keep asking them to ship me boxes of the White Gull’s granola, so I started to make my own. Visiting farmers markets in San Francisco, where I lived first, and then in Orange County and Los Angeles, I was delighted by the fresh nuts, dried fruits, and unusual grains I could purchase, and I started to experiment. My granola is quite different from my parents’, so when I started to sell it, I called it Daughter’s Granola.

How long have you been creating and is it your full-time job?

I do not make granola full-time. I also am a writer and editor, and I love the balance between the two jobs. Making, shipping, and delivering granola is very physical work, whereas editing is quieter and more academic. But my daily tasks influence one another—I like to think that storytelling plays a big part in creating new flavors of granola, or finding new venues to carry it, and at the same time, granola also fuels me through tough deadlines when I’m at my desk!

Is creativity a luxury or a necessity for you?

Creativity is a necessity in everyday life, not just the moments when I am creating. It’s problem-solving, communication, time management. If I don’t think creatively about how I plan my day and complete projects—especially given how multifaceted running your own business is—then I don’t get anything done! I try to find joy in the different tasks I have to do, whether those are actually dreaming up new recipes for granola or styling a pretty breakfast shoot, or if they are figuring out how to scale a recipe and deliver 100 pounds of granola. Working for myself always feels creative to me, and I wouldn’t change that.