Local Realtor Susie Bond began jogging 35 years ago. Before that, she’d never really been much of a breakfast person, but when she started jogging, she turned to granola to start her mornings.
“I read the nutritional label and was just aghast,” she said of the commercial varieties she tried.
Then, Bond began experimenting with homemade recipes, but she couldn’t find one that tasted any better than cardboard to her and certainly couldn’t find one her kids could stomach.
So she did what any intrepid woman and mother might do: she made her own. Now, her product has blossomed into Susie’s Wild Oats, a granola business that sells its products to customers in eight states and three countries.
Before making it big locally, Bond experimented with her recipe and served it every morning at her bed-and-breakfast in Rehoboth Beach. She said people who had never eaten granola or thought they would even like granola would savor it, with fruit and yogurt, every morning.
Friends encouraged her to reach out to a larger market and, last October, she began doing just that. In the last eight months, Bond has sold more than 900 pounds of her granola.
“It has just taken off like wildfire,” Bond said. But sales aren’t the only thing making her smile.
“It just thrills me to death that people are eating something decent.”
Bond’s recipe includes old-fashioned oats, coconut, walnuts, almonds, brown sugar, maple syrup, juices and water. It has 3.9 grams of fat per serving. Bond said the most expensive brands of granola found at health food stores have 10 grams of fat and include oil, which is notably missing from Bond’s all-natural variety.
Bond also pointed out that nuts are the third ingredient on her list, while many other varieties list five to 10 ingredients before including the nuts.
Bond’s granola is sweet and crunchy, but not at all dry. Without any added oils, it maintains moisture.
So far, Bond has held two tastings at Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach. She also sells her granola as fundraisers for several organizations and has even sold it at a neighborhood yard sale.
“When people try it, they love it,” she said.
For now, Susie’s Wild Oats are just being sold to a few customers who have placed orders. But in mid-July, the product will be available at stores around the area and to order online. Since she’s a one-woman show, Bond also customizes orders and can exclude certain ingredients if customers would like, such as holding off on the coconut. She also can make a gluten-free variety with special oats for those who have gluten restrictions.
But Bond isn’t stopping with just granola. She’s also selling her “Almost Instant Oatmeal” and is developing a line of scones, which she plans to sell with brandy or cranberry butter. She also wants to start a “Granola of the Month” club.
But, above all, she wants to keep her target market in mind: families. She said she wants to keep her product affordable and emphasized that children have been a huge part of her test market.
“I’ve got a lot of kids hooked,” she said, adding that kids and those adults who are kids at heart especially flock to parfaits made with the granola, yogurt and fresh fruit.
And Bond is just riding the wave, enjoying where the business takes her.
“I just love doing it,” she said. “It’s been so much fun, and if I’m going to do something like this at the age of 65, it’s got to be fun.”
Susie’s Wild Oats sells for $7 per pound, $4 for a half-pound and $2.50 for a quarter-pound. Bond said she will ship it or deliver locally.
