By Isabelle and Christy Price

What began as a cost-effective way to honor guests at their wedding has turned into a growing family business based out of a blue Victorian home in West Oakland known as Chestnut Street Granola.

With a focus on homemade granola and a range of flavors, this family sets up shop at the Hayward Farmers Market every Saturday and, in addition, offers online sales in hopes to reach a larger customer base.

About three years ago, Chestnut Street Granola founders Tim Lohrentz and Rachel Russell offered party favors in the form of homemade granola at their wedding and received nothing but positive feedback from their guests. With this reaction sitting in the back of their minds on their honeymoon, a vision for a small business was sparked.

“I mean, originally, I just made granola for years and years and I made granola just to eat so that was what was fun, was eating,” said Tim. “But I think the wedding, when we did the favors, it really changed my perspective to be something that other people could enjoy.”

Final product of Chestnut Street Granola Company’s hard work. Orange You Glad is a favorite among the children. (Photo by Christy Price)

Pre-pandemic, they began the process of obtaining a business license and proper permits. While this process was one of their biggest challenges and took the longest amount of time, they held out. Once the proper licensing and permits were obtained, they outsourced and cooked at a commercial kitchen. Since the pandemic erupted, this commercial kitchen shut down and Chestnut Street Granola was left to their own devices. Months passed and the business took a back seat as the family attempted to navigate the reality of living in a pandemic.

This past August, Tim and Rachel made the decision to obtain a CFO permit and run the business right out of their own home. Tim became head chef and Rachel handled marketing, packing, shipping and everything in between.

They also brought in both of their sons. Quincy is an expert in sales and Ben pulls is the photographer. Their nieces Emani and Mackenzie help with packaging, labeling, and customer service at the Hayward Farmers Market.

Emani shared her love of customer service. “It’s really nice. I like talking to everyone and telling them about the granola. It’s nice to see their reaction when they finally try the samples or something and then they’re like “Oh, wow” and then they compliment me.”

Since picking back up, their main focus is community building and sharing the love of fresh food with people.

Chestnut Street Granola currently offers four different flavors of granola that include; Everything is Everything, Orange You Glad, Dyin’ for Cayenne, and a seasonal flavor called Pumpkin Harvest. According to Tim, new flavor profiles are in the works and coming soon.

They offer two different sizes: a large 12 oz. bag priced at $10 and a travel size 2.5 oz. bag priced at $3. Forms of payment they take include debit and credit cards, cash, food stamps at the farmers market, and they are working on expanding into the Venmo platform.

Chestnut Street Granola can be found at the Hayward Farmers Market, 777 B Street, Hayward, 94541, every Saturday from 9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. You can also place any online orders on their website for convenience. They can be contacted via email at Chestnutstreetgranola@gmail.com or by phone at 415-244-8949 for any inquiries.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post