If you ask Kelly Geary what her goal as a businesswoman is—she might reply, “I just want people to smile.” And the 46-year-old founder of Sweet Deliverance, an organic granola brand and two-time Good Food Awards-winner based in The Fuller Building in Kingston, is doing just that.
It starts with the name: Sweet Deliverance. She took inspiration from the 1980 flick The Blues Brothers, where there’s a humorous salon called Curl Up & Dye. “I always thought it was such a great and clever name. I was trying to think of something equally as funny,” she says. “It doesn’t seem like ‘Sweet Deliverance’ is that funny anymore, but at the time I thought it was hilarious and cute.”
Even Sweet Deliverance’s LLC—Crunch Master Flex—was crafted in good fun. “I’m always looking for a good chuckle,” adds Geary, “I’m trying not to take myself too seriously.” But inside modern, colorful packages decorated with twisting vines and flowers is some seriously good nutrient-packed granola that aims to provide “balance and fun” to buyers. (All four types of granola are gluten and refined sugar free, made with pure olive oil, and certified organic.)
The granola flavors—turmeric and superseed; sour cherry and pistachio; strawberry and salty peanut; and blueberry and sunflower butter—went through rigorous testing (as will future product launches) at Sweet Deliverance’s kitchen in Kingston. After flavors make the cut, they’re produced and packaged in the company’s bakery just northeast of Hudson. This is a big leap from where Geary started almost 20 years ago in New York City.
Humble Beginnings
In 2007, fresh out of working as a chef at Tarrytown’s Michelin-starred Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Geary first began Sweet Deliverance. Then, it was a CSA-based meal delivery service with products such as jams, fermented sodas, pies, and cookies. Geary did everything: “I was picking up the CSA shares, turning them into meals, and then delivering it to people’s houses,” she explains, “I got really tired.”
Despite the workload, Geary found time to coauthor Tart and Sweet, a cookbook with 101 canning pickling recipes, in 2011 alongside Jessie Knadler. That same year, Sweet Deliverance was in the first class of 71 businesses that were crowned with a Good Food Award. (More on that later.) Geary even had her hand in helping open Talbott & Arding, Hudson’s beloved cheese and provisions shop, which BTW, just celebrated its 10th birthday.
In 2015, Geary did what just about everyone is doing nowadays: trading the hustle and bustle of the city for the rurality and community of the Hudson Valley. Here, she worked as a private chef and caterer. At 41, Geary gave birth to her daughter Ulla (who would become an integral part of Sweet Deliverance’s granola) and she realized, “Parents need help. This shit is hard!”
She quickly fused her culinary background and new-found passion in prenatal and postpartum cooking into her private chef work. And then Covid happened, which forced Sweet Deliverance to return to its roots as a delivery service. When the pandemic turned the world on its head, Geary turned to granola.
“I had a client that had gestational diabetes who had a sweet tooth. So I made the original granola with turmeric and super seed as a prenatal snack,” she says. A lot of the granola’s ingredients are rich in galactagogues, which can improve the amount and flow of breast milk. Paired with the fiber from the seeds, good fat from olive oil, and coconut sugar-maple syrup sweetening, it was a “delicious snack that kept her blood sugar numbers down.”
The granola eventually made its way into all of the Sweet Deliverance delivery boxes—and they became an instant hit. Mothers would report back to Geary and say that their family members would steal the granola for themselves, she recalls with a laugh. “It was just too many different kinds of people, birthing or not, that were really into it,” she says. “So we just decided to make granola for everyone!”
More Than Just A Breakfast Topping…
Sweet Deliverance focuses on “flavor and functionality,” meaning that unlike many processed granola brands on the shelves, there are 16-plus ingredients on the back of the packaging that each have a purpose. The four flavors are sweetened with New York maple syrup or honey and coconut sugar.
They also hope to break stigmas about granola being just a morning topping on a parfait—Geary hopes to encourage buyers to experiment with savory dishes, pies (last Thanksgiving, she made a crumb crust with granola), rice krispies, and even overnight banana pudding. “I’m always trying to find fun ways to eat it,” says Geary.
The nutritional benefits of Sweet Deliverance’s granola is a big plus—but above all else, Geary wants to have fun. Case in point with making the popular strawberry and salty peanut granola. “It was the end of February, when you’re just like, ‘I can’t take it anymore!’ I was reminiscing about the public pool when you were a kid and you had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and salty Lay’s potato chips,” she explains, “I said, ‘We should make this into a granola.’” It’s made with a blend of peanuts, chia, hemp, flax, and pumpkin seeds, and dried strawberries.
Another best seller is the sour cherry and pistachio—which centers around Geary’s favorite nut, one that’s not often found in granola due to the price point. It has notes of Persian influence thanks to the cardamom, sesame, rose petals, and rose water. (Another fun application: Geary says this granola does wonders as a salad topping.)
The blueberry and sunflower butter granola was born out of school allergen lists. Some of Ulla’s friends and classmates are allergic to tree nuts, seeds, and even eggs—so Geary sought to make something lunchbox friendly. “Ulla helped me develop it. She was super into blueberries at the moment and we put some puff grain in there because she liked the crispies,” says Geary.
Last but not certainly not least is the flagship turmeric and superseed granola—the granola that “started everything.” It’s made with warming spices (turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, and cardamom), nutrient-dense seeds, three types of oats, millet, quinoa, amaranth, and dried coconut. It’s quite a mouthful—and as of April, a 2024 Good Foods Award winner.
It’s Only Up From Here
Sweet Deliverance is no stranger to the GFA—the brand first won for a ground cherry jam in 2011 and received a 2023 finalist nod last year for the sour cherry and pistachio granola. This year, three of its flavors were named finalists: the sour cherry and pistachio, srawberry and salty peanut, and turmeric and superseed. And on April 29 in Portland, Oregon—with Geary in attendance—the latter was announced a winner—a true full-circle moment.
“It was really exciting for ‘her’ to win. My baby superseed!” laughs Geary. “I’d won a GFA for jams previously so I knew what to expect. But it was super exciting to win in a category for the granola that’s always trailing behind the others.” GFA nods give businesses visibility and credibility through rigorous vetting—including ensuring the use of quality ingredients and that there’s no exploitation of the supply chain. “It’s a whole group of people that are working really hard to push an entire industry in that direction,” she says.
After the GFA, Geary remained on the West Coast to share granola samples at Erewhons in Los Angeles. The trendy grocery store—which is taking TikTok and millennials/Gen Z by storm with its celebrity-named smoothies and $26 bottled waters—picked up strawberry and salty peanut and began distributing it in April. “Erewhon is looking for high-quality, unique, and aesthetically pleasing brands. This is a huge win for us,” says Geary.
So What’s Next?
Stay tuned for new flavors and collaborations coming soon—though we can’t say what, Geary is “super excited” and will reveal products when “the time is right” on their website and Instagram. The Sweet Deliverance team often meets with big-name wholesalers—so it may pop up at another store like Erewhon in the future—but in the meantime, you can buy packs (starting at $28.50) online or at Hudson Valley shops, such as Accord Market, Stella’s Fine Market in Beacon, Understory Market, Talbott & Arding and many regional farm shops. Here’s the store locator.
Sweet Deliverance also often tables at events like Kingston’s Field + Supply MRKT, Basilica Farm & Flea in Hudson, crafts markets at Lyndhurst Mansion in Tarrytown, and West Coast Craft in California.
As for Geary, she still has a love for crafting jams and preserves—Sweet Deliverance even sold a jam set last summer—and when she isn’t “hiding in [her] garden,” you could find her spending time at the C. Cassis taproom in Rhinebeck, exploring a new-favorite Camp Kingston, roller skating with Ulla at Skate Time in Accord, or grabbing a bite at Ollie’s in High Falls or Eliza in Kingston. (She’s good pals with the owners and often shares her garden’s herbs and flower oils.) “There’s so much great stuff happening and opening in this area, especially on the west side of the Hudson River. I’m just so in love with the community,” says Geary.
