Getting into the mix: 9-year-old Ethan Vitus brings granola to Dehoff’s Key Market in Redwood City

Ethan started making his own granola after checking out a cook book from his school library to begin making breakfast for his family on the weekends. In the book, there was a make-your-own granola recipe that didn’t include exact ingredients, but left the mix up to Ethan to perfect. 

“After lots of experimenting and taste testing I finally perfected my recipe,” Ethan said. 

Ethan’s mix of granola includes oats, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, salt, cinnamon, cardamom, coconut flakes, cranberries, blueberries, syrup and avocado oil. 

Ethan began making granola for his family — who are huge fans — and eventually started sharing it with friends, teachers and neighbors. On Nextdoor, a neighborhood social media site, Ethan would post that he had granola for sale, and he’s grown a loyal following of customers. 

One day, Ethan shared with his mother that he realized the “community really supports a young entrepreneur.” Michelle Vitus said she’s been blown away by how much support her son has received. 

“He’s got these super fans on Nextdoor, and he knows a bunch of them by their first name but he never met them before,” Michelle Vitus said. “They comment on his posts, they order his granola regularly.” 

Ethan always wanted to sell his granola in grocery stores, and to figure out the best way to do so, he sent an email to Chris Dehoff, the owner of Dehoff’s Key Market, asking for advice. Dehoff met with Ethan and shared insight on pricing and how to get his product into stores.

“He said he would love to be my first grocery store,” Ethan said. 

Dehoff also shared that the secret to getting customers interested in small, local products is to demo samples. 

On Saturday, Ethan will do just that, and be in the grocery store ready to give out samples of his granola for shoppers. He’s excited to get more people to try his recipe out and hopefully make a purchase. 

Lately, Ethan has been making about 30 bags of granola a week, ever since he began selling in Dehoff’s Key Market. He said he’s very excited to see his item on the shop’s shelves. 

The only people allowed to help with creating the granola are Ethan and his mom, because they’re the only ones who went through the necessary food safety handlers training. Ethan has memorized the safety regulations for food handling, storage and cooking safety, and takes them very seriously. 

As a small business, Ethan has also been responsible with creating his own logo, bagging his granola, placing a working barcode on the bag and sealing it with a special machine. 

On top of cooking, Ethan is a big fan of technology and learning everything that goes into his product from start to finish. He’s also learned about unit-cost models to figure out his granola price, strengthening his skills in math to measure each ingredients and calculate revenue. 

Ethan’s Granola has a separate bank account, and ingredients are purchased with Ethan’s own bank card. The very first thing he bought with his granola proceeds was an electric guitar — something he’s very proud to have accomplished. 

“It feels exciting [to buy my own things],” Ethan said.  

Despite his young age, Ethan has already had an entrepreneurial spirit, Michelle Vitus said. In second grade, Ethan wanted to start a dishwashing company, “but that wasn’t a second-grade business,” Michelle Vitus said, laughing. 

“When he got into granola, he really had started making it regularly, and his dad said ‘you should sell this,’” Michelle Vitus said. “He really wanted to start this dishwasher business and I wondered if we could actually help him with a granola business. Maybe we could get that to work.” 

For Christmas, Ethan has created a chocolate cherry seasonal flavor — which took some tinkering to perfect. Initially, separate tart cherries and sweet dark chocolate pieces made it so each bite you took tasted different. Ethan opted to get dark chocolate covered cherries to ensure each bite was perfect. 

Now, he’s excited to come up with new flavors and share his granola with more people. 

“He’s really motivated,” Michelle Vitus said. “I did not know if he was still going to be doing this a year later. I just figured it was a great learning opportunity, regardless of whether he sticks with it, but he has stuck with it. He’s very motivated to keep it going.” 

At Dehoff’s Key Market, a 12-ounce-bag of Ethan’s Granola is on sale for $10.99.