Nature’s Bakery: Gettin’ Figgy Wit It
“Organic” may be a buzzword in today’s food vocabulary, but the term and mindset behind it were novel ideas half a century ago. The 1960s marked the beginning of a natural food movement, which rejected industrial agriculture and embraced growing healthy food that tasted good and was good for you.
During that time, Richard Marson decided to open a bakery that championed all natural ingredients. His entrepreneurial spirit led to a successful family bakery. His son Dave Marson shared his father’s passion and joined the family business, spending decades honing his skills as a baker. Nearly 50 years later in 2010, Dave partnered with his son Sam to create Nature’s Bakery. What started with just 10 employees has blossomed into more than 170 with plans to grow even bigger. Their guiding philosophy? Keep it simple, have fun, and achieve balance in life through nature, activity, nutrition, and community.
The bakery’s bars fall into two different categories: stone ground whole wheat and gluten-free. Each box includes six pre-packaged sets, and each set features two bars. The all-natural, vegan fig bars are free of high-fructose corn syrup, cholesterol and dairy.
In an interview with KTVN, the folks at Nature’s Bakery shared the process of how their fig bars come to life:
Two batches of dough are made every hour. The dough and jam are placed in a hopper. And out comes a rope of fig bars. The oven is able to cook it in less than a minute. Special doors allow for quality control even during the cooking process. The fig rope emerges from the oven and is immediately cut into perfect size fig bars. The bars are then cooled and prepared to be packaged. “From start to finish as soon as it enters the machine at the oven line, it’s about an hour into the packaging,” says Ian Maccarato, director of quality assurance. This plant makes 400 bars a minute – 900,000 bars per day.
Current stone ground whole wheat flavors include Original Fig, Raspberry, Blueberry, Lemon, Peach Apricot, Apple Cinnamon, Strawberry, Mango, and Pumpkin Spice. The gluten-free options come in Original Fig, Pomegranate, Blueberry, and Raspberry. These bars are nothing like the Fig Newtons of my youth. The dough has a nice crumb that evokes a baked good right out of the oven (pop these in the microwave for an even closer resemblance), and the fruitiness of the fillings is readily apparent.
For life’s great journeys, no matter how small or big, Nature’s Bakery hopes their fig bars are with you every step of the way.