Our History
Our History
Our path to eating healthy began the summer of 2003. Our family had been on the "Pop Tart" diet for a number of years. That summer, during a routine life insurance screening, Gordon discovered that he had type 2 Diabetes. It was a wake-up call, and it wasn't a coincidence that we met a woman that very week who owned an organic store. Her store promoted the findings of Weston A. Price, and she gave me (Mary) a book to read on fats and oils. That book started me on my journey of researching nutritional principles. What I discovered amazed me. Most importantly, within two weeks of changing our diet, Gordon's blood sugars completely normalized and he has never had to take any diabetic drugs.
Sadly, we had gotten lazy and had been relying quite a bit on many refined convenience foods. As I began learning the principles of nourishing traditions, I started making everything from scratch. I had a culinary arts school background, so getting back to homemade was not too difficult. I had forgotten how rewarding it was to serve something delicious and nutritious to my family.
Time for change!
One of the first things to go from our diet was soda pop! We started brewing kombucha tea in 2004, and began selling it to private customers in 2005. In 2006, we decided to add a state-certified kitchen in our home so we could legally sell our products to the public. We got our license in August of 2006.
Another food item that we love is sauerkraut! I could never stand it growing up, and on a trip to Germany in the 1980's I tasted some kraut that was delicious. I came home from Germany, tried canned sauerkraut again, and still couldn't stand it. Then I discovered lacto-fermentation, and there it was, the delicious sauerkraut that I had tried in Europe! We eat it at least two times a day and sometimes three (depending on what we are having - it doesn't go so well with pancakes and maple syrup).
I began studying zymology with a fervor! I wanted to know the science behind the fermentation. I experimented with different vegetables and recipes. I love coming up with new things to ferment and am always trying new things.
We began sprouting, drying, and grinding our wheat berries for breads and pastries. It was during this process that I laughingly came up with the name Little Red Hen for our company. Since that time, two of us in our family have gone gluten-free, so we have discontinued the sprouted wheat line so that we could maintain a gluten-free kitchen.
Our latest venture has been studying herbs and essential oils for health. Our daughter has suffered from severe eczema for years, and we have been on a journey to discover something that would help her skin without adding toxic chemicals to her already-challenged system. We developed our new line of salves using only olive oil and beeswax as the base, and then enhanced with infusions of herbs and essential oils.
