Photographer: Contributed
Sarah Tamm lives in Westport with her husband and two daughters. Growing up, she lived in the seaside town of Halifax, Nova Scotia, with her mom, an avid cook and baker, and dad, who owned his own grocery stores and restaurants. “We had many conversations around the dinner table growing up. Plus, whenever we went on vacation my dad would drag us through grocery stores to check out the competition,” says Tamm. “Food surrounded my life. It’s been a part of me.”
That’s why it’s no surprise that after having her daughters and leaving her career in fashion, she decided to start an artisanal granola business, Ivy’s Gourmet. “I’ve always been an avid baker and two years ago I started playing around with granola,” says Tamm. “It was new and something I hadn’t done before, so I wanted to take on the challenge.” Ivy’s Gourmet currently offers 13 different flavors of granola (and counting), all loaded with fruits and nuts, layered with spices and extracts, and baked to small-batch perfection.
Tamm’s inspiration for new flavors comes from anything. For example, Ivy’s Gourmet’s Chili Lime flavor was inspired by her husband’s love for chili lime chips. The Cinnamon Raisin a nod to one of her favorite childhood cereals, raisin bran, while the Chai Fig was inspired by her more recent affinity for chai tea lattes. When asked her favorite flavor, Tamm joked, “That’s like asking me who my favorite child is!”
A big believer in healthy eating, Tamm found that typical store-bought granola is heavy with oats, so she ensures her granola is packed heavily with things nuts and fruits. “I don’t claim to follow any dietary fads,” she says. “I just say I make damn good granola.” Her granola can be eaten on top of yogurt, with almond milk, baked into cookies, made into crumbles, or just snacked on its own. The wide array of flavors makes Ivy’s Gourmet a versatile addition to the pantry.
Like her parents, Tamm is big into giving back. Ivy’s Gourmet donates product and a portion of proceeds to support local charities like Pink Aid, Kat’s Ribbon of Hope, and the Connecticut chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. In addition to giving back to the community, one of Tamm’s biggest hopes for Ivy’s Gourmet is that it will empower her daughters. “I like that my daughters are seeing me, as a woman, starting my own business,” she says. “I hope they get inspired to have their own business one day, like I was by my dad.”
