Michele's Granola grows from kitchen hobby into crunchy success

A wall with one long window separates the Timonium office of Michele's Granola from its bakery space, but neither glass nor drywall can keep out the intoxicating smell: a mix of vanilla, coconut and sunflower seeds, among other ingredients.When complimented on the aroma, the business' founder and owner, Michele Thornett, smiled knowingly."We get that a lot," she said.Wearing earth-toned clogs and a peasant skirt (which match her green eyes and red hair), Thornett looks like someone who should be into healthy snack food. Instead of an office chair, she sits on a yoga ball.Yet Thornett, 34, didn't know how to make granola before she started experimenting in her house eight years ago. Now, her 25-member staff churns out 1,500 bags per day, distributing to grocery stores such as Wegman's and Whole Foods but also Goucher University, Under Armour, the Four Seasons hotel and smaller, local coffee shops.
The motto of Michele's Granola is "Profits, People and Planet." The company's working on becoming certified organic, which requires using 70 percent organic ingredients. Thornett said the company has already reached this standard; pending the approval of the Department of Agriculture, Thornett will be able to add a label to the package stating, "Made with organic ingredients," hopefully by summer 2013.Thornett grew up in the area (she went to Winston Churchill High School in Montgomery County), in a family where food was a "community event." On Saturday mornings, her grandparents made pancakes and the whole family sat down at the table to eat them, as WTOP radio played in the background. She was always the one who baked the birthday cake and clipped recipes from magazines.
"I loved making people happy through food," she said.She only became fascinated with granola after college, when she spent the summers of 2002 and 2003 on Martha's Vineyard. She'd graduated from Duke University in 2000, and friends who she'd met in Ireland during her post-college travels frequented the island and convinced her to spend a few months there as a waitress to make some extra money.The Black Dog bakery on the island made bread, muffins, pastries and other goods from scratch — including large, crunchy granola bars."I was just obsessed; it was the perfect food," Thornett said. "It had everything I needed in it, and I loved the flavor."When she returned home in fall of 2003, Thornett began making her own granola and giving it to friends and family as a gift. By 2005, she found a job working for a bakery called Takoma Kitchens, which sold goods at the Takoma Park Farmers Market on Sunday mornings. The bakery's customers would ask for granola, but it was one of the few items Takoma Kitchens didn't make.