I still eat granola. But I remember when it first became popular. I’m pretty sure I bought it in a box. I never made it myself. However, homemade granola is superior to any of the store-bought products. And it’s easy to make. The only trick, is to remember to check on it when it’s in the oven. I’ve burned my granola, because I became distracted with some other project. Like while writing this post, I got side-tracked reading about the history of granola, which is littered with stories of graham crackers, “granula”, and that awful cereal called Grape Nuts. It all began as a health food — but mostly to reduce your sexual impulses. Yea. I read that. And Snopes says it’s true. 

So, before I share my recipe for granola, we have to follow my research of how granola came to be — the evolution of Granola:

History of Granola

It must have been in the early 70s when I became health conscious — after a bad bout of that kissing sickness called mononucleosis. Granola is often associated with the hippie movement, the naturalist, the back to earth group.

Graham Crackers

But it has its roots in the health movement of the 1820s – 1830s, started by Presbyterian minister, Dr. Sylvester Graham, who advocated vegetarianism to control the lusts of the flesh. He believed that a diet of meat, fat,  and white flour led to excessive sexual heat which led to other diseases such as epilepsy, indigestion, headaches, insanity — you name it. The graham cracker, made with whole wheat flour, became the antidote  (by the way, graham flour is just whole wheat flour.)  He opened the Graham Sanitarium.

Granula Cereal

Along came Dr. Jackson, in 1863, who was into health and hydrotherapy and whole grains and started baking the wheat flour into sheets, breaking it up, and re-baking it and calling it “granula.” This was the first dry breakfast cereal. You had to soak it overnight. He also started a health santiarium called Jackson’s Sanitarium.

Granola

The health-consciousness continued, and in 1876,  in Battle Creek Michigan, The Seventh Day Adventists took over Graham’s health sanitarium, emphasizing whole grains. Dr. John Harvey Kellogg became director and baked up a whole wheat breakfast cereal, calling it “granula” — Dr. Jackson sued him and so Dr. Kellogg renamed it “granola.” Kellogg was into some very strict procedures to curtail sexual behavior. But I will stick to the granola story here. Oh, yea, his brother started the cereal company, “Kelloggs”.

Grape Nuts

Charles Post was a patient at the health sanitarium in 1891 (I don’t know what was ailing him, but he got better) and later he developed his own health sanitarium and his own breakfast cereal, calling it Grape Nuts, based on the original granula — it was whole wheat bread, baked until hard, and then thrown into a high speed shredder, breaking it into smaller pieces. “Bake and destroy” is what they say — as they continue to make this not so tasty cereal. And this was the beginnings of the other cereal king — “Post”. But no one knows why they are called grape nuts.

Sometime in the 1960s, the “granola” word was revived, with a whole new take of rolled oat, nuts, seeds, dried fruit, and perhaps honey or maple syrup — without any claims of the sanitariums in which it had it’s history. In fact, sanitariums had phased out by now. The hippie movement of free love wouldn’t have been in favor of a health food that controlled your sexual desires. And sanitariums don’t sound like the place to find health. “Granola” is sometimes used to describe a culture.

Anyway, back to baking your own granola. Use whatever nuts and seeds you like.

How to make your own granola

Before baking, it looks like this: