I’m going on a little road trip this weekend to Long Island’s lovely East End. So while you’re out Googa Mooga-ing, I’ll be calm as a clam, breathing the fresh, salty air…and cavorting with puppies! The Lab is selling at the Forgotten Friends Animal Rescue Spring Fair this Saturday from 10-5 in Riverhead. 

I can think of nothing better than hanging out at an organic farm on a beautiful spring day. Also, I should really learn some pet first aid, for the sake of my cat and his remaining 6 lives. 

On Sunday, I’ll drop by our newest customer C.J. Gourmet in Greenport. They’re celebrating their grand opening this weekend, replete with demos, tastings, and the like.

But we haven’t abandoned Brooklyn! Heather will be manning the Lab at Saturday’s Smorgasburg in East River State Park. Granola Lab covers the island, from shore to shore.

We were on the local news last night! That’s a first for Granola Lab, but I’m sure the cameras will be chasing us from here on out. 

I happened to be making a delivery to the New York Mouth offices while an ABC-7 Eyewitness News crew was filming a segment. Lucky me! It’s a short piece, but Craig & Nancy do a great job encapsulating New York Mouth’s mission and keen food-scouting sensibilities.

jonathankopp:

New York Mouth on ABC-7 NY. Go, NYM! #indie #artisinal #food #brooklyn

Smorgasburg Season 3 starts tomorrow! Don’t be left out of Monday’s water-cooler talk: meet the new stars and say hello to your old favorites tomorrow in Williamsburg and Sunday at Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Joking aside, Granola Lab is excited to be back this Saturday at Smorgasburg’s (slightly revised) Williamsburg location, East River State Park. We’re participating in both markets on a biweekly basis. In other words, catch us in Williamsburg this weekend and in DUMBO next Sunday. Confused? Our schedule is always posted on our website.

We’ll be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in the beautiful, green(!) Hudson Valley. Piermont’s the Outside In, an art gallery, will play host to a food artisan marketplace this Sunday and we’re SUPER excited to share our granola north of the City for the first time.

The event coincides with Hudson Valley Restaurant Week, so make a day (or weekend) of it!

The Year of the Snake is meant to begin with unanticipated transformation, a sloughing of dead skin to start the new year fresh. Right on cue, Granola Lab has made a fresh start: we’ve moved to a new location!

After nearly two years in a shared commercial kitchen in Sunset Park, it was time for a change. Enter Leske’s Bakery, a beloved Bay Ridge institution, about to open a second location in South Slope. They take care of their baking in Bay Ridge, so they offered up the new location’s kitchen to the Lab and our friends at Cookie Fairy Sweets. 

At Leske’s you’ll find delicious Norwegian, Italian, and Irish treats made using traditional recipes, as well as cookies and more from Cookie Fairy Sweets. Our granola will be available soon, too! (We’ll let you know, of course.) 

[Beautiful fruity danishes! From Leske’s website.]

Doesn’t she look scrumptious in all her unwrapped glory? The Brewers Bar is a chewy-crisp snack made with dried fruits, seeds, and barley malt from KelSo Beer Co. Packs of five now for sale on our Etsy site.

Our customers ask us one question over and over again: Is your granola gluten-free? The answer has always been no, but we’ve made some recipe changes of late that bring us exceedingly close. By eliminating wheat germ, all our granola varieties are now WHEAT-FREE. Just look for a best by date of 28 May 2013 or later. 

You should know that most oats contain trace amounts of gluten due to crop cross-contamination. In addition, some folks with celiac disease have an immunologic reaction to oats, even if they’re completely gluten-free. (Check out this article for further explanation.)

What does this mean if you avoid gluten? For those with celiac disease, our granola is still NOT safe. But if you’re simply avoiding gluten or have non-celiac gluten sensitivity, Granola Lab is a good choice.

We do love toasted wheat germ, but making our recipes friendlier to more granola-lovers is totally worth it!

10 days into 2013 and we haven’t even wished you a Happy New Year! Now, two bits of news to start things out on the right foot.

Granola Lab is proud to be for sale at brand new Village cafe, Fair Folks and a Goat. Strange name, you say? This cafe is definitely unique: it’s a gallery and a gift shop, too. Become a member for $25 a month and your daily coffee is taken care of…what a deal!

[photo by Marco Ricca for the New York Times]

Another notable accomplishment of the young year is our involvement with Farmigo, a nationwide network of local CSAs. Farmigo CSAs are different: members can order exactly what they want each week online, then their selections are delivered to their offices. Yup, it’s farm-to-office! Granola Lab granola will be available to participating offices in our native Brooklyn.

Five more days of Granola Lab on FAB! You have until Sunday at 7pm to get a nice discount on our wares. Try all five varieties for just 36 bucks.

Shopping season is in full stride. Granola not on your list? It should be! Our granola is delicious, affordable, and made in NYC by very nice people. I’ve been so busy making said goods that these are the best pro-Lab arguments I can muster.

Find us at the Brooklyn Night Bazaar at the Fare Trade NYC booth, Friday and Saturday nights (14th/15th and 21st/22nd). I’ll be handing out granola samples amidst the musical mayhem this Friday.

On Saturday, Granola Lab wraps up its trilogy of school gym markets at P.S. 10’s South Slope Holiday Craft Fair. So close to our Sunset Park home!

And on Sunday, we rested. Ha! Not this time of year. We’ll be frantically baking more granola for our sale on Fab.com. It starts at 7pm on Sunday and runs for a full week.

First and foremost, it’s Cyber Monday and we’re on board with a one-day 15% off sale! Order from our Etsy site and enter coupon code CYBERSALE during the checkout process.

Next! Our Holiday Gift Box is now available, online and at markets throughout the month of December. Here’s a semi-artsy photo of said box. See our online shop for details.

We’ve been busy post-Sandy doing everything except updating the blog! It’s time to hustle our kicking and screaming selves into the holiday season. To that end, join us Monday at the 92nd St Y CSA’s fall market. Thanksgiving is nigh!

Granola Lab’s kitchen is in Zone A and without electricity. We are not allowed to access the building. Thus, no granola baking or deliveries until further notice. Here’s hoping the recovery is swift for all of us!

This Sunday, there will be sugar! Donate your treats for the Sugar Sweets Festival bakesale to benefit City Reliquary and/or submit them into one of four competitions. And if those treats are vegan, I WILL JUDGE YOU! My amazing sidekick Anita (of Electric Blue Baking and the forthcoming Anita’s Cultured Coconut Cream) and I are excited to sample your best vegan creations. So, bring it! You might win more tasty stuff.

City Reliquary is at the corner of Havemeyer and Metropolitan in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. October 21, 10am-4pm.

We’re super-proud to announce that Murray’s Cheese is now stocking three Lab flavors! This venerable Village institution is so much more than a fromagerie; it’s a veritable mecca of specialty foods. See how I crammed several overused expressions into one sentence? Lazy, lazy, lazy.

Bad writing aside, do go visit our cheesy friends on Bleecker Street. Encourage them to explore unique pairings, such as this one from my friend Jen:

Yes, I have a dairy allergy, but I think she’s on to something!

So psyched to have our heavenly breakfast stuffs for sale on Scoutmob! They feature all kinds of random-cool stuff made by locals in NYC and in several other cities throughout the country.

Many thanks to Alex Drum for his mad photography skillz.

It’s not everyday that a reporter from Madame Figaro Japan emails me with questions about my company. I almost thought it was an alternate-reality fantasy. I mean, Japan IS a place of magic and mystery (in my mind). Anyway, it happened, thanks to Dara Furlow of With Love, from Brooklyn. Like the rest of the world, the Japanese are fascinated by “the Brooklyn brand” and Dara’s gift boxes contain many wonderful examples of Brooklyn-made foodstuffs.

The magazine isn’t available online, but here’s a shot of our bit:

According to a mostly-fluent Japanese-speaking friend, the paragraph about us reads:

The “Granola Lab” mission is to make both sweet and delicious granola. It is “created” by chef Alex in a small kitchen. Blended with oats and almonds, local honey and various spices, “Elemental Formula” is a perfect way to start the day. It is included in the Breakfast in Breukelen gift box ($65), or can be bought separately.

Here’s the first page of the article. Translators, start your engines!

We’ve been quiet on the blog while the granola business has gotten LOUD! The Lab can now be found at a three new independent shops and one certified big box retailer. You heard that right, cats and kittens; we’re going big! Bed Bath & Beyond is dipping their toes into the gourmet food waters and we’re happy to be included. For now, our granola can be found at their East Hanover, New Jersey location only, but this is just the beginning.

Where else?

• A Taste of Long Island, a father-daughter shop in Farmingdale that sells foodstuffs produced on Long Island (of course).
• Fountain of Youth Organics, our first location in Western New York! This Brockport health-food store is having their Locavore Event tonight featuring products from Brooklyn. Nice timing.
• Gourmet Fresh, a Carroll Gardens grocer that’s way bigger inside than you’d imagine from the storefront. They make all their deli items themselves…fresh!

As many of you already know, Granola Lab is featured on Fab this week! We’re pleased as punch (i.e. punchy). If you don’t know Fab, they sell all kinds of nicely designed products at discounted prices, generally for one-week stints. Here’s a preview of our sale which ends SUNDAY, August 19 at 6pm:

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Nice price, right? Spread the word!

Another steamy summer week is inching toward Friday happy hour, the perfect time to reflect on our accomplishments. This week our granola made its way to two new locations, both outside our home borough. Hearty Lab welcomes to Caffe Portofino in Northport (Long Island) and Malt & Mold in NYC’s Lower East Side!

Caffe Portofino is run by the inimitable Lisa Harris, a busy bee baker who’s collected a thoughtfully eclectic array of treats at her Main Street coffee house.

What can’t I say about Malt & Mold? It’s a neighborhood beer and cheese shop with a full compliment of specialty items, including a freezer with at least five brands of the best local ice creams around. (Bent Spoon, anyone?) Proprietor Kevin Heald is the most helpful, friendly beer guy ever. And they have growlers in three sizes!

Go out and support these and other awesome local businesses this weekend, pretty please. Happy Friday everyone!