LOCALadk Magazine

61 LOCALadk LOCALadk I AM K A T I E R H O D E S My front door opens, and Katie scuffs her winter boots on the door mat. She clutches two paper bags in her hands and laughs. "I brought too much." I help her unpack our rations for the upcoming week of winter hiking. Bags of granola, boxes of granola bars, and individually wrapped energy bombs, my absolute favorite. Imagine a granola cookie with a spoonful of delicious nut butter at the core. at's an energy bomb. Aer Katie de-layers, we sit down and I open a bag of granola. Between mouthfuls, I begin my interview with the WonderWoman of TogaNola. B: Alright, Katie, tell us a bit about yourself. Where you are from and how did the Adirondacks come into your life? K: I grew up in a small town in central New York, and to be honest, I was a pretty stagnant kid. I would play hooky just to get out of the annual 1-mile run in gym class and spent a lot of time reading and playing video games. e thought of team sports gave me anxiety. It wasn't until I went to college at SUNY Potsdam that I discovered my love for movement—hiking in particular—which I was surprised to find I was naturally good at. My new-found love of the outdoors eventually led me on a path to become a New York State Licensed Guide and Public Education Director/Field Team Member for Adirondack Mountain Rescue (AMR), a technical search-and-rescue team out of Clion Park, New York. I'm currently living in the southern foothills of the Adirondacks on a small homestead with my husband and a quirky, affectionate family of critters. We strive to grow a majority of our own sustainable food and incorporate permaculture principles to give back to the land we live on. e Adirondack Mountains have my heart, and I spend most of my free time hiking, camping, and trail running. B: How was the idea for TogaNola born? K: As I got older, I began to find that the more I moved, the happier I was, so in 2015 I decided to challenge myself to run a marathon for the first time. I was training really hard every day and found that I was constantly hungry. Granola bars seemed like a smart, healthy snack to get me through my daily grumbles, so I started eating them in mass—4, 5, 6 a day—and I started feeling terrible. It wasn't until I looked closely at the nutrition facts that I realized how sugar-packed these "healthy" bars were. I still needed a snack option to get me through the day, so I decided to start making my own bars, sweetened with small amounts of local honey or maple syrup only. So, the TogaNola Bar was born! My husband saw the potential of my creation and pushed me to start selling them. e rest is a blur. We sold out our first day of market, and customers started asking for different products: granola clusters, nut butter bars—you name it. It felt good to provide a locally made, nutrient-dense option for active people in our community. B: So, you make amazing granola bars and rescue people in the backcountry. Is there anything you can't do? K: Oh, goodness, yes! I remain terrible at team sports and have been struggling to learn guitar the last few years. I'm very logic-brained, so anything artistic is a struggle for me. I never want to stop trying to learn new things, though; to stop learning is to stop living. B: Well said! What's your vision for the future of TogaNola? K: A lot of people ask when we will start outsourcing our manufacturing or mass-producing our products—aer all, that's where the "real" money is, right? e answer is TogaNola was created with the idea that food should be made with human hands, with love, and with whole high-quality ingredients. We never started this business to get rich; we're not business people. e pride in our products and interaction with our customers are what keep us going. Making enough profit to keep our little family afloat is all we ever want or need. We would love to expand enough to hire some family and friends to help out, join a few more farmers' markets in the region, and maybe open a small shop locally, but we will never grow so large that we're forced to compromise our core values. B: Love it! Any advice for people beginning their own businesses in the Adirondack region? K: Decide what you want and then work on it every single day. I won't lie: Owning a small business is hard and frustrating and scary, but it's also the most fulfilling job I've ever had. It won't be easy, but it will be worth it. Be proud of the product you offer and be transparent with your customers; they will Bethany Garretson

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