The story behind 88 Acres

I grew up on an 88 acre organic farm in North Brookfield, Massachusetts. My experiences on the farm gave me a strong connection to food, from tinkering in the kitchen with my mom as a child to working at the family farm stand as a teenager.

A few years ago I met the love of my life, Rob, and on our fourth date he almost died at dinner when his meal was cross-contaminated with nuts. The next day, I got rid of all the peanuts and tree nuts from my kitchen to help make Rob safe. I have no food allergies, but because of his, how I thought about food began to change.

We always struggled to find healthy, convenient snacks that Rob could eat but I would love as well. So I began experimenting at home with craft seed bars. We would take them on bike rides, and hikes, and throw a few in our bags to enjoy at work. Soon enough friends, both with food allergies and without, started to steal bites and place orders. After lots of rave reviews, we realized maybe we were on to something and the journey of 88 Acres began.

88 Acres PHILOSOPHY ON INGREDIENTS

We took into account multiple factors when determining who to partner with: safety for those with food allergies, local or US-based sourcing, and value alignment. It took us over a year to identify and form relationships with our current ingredient and packaging suppliers, a group of farms and partners of whom we are extremely proud.

RESPONSIBLE SOURCING

We source from the best farms around—both locally and domestically—whenever possible. We look to source from farms that are in close proximity to our bakery in Dorchester. Our maple syrup comes from Vermont, and our cranberries are grown in Massachusetts. However, with some ingredients, local and allergy-friendly sourcing is not possible, such as with our chocolate or ginger. We work with single-source ingredient providers to reduce the risk of possible cross-contamination with top food allergens.

Our gluten-free certified oats are sourced from an industry-leading oat-only facility in Saskatchewan, which sources gluten-free oats from farmers who exclusively grow and harvest oats.