Cottage inspiration

A few weeks ago, I wrote about discovering new vendors at the Thursday Night Market. One of those vendors is Javi’s Homemade Granola. I happened upon the stand, which advertises the use of local nuts and honey, and stopped to try a sample. I ended up purchasing a snack-size “power pack” for a whopping $1.

Javi’s Homemade Granola is exactly as its name implies: It’s homemade, by a man named Javi (Javier Lopez to those who don’t know him). His wife, Teresa, runs the business side of things and she invited me over to their Kern Street home recently to talk about granola, nuts and what goes into starting a cottage-foods business.

“When we started, we knew nothing about anything,” Teresa said. She and Javi bought a pound each of almonds, walnuts, pecans and peanuts, 4 pounds of oats, and some honey. Javi’s uncle makes and sells granola in Mexico—that’s where the Lopezes got the idea for their business—but already they’ve given their recipes a local twist. In this area, for instance, nuts are plentiful. Teresa, a former beekeeper, connected with a local honey producer as well as nut growers. The whole family sits down to crack the nuts—doing it themselves helps cut down on cost—and then Javi works his magic in the kitchen.

“I started taking it to work and passing it out,” Teresa said. “My co-workers said, ‘You should sell this!’ So we did.”

In the six months or so since that first batch, the Lopezes have done a lot of paperwork, but thankfully Teresa said the process of starting a cottage-foods business was relatively simple. She took a trip to the county Environmental Health Department (across the street from where she works at the office of Employment and Social Services in Oroville) and was able to pick up a packet outlining all the permits and certifications they’d need, including a business license from the city of Chico, a state seller’s permit and a permit to run a home kitchen from Environmental Health. She and her 13-year-old son took an online class to receive their safe food-handler’s certificate.

Their first event was Gold Nugget Days in Paradise, and for the past month they’ve been selling at Chico’s Thursday Night Market. In all, it’s been worth the extra work, Teresa said.

“We want to be able to take regular vacations—our plan is to go to Hawaii,” she said. Between working full time (Javi is a welder in Gridley) and having a family, it’s been difficult to save enough for a family vacation, she said. The California Homemade Food Act, which went into effect in 2013, made it possible for them to do something on the side from the convenience of their own home.

Javi’s granola—which comes in several varieties—and the honey-glazed nuts are delicious, healthy additions to our list of things made in Chico. (Call or text Teresa at 828-0051 for more info.) It makes me wonder: Who else has been inspired by the cottage-foods law?