by Bear & Poppy

It’s easy when you’re running and growing your own business to get focused in on yourself, your recipes, your customers and your vision. In fact it’s actually integral that you do so to insure that you are focused on your own style and goals. However, as a small food manufacturer you want to keep up with what’s happening in the world, ask questions of people in the same boat as you and bounce ideas off of like-minded entrepreneurs. Sometimes you need to go outside of your own brand and kitchen to connect and find inspiration.


Create your own muesli

On Sunday I got a BIG dose of the outside in the form of San Francisco’s Fancy Food Show. If you’ve ever been, you’ll understand that I currently look back upon the show two days later, in a daze of cheese and chocolate hangover. It was worth it.
When you enter the Moscone Center in downtown you’re greeted with your nametag and a pamphlet containing the names and locations of literally thousands of “booths”, all lined up across 2 huge rooms, waiting to corral you in with smiles and slogans to try their product.

“Sometimes you need to go outside of your own brand and kitchen to connect and find inspiration.”

My trusty side-kick (aka granola assistant, Emily) and I probably could have strategized better. Instead we hit the ground running like kids in a candy store (make that a candy, cookie, baked good, savory, salty, saucy store) trying the most soft and doughy waffle I’ve ever had, the perfect bite of soft goat cheese on a caramelized onion cracker with a dash of arugula and fig jam, petit fours (my first! – and second), a flakey, warm and crunch croissant filled with nutella, yogurts, ice creams (dairy-free and dairy-full) and popcorn. Oh, so much popcorn.

I had a number of great moments that led me back to the reason I took the day off from the kitchen to get out in the world of food. At one international booth (yes, many countries have entire sections of booths – hello Italian olives and French brie!) we struck up conversation with Lyle, who works for a tech company in San Francisco but also chef’s it up on the side and was manning the booth for the day. Conversation flowed onto where I’m selling my product, where I produce it and whether he might hook up selling it at the company he works at. Cards exchanged, paella sampled, handshakes and we were on to the next booth. It was so fun to get to share with someone about my granola, how it is unique and hear their enthusiasm in return.

At our first popcorn stand of the day we met Keiko, who asked if we had a booth at the show. Perhaps with just a slight tinge of the forlorn I said in fact no – we were here more on reconnaissance with the hopes of having a booth in the show next year. Without missing a beat she said – “oh, we didn’t think we’d be able to be here either but we made it and you should definitely be here next year, too”. So encouraging connecting with someone that’s pushing their own boundaries and achieving goals they may have thought were unattainable even just a few months before. Ideas can grow and progress so quickly in this field and it’s exhilarating to see that happening for other small food companies as well as my own.


Winter Apple & Spice

Finally, we approached a booth that lured us in with big smiles and the bold statement: “come try the best granola you’ve ever had!” They may have been thrown off for a second when they saw our nametags with “Granola/Muesli” under our company description. So we tried it – and it was delicious. We exchanged our own short stories about our products and good vibes of moral support in our personal quests to get our brands out there in the world. No competition or ill will, just excited people sharing information and supporting the concepts of each other in this burgeoning space we find ourselves so driven in.


Rosemary Granola

The food landscape for people like you and me right now is so ripe with thoughtfulness and deliciousness. It’s inspiring to meet people, chat with them and taste the things they’ve made with care. It sends me back into my kitchen and into my apron with even more spark for what I love to do.

Kate Whitlow is the Chef and Owner of Bear and Poppy in Oakland, California. Bear and Poppy creates small batch granola and muesli with gluten free oats, coconut oil, honey, spices and dried fruits and nuts – and of course California sunshine. When she’s not in the kitchen baking and taste testing she’s shipping granola all over the country, catering parties small and large, or running around outside with her husband and their dog, Blue.

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