BUILDING LOCAL FOOD ALLIES & EATING ALL THE ENERGY BALLS

About 6 years ago, when I was 9 months pregnant with Indigo, I went to a friend’s house after a full day of teaching to hear Sara Thielson speak about nutrition. At the time, Sara was working at Dr. Dan’s, a natural healing center in Newburyport, MA as a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner. 

I went to hear her speak for a few different reasons and, to this day, I am surprised how many times I think to myself, it’s a good thing I went to that event. There were so many valid excuses for not attending...I was 9 months pregnant and I already worked a full day. But as many of us know, when you own your own business—you just do it, you just go. 

So why did I go to hear Sara speak about nutrition that evening?

1: Building Community

Being a new farm on the Seacoast of NH is really intimidating. Every farm around you seems to have their shit together. You see their stand at the farmers market, you see their products, you see their relationship with one another, you see their natural interaction with customers and you think to yourself, will we ever get to that point? 

Building community continues to be very important to our farm and our business. At the beginning, as a new farm, we often said YES to everything, simply due to FOMO. Although saying yes to all the one-off activities and events is not sustainable in the long run, in the short run it was a good thing. It got our business out into the community, it gave us practice and confidence to talk about who we are and what we do and it laid some of the grassroots down. Some of those first customers (who continue to be our customers now) became loyal customers because of an event like Sara’s. 

These customers continue to be incredibly special to us because they have seen our evolution, they have seen our growth and they feel like they are a part of it—they are a part of it. 

2: Meeting a New Customer Base

Simply being a farmer isn’t enough...you have to be able to sell the products you raise. Who are your customers? Who are your local food allies? These questions are still ones that we think about regularly. These questions help us continue to network, collaborate, partner, and grow. 

Knowing your customer base is incredibly important. I knew that going to an event like Sara’s nutrition talk would give me exposure to people who value local food and prioritize buying it. Going to this event would introduce me to a niche of people who want exactly what we do and I had faith that this exposure would continue to help us grow. And it did. The steady stream of customers with MA license plates was real. It was mostly apparent on the weekends, people who visited Dr. Dan’s would learn about a farm that grew pastured chicken and that’s what they came for. You never know how far an experience will take you.

3: Energy Balls

I didn’t know it beforehand, but these energy balls became a reason for being there that night, once I tasted them.

There were so many delicious snacks there but the energy balls were my weakness that night. I probably ate 6 of them without even thinking. I asked my friend Brittany for the recipe and throughout the past 6 years I’ve made adjustments and tweaks to perfect the recipe AND make it full of local ingredients—most of which are available at the farm store.

Like most of my favorite recipes, there are so many things you can add or subtract to these no-bake balls that are packed with protein. Some people view these energy balls as a snack, a breakfast on the go, some view them as dessert. They are perfect for adults and kids alike!

RECIPE FOR NO-BAKE ENERGY BALLS

It’s really easy and you cannot mess this up, just take all the ingredients and mix them well. 

Ingredients: 

⅔ cup of peanut butter, our favorite is Teddy’s Organic because it’s local out of MA*

1 ¼ cup of of oats, our favorite are Maine Grains*

⅓ cup of local honey*

¼ cup chocolate chips 

⅔ cup of shredded coconut 

1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

*Available at the farm store

Feel free to mix it up and try adding any combination of: chia seeds, pumpkin seed powder, maple syrup instead of honey, walnuts, hemp hearts, flaxseed, and cinnamon! 

Get mixing! Combine all the ingredients above and mix thoroughly until combined. Then chill the dough for at least 30 minutes before forming balls size you most prefer but we stick with ~1 inch. Place in the fridge/freezer to harden for at least 30 minutes. 

Makes about 18 balls. 

PRO TIP: Make a double batch because they don’t always last as long as you would expect. This is also a perfect recipe to make with young children and a great way to begin learning measurements. 

Try out the recipe and share it with us on social—be sure to tag us in your stories. We love seeing you in the kitchen!