About Us
Timeline
2007 The First Batch
The O’Kelly Family attended their first farmers’ market in Carlisle, MA in the summer of 2007 to sell home-fried doughnuts. It took them only four hours to realize they needed a product with a longer shelf-life. They went home, and Jacquie brainstormed and scoured recipes until she came up with the idea of making granola. The next week they arrived at the market with six varieties of homemade granola, decorated with images of a little girl with pigtails whom they called, “The Golden Girl,” inspired by Jacquie’s childhood idol, Pippi Longstocking.
2008 & 2009 - Expanding Summer Markets
The summer markets expanded over the next two years to include more towns, to which the family brought Catherine’s baked breads, cookies, and scones, all made in the O’Kelly’s home kitchen. In addition to baked goods, they sold Deborah’s hand-sewn aprons. On Halloween night in preparation for the last market of the 2009 summer season, the O’Kelly’s oven exploded in flames from overbaking and Deborah decided it was time to move production into a commercial kitchen.
2010 - Moving Into a New Kitchen
Deborah worked on plans to move the business, and in May of 2010 Golden Girl Granola moved into its first commercial kitchen. The O’Kellys started to bake pies, in addition to all of their other baked goods, and handmade 50 pies every Friday for the Saturday morning markets. By the end of the season they began to have big plans for the granola that continued to get rave reviews from everyone who tasted it.
2011 - Going Granola
In 2011 the O’Kellys decided to focus exclusively on making granola and developed new packaging for the large bags and a new smaller-sized snack pack. They were able to hire their very first employee to help bake. By May, they were on the shelves of Whole Foods in Bedford, MA. Golden Girl Granola was already beginning to outgrow its shared kitchen, and Deborah decided again that it was time to invest in the company’s own space and equipment.
2012 - A Home of Our Own
Golden Girl Granola moved into its own kitchen at Phoenix Park in January of 2012 with a newly purchased oven that quadrupled production. They hired and trained a second baker and kitchen manager. By the end of the year, Golden Girl was in twenty specialty stores, six Whole Foods Markets, and had begun to sell online through their website. Golden Girl began to develop recipes for using the granola as a topping on and ingredient in other dishes, which they presented in a booklet at in-store demos.
2013-2015 - Time of Growth
In 2013 Golden Girl Granola started selling to Hannaford Supermarket and by the following year were in every one of their Massachusetts stores. They began the process of redesigning their logo and packaging for pre-printed bags and crafting the background story behind “Gigi,” the little pig-tailed girl who had been on their package since the very beginning. Golden Girl launched their first annual Blogger Recipe Challenge in 2015, receiving fifty original recipes from bloggers all over the country competing for First Place to win more of the coveted granola they had all given rave reviews.
2016 - True to Our Roots
Today, Golden Girl Granola still stays true to its community roots by devoting lots of time to meet and speak directly with customers at in-store demos and by donating granola to charitable and family-friendly events such as Boston’s Annual Walk for Children’s Hospital. We are delighted for the opportunity this year to meet all of you at the Boston Local Food Fest in September!
Go Golden Girl!
Testimonials
