On a recent Saturday morning at the Greenport Farmers Market, Rachel Lattarulo stood behind a table filled with bags of organic granola in flavors like matcha, honey lavender and chocolate coffee.
She greeted customers by name, offered samples and chatted easily. It looked effortless. She looked like she was right where she belonged. But just a year ago, she wasn’t sure she had the confidence to start a business at all.
Today, her new company, The Crumb & the Kettle, is finding its footing at farmers markets and community events across the North Fork, with products now carried by Goodfood and Rowan Craft Boutique in Mattituck, Tend Coffee in Shirley and a growing base of loyal customers. Lattarulo is also planning a collaboration with the lavender farm Hoyshla Farms in Manorville.
This is how a North Fork small business is born.
Over matcha at Hampton Coffee in Aquebogue last week, Lattarulo was asked about her business’s origin story. She immediately started talking about other people: friends and family who have encouraged her and local business owners who have mentored and supported her.
“Especially on the North Fork, there are so many small businesses, entrepreneurs, creators, and they understand each other, and they want to support each other, and it’s pretty incredible. And they really did give me that boost.
“I don’t think I would be doing it if it hadn’t been for them.”
Finding her footing
Three years ago, Lattarulo moved to Riverhead after years spent working in professional kitchens. A graduate of the former Natural Gourmet Institute in Manhattan — a small culinary school focused on natural foods and wellness — she worked as a chef and eventually became head chef at a vegan restaurant in Connecticut. But years in the demanding restaurant industry wore her down, and she found herself burned out and unsure of her next step.
She met her partner, Dan Lysogorski of D & B Construction (631-291-0040) in Riverhead, and moved to Long Island. She worked at Sang Lee Farms. She began spending time at the winter farmers market held at Twin Forks Beer Co. in Riverhead.
“I would go there before I was even a vendor,” she said, “and I would just go and talk to everybody for hours.”
Before long, she became part of the local farmers market and small business scene.
Among those paying attention were Twin Forks Beer Co. co-owner Peter Chekijian, and her friend Nicole Petti, who operates the microgreens Urban Coyote Farm in Wading River.
Both Chekijian and Petti kept asking the same question: what are you doing with your culinary talents?
“They were like, ‘Come on, you’ve got to do something,'” Lattarulo said.
“She’s so talented,” Petti told the Sun. “I was just excited to see what she could do.”
Lattarulo took some convincing.
“I think I put things off, from nerves, and they really helped give me the confidence to start something, and just start small, do a little table at the farmer’s market.”
Chekijian offered her space at the brewery’s winter market to test her products and begin building a customer base.
His advice was practical and direct.
“Don’t be afraid to stand your own ground,” he told her, particularly when it came to pricing her products fairly.
Lattarulo with Peter Chekijian of Twin Forks Beer Co. (left), and (above) with her partner Dan Lysogorski and their dog Elvis at the Greenport Farmers Market (Courtesy and Chris Francescani photos)
Lattarulo started at the farmers market with a handful of baked goods.
Petti first met Lattarulo when she would deliver her microgreens to the farm stand at Sang Lee where Lattarulo worked. They would chat during each delivery, and bonded over punk rock and indie cinema.
“I just really connected with her in way that I haven’t connected with a lot of people,” Petti said. “She sees people fully, she shows up for people fully, and it’s just really good to be able to reciprocate that.”
Petti knows what it’s like to start a small business. She credits Sang Lee as her first wholesale customer — now the largest part of her business. She hopes to pass along the same help and support that she got early on to her friend.
Lattarulo’s friend since high school, Katie DeAngelis, dreamed up the name The Crumb & the Kettle and helped design the logo.
“She’s basically like my sister, so the name and the logo are really special to me,” Lattarulo said. “I wanted it to be sort of vintage inspired — because I love vintage things and simplicity and natural food, and going back into that time. And I love tea! I’m a tea addict, so hence the kettle.”
“We put a blueberry muffin — one of my faves — in the logo and out of the steam there’s little stars coming out of it.
“I told her, ‘I want to make it feel magical and mystical, like fairy’s kitchen or something.”
From baked goods to granola
But the short shelf life of organic baked goods was proving challenging. Unsold products often had to be given away. Looking for something healthier, more versatile and longer lasting, she began experimenting this year with granola.
“My mom was like, ‘You should do granola,'” Lattarulo said, with a laugh.
This spring, she reached out to Paul Livesey at the Greenport Farmer’s Market — where her friends Teddy Tomao of Zafferano Farms in Mattituck and Kayla Barthelme, the North Fork farmer and herbalist behind Soul Creations, had booths.
“I knew they were going to be there and I love them, so I wrote to Paul and he was like ‘come a few times,’ and it’s now become this regular thing.”
She said she loves it there.
“The people are just so sweet, the environment is so nice around the water, and I think I’m finally starting to get more into a groove. I’m trying to organize things better. I’m coming up with different recipes and flavors for the summer.”
Today, The Crumb & the Kettle produces a growing lineup of organic, gluten-free, refined-sugar-free granolas made with ingredients like sprouted oats, local coffee, dried berries, honey, nuts and culinary lavender. The flavors are a reflection of Lattarulo’s personality: creative, slightly unconventional and deeply thoughtful.
There’s a matcha granola for tea lovers (“I’m a matcha nerd!”), a chocolate coffee blend made with locally roasted coffee, a berry variety packed with dried strawberries and blueberries and a honey lavender recipe.
Lattarulo lights up most when talking about creating new flavors for the seasons ahead.
“That’s where the magic is,” she said.
‘A winning combination’
She quickly discovered, though, that making a great product is only half the battle. Learning how to run a business is something else entirely.
That’s where Rena Casey Wilhelm, owner of The Weathered Barn in Greenport, stepped in. She met Lattarulo through mutual friends and her first impression was immediate.
“She’s like someone out of the 1940s,” marveled Wilhelm. “She’s beyond adorable. She’s beyond sweet. You can’t help but be perked up and in a good mood around her. She’s got a winning combination of just being friendly and having a great product.”
Casey Wilhelm, who is celebrating 15 years in business this summer, became an informal adviser, helping Lattarulo think through pricing, wholesale opportunities and the realities of growing a handmade food business.
“What happens sometimes with artisans is that we undervalue our time, because we know that we have to ultimately sell a product. You have to make sure you’re charging for your time,” she said. “A lot of artisans don’t do that.”
She encouraged Lattarulo to recognize the value of what she creates: small-batch products made by hand with organic ingredients.
“If you’re willing to treat yourself fairly, then you also have to be prepared to educate your customer on why something is priced the way it is — and for Rachel — she’s using organic ingredients, so that alone is going to increase it. She’s the person who’s baking it all, who’s labeling it. It’s not a production line where it’s done by machine.”
Above all, Casey Wilhelm said, Lattarulo’s greatest asset is herself.
“She has that winning personality that you just can’t help but want to buy from her.”
A community behind her
It’s a sentiment that comes up again and again among the people who know her.
“I think she’s just a really nice young woman,” said Luchi Masliah, owner of Goodfood in Mattituck. “She basically came in and introduced herself — she’s a customer — and we just started chatting, and she’s very outgoing and very friendly. So, one thing leads to the other, and now we carry her granola.”
In addition to building her business, Lattarulo volunteers with animal rescue organizations and regularly participates in fundraising events. She speaks with equal passion about local farms, rescue animals, fellow vendors and customers. She is often the first person promoting someone else’s business, so it’s no wonder so many people seem eager to promote hers.
The support has helped carry The Crumb & the Kettle further than Lattarulo imagined possible when she first set up that small market table last fall at Twin Forks Beer Co. in Riverhead. Today, she’s a regular at the Greenport Farmers Market and other fairs and events throughout the region. New retail opportunities continue to emerge.
She said that her dream, eventually, is a store of her own, but she’s careful not to rush it. She said she knows she still has plenty to learn. But now she knows that she doesn’t have to figure it all out alone.
“I feel very lucky. I feel I feel very blessed to have a group that I have around me.”
Along the way, she fell in love with the North Fork itself.
“When I came out here to see [Lysogorski] the first time, I was like, “Where am I? I’d been listening to a lot of true crime podcasts, and I was on the phone with my sister, because I was out here at night, I told her, “There’s just dark open fields. I don’t know what’s happening.’ I made her stay on the phone with me till I got there.
“And, then when I woke up the next day and saw this place in the daylight, I was like, ‘Wow, this is incredible.’”
Lattarul0 can be reached at Lattarulor@gmail.com.