A Short History of Granola

Granola is widely known and loved as a delicious, nutritious, fiber rich breakfast food, energy boosting snack and healthy dessert accessory.  Based on oats, nuts and honey, variations include dried fruits, seeds and other whole grains, all gently baked together until crisp.  But granola hasn't always been around.

In 1894, Dr. James Caleb Jackson came up with the first 'granula' for clients of his sanitarium in Dansville, New York.  Composed of graham flour, granula resembled jumbo Grape-Nuts.  The Jackson Sanitarium was a prominent health spa situated on a hillside overlooking Dansville, and was also known as 'Our Home on the Hillside.'  The company Jackson formed to sell his invention was thus named Our Home Granula Company.

When John Harvey Kellogg later devised a similar cereal, he changed the name to 'granola' to avoid legal conflict with Jackson.  Granola languished until the 1960s and the early rise of health foods; fruits and nuts were added to enhance its nutritive value and appeal.  Various people laid claim to granola's revival or reinvention, notably Layton Gentry, who is credited with a granola recipe using oats.  Yet granola remained a niche product into the next decade.

In 1972, Jim Matson, an executive at Pet Milk of Saint Louis, Missouri, introduced Heartland Natural Cereal, the first major granola brand.  It was soon followed by Quaker's 100% Natural Granola, Kellogg's Country Morning Granola and General Mills' Nature Valley Granola.  And granola was off to the races.

Bunnery Natural Foods' Original Granola recipe was created in 1975 and has remained virtually unchanged since.  Though introduced only in the last few years, our Blueberry, Cranberry Nut-Vanilla and Banana Honey-Nut granolas are all based on that original recipe.  All are handcrafted products made from natural ingredients and without preservatives, baked daily in our ovens.