Being a chef, I’ve become accustomed to working long hours, and from my apprentice years, this usually involved late nights, so I was always more of a night owl than an early bird. Lately, however, with my new schedule, I’m becoming more of a morning person, and there’s nothing quite like devouring a bowl of homemade granola with fresh seasonal berries when I return home from my early morning walk.

Did you know? An American first invented granola, and a new way to eat in the morning.

The story goes that in 1863, Dr. James Caleb Jackson’s first experiments started. He combined Graham flour then baked it, before loosely crumbling it to create the first dry breakfast cereal and called it ‘Jackson’s Granula’. The idea was to encourage Americans to eat healthier and improve their digestion. Interestingly around the same time, Jackson’s wife who worked alongside her husband had her recipes in her cookbooks which seem to resemble the same cereal only she called it ‘rusk’. 

Soon after, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, of Kellogg’s cereal fame, after seeing the great opportunity decided to copy it and made his own version with more grains, oatmeal, wheat flour, and cornmeal and a hint of sweetness, also calling it Granula. Jackson sued Kellogg for intellectual property theft so the name of the Kellogg’s mixture was subsequently changed to Granola. Unlike Jackson, who never really understood the value of cereal, Kellogg’s granola, America’s original health food, was a huge success.

In 1899 Kellogg was selling about four tons of granola a month. Unfortunately for Mr. Kellogg, he was not without competitors who cared less for people’s health and succeeded by producing ‘ready to eat' breakfast cereals, with added sugar. By the 1920s granola sales started to rapidly decline and granola pretty much fell off the map. It was not until a resurgence in the late 1960s when Layton Gentry came up with his own take on the recipe for the granola we know and love today. He soon sold the rights to his granola recipe, and granola once again boomed in demand.

Heartland Natural Cereal was the first company in America to niche down and mass-market granola in 1972. Since then, the granola industry has gone from strength to strength and here in Australia, Carmen’s began in 1992. It was started by a young 18-year-old entrepreneur named Carolyn Creswell who bought a muesli business for a very humble $1000.  

Granola actually saved the day for me once. My younger brother Mitchell and I had been invited to live with the local indigenous Butchulla mob for three months on K’gari (Fraser Island) The only catch for us was that we had to make our own way there and we didn’t have a 4x4, so we did what the indigenous mob did, we walked. We had to carry everything we needed for the following three months and enough food for the four-day walk including our camping gear. Our bags weighed about 15kg each and Mitchell just had to bring his guitar.

Day three is nearing its end, and we are walking in the desert-like bluff that is Wabby Lake. Walking up the steep dunes through the deep sand makes every step that bit more arduous and to add insult to injury we had not had any lunch, because we had eaten all our lunch rations, as we had not anticipated how hungry this walking would make us. Our last supper would consist of a can of cold baked beans and a can of tuna as campfires are not permitted on the island but that was at least four hours away.

Finally, at about 2 pm we stopped. I was absolutely starving and we only had a small hand full of muesli left each, enough for tomorrow’s breakfast. 

Arriving, I was too exhausted to even set up the tent so we just sat there in a sort of a daze, as I pulled out my small bag of muesli and started to pick out the last remaining sultanas, only about four in total. I kept searching and found a piece of papaw. I can tell you as I looked at those five pieces of gold, it took every ounce of discipline not to just stuff my face with them and eat them in one go. “Let’s take it in turns, you eat one and I’ll have one,” I said to my brother who had already eaten all his dried fruit the day before, so now he only had a small handful of toasted oats. As I put the sweet chewy little nugget of deliciousness into my mouth, my mouth instantly began to water. I savoured every chew which was only two. All four sultanas had been eaten. I looked at the papaw. “You have it,” said Mitchell. “Nah, let’s split it,” I said and took a nibble and handed it over. “Come on, let’s keep going. That should fuel us for the next two hours,” I joked - no one laughed. 

But why buy store-bought when you can make your own epic-flavoured granola at home in under an hour? By all means, mix and match your favourite dried fruit into the recipe. These are just my favourite to eat. You can reduce the amount of fruit too if you like to make it less fruit-driven. Basically, you are in the driver’s seat. I would recommend making this version first though, just so you can see what you want to add or replace the next time you make it. Who knows? You may be the next Carmen’s or Kellogg's!

INGREDIENTS 
- 6 cups rolled oats
- 1/2 cup LSA
- 1 tsp sea salt flakes
- 1 tsp allspice
- 1/2 cup walnuts roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup raw pistachio shelled non-salted
- 1/2 cup shredded coconut
- 1/4 cup pepitas
- 1/4 cup chia seeds
- 1/4 cup chopped dried apricots
- 1/4 cup chopped dried mango
- 1/4 cup chopped apple-soaked cranberries
- 1/2 cup sultanas
- 1/4 cup chopped dried papaw
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
- 1/2 cup maple syrup

METHOD
1. In a large bowl combine the oats, nuts, seeds, and LSA thoroughly with your hands.
2. Pour in the oil and maple and combine well.
3. Line a baking tray and bake for 10 mins. 
4. Remove from oven and stir to stop burning on the top then press down to flatten again.
5. Place back into the oven for another 10 mins. 
6. Cool for 45 mins.
7. Place cooked oats into a large bowl and gently combine fruit with your hands. 
8. Store in an airtight jar for up to 6 months.