MNfusion: Crapola! Granola Celebrating 10 Years In Ely

Holy Crapola!

The Ely-based granola company, Crapola! is turning 10!

The company began in 2007, when husband and wife team, Brian and Andrea Strom, took an inside joke and turned it into a business.

The pair had been "living off the grid" in northern Minnesota, making cranberry-apple granola. To each other, they jokingly referred to it as "crap-ola."

As they continued to fine-tune the recipe, it became a popular snack not just for them but for their friends and family as well.

The two decided to begin selling it, turning their joke into a brand, and the rest is history.

"It's been rewarding to spend a decade touching people where it matters—in the hearts — and colons. Our high-fiber granolas have been making the world a more regular place for ten years—we can hardly believe it ourselves," Brian said in a recent press release.

Crapola! Expanded from the original recipe to include three additional flavors – cranberry-orange, blueberry-strawberry and chocolate-raspberry.

As the company, and their family, grew, Brian and Andrea knew they needed a new space for the business.

In 2016, they held a Kickstarter campaign that afforded them the money to move into their new World Headquarters in downtown Ely.

"In 2017, we'll have quadruple the production capacity, and we'll be pushing hard to make the most of this growth opportunity, expanding our brand into new regions," Brian said in a recent press release.

To celebrate the new space, and 10 year anniversary, Crapola! will host "Crapola!Fest" on Friday. June 23. Fans of the snack are invited to the headquarters for food, drinks and live music.

The party runs from 3 to 9 p.m. and is free to attend.

Crapola! World Headquarters is located at 16 N 1st Avenue in Ely. For more information, visit Crapola! on Facebook or online.