by Marilyn Hawkes | Photography by Angelina Aragon
Sprouted Walnut Butter
Fitness and nutrition coach Austin O’Neal couldn’t find a commercially made nut butter that tasted good, so he started experimenting with different nuts and seeds until he landed on sprouted (i.e. soaked in water, so they germinate) walnuts. “Walnuts are the most nutrient-dense nut, and sprouted nuts are easier to digest,” he says. In 2023, he and fellow fitness and nutrition coach Megan Benzik teamed up to officially launch Good Form Foods and produce two sprouted walnut butter varieties – Original and Vanilla Frosting ($20). The former is sweetened with monk fruit, while the frosting version, which also has a shot of vegan protein powder, is made with stevia. “There’s no added sugar in any of our products,” O’Neal says. Making walnut butter is labor-intensive, taking three days to soak and then dry the walnuts at a low temperature before grinding and bottling. Look for Good Form Foods at Uptown, Gilbert and Downtown Phoenix farmers markets.
Hawaiian-Style Banana Bread
While growing up in Arizona, Lisa Wade often visited relatives living on Maui, and now has a family home near Lahaina. After deadly wildfires destroyed much of the town in 2023, Wade sought a way to help her family and friends rebuild. She created a recipe for banana bread, a popular Maui baked good, and Lele Sweets was born. Today, Wade churns out around 30 different banana bread flavors – from cinnamon-coffee to lemon-blueberry to chocolate chip –and gives a portion of each $7 mini-loaf purchase to the Maui Strong Fund from the Hawai‘i Community Foundation. “I tried to create something that would remind people of the islands,” she says. Wade, who once hosted a cooking show about Hawaiian cuisine while living in Southern California, constantly creates new flavors to keep her customers engaged. “Banana pudding is one of my newest flavors, but it’s the most popular by far,” she says. Find her loaves at Gilbert, Uptown and Ahwatukee farmers markets.
Spicy Pickles
Pickles have always been a big part of Jewel Johnson’s life. Her grandfather, “Stormin” Normin Weekly, was a legendary Arizona drag racer in the 1960s who toted his home-canned pickles to races. After her grandfather died in 2014, cyber-security specialist Johnson and her childhood buddy, Jodi Taylor, started canning the same crunchy pickles for family and friends to rave reviews. In 2024, the pair turned their passion project into a business and launched Stormin’ Normin’s Nitro Pickles with two flagship flavors, Classic Dill and Nitro (read: spicy) Dill. The shelf-stable pickles ($11.95) contain no sugar, dyes or artificial preservatives and are canned in environmentally friendly glass jars. Having recently rolled out Mustard Dill pickles, Johnson and her pickling cohort continue to dream up new flavors, envisioning versions like Bloody Mary with their “mad scientist” imaginations, Johnson jokes. Available at local farmers markets and online.
