Strength and Sunshine

Where Gluten-Free & Allergy-Friendly Food Is Healthy & Delicious

Freedom Feature: Nicole & Rob “88 Acres”

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Connecting the celiac disease and food allergy/intolerance community together by sharing our stories to food freedom. From our beginning struggles to striving after a diagnosis, we can all relate and help each other out by sharing what we’ve learned and our unique personal journeys.

The Freedom Feature | Strength and Sunshine @RebeccaGF666 Sharing our stories to food allergy freedom

Finally! Another Freedom Feature! It’s been a while on out long summer hiatus, but I have a backlog of wonderful bloggers and brands to share with you! Today I am more than honored and excited to share the company of 88 Acres with you. I was first introduced to them at the Fancy Food Show in NYC this past summer. I was lucky enough to try their delicious allergy-friendly wholesome snack bars and immediately fell in love. Once I got to know more about Nicole and Rob’s new brand and buisness, along with the values and mission they have, I knew they would be a perfect fit for a Freedom Feature. You are going to be blown away not only from their delicious bars and snacks but also the high standards and community help they provide! (There’s a giveaway at the end too!)

Freedom Feature: Nicole & Rob "88 Acres" | Strength and Sunshine @RebeccaGF666 Connecting the celiac disease and food allergy/intolerance community together by sharing our stories to food freedom.

background: who are you?

Nicole: I grew up on an 88 acre organic farm in North Brookfield, Massachusetts. My experiences on the farm gave me a strong connection to food, from tinkering in the kitchen with my mom as a child to running the family farm stand.

A few years ago I met the love of my life, Rob, and on our fourth date he almost died at dinner when his restaurant meal was cross-contaminated with nuts. The next day, I got rid of all the peanuts and tree nuts from my kitchen to help make Rob safe. I have no food allergies, but because of his, how I thought about food began to change.

what led you to start 88 Acres? 

We always struggled to find healthy, convenient snacks that Rob could eat, but I would love as well. So I began experimenting at home with craft seed bars. We would take them on bike rides, and hikes, and throw a few in our bags to enjoy at work. Soon enough friends, both with food allergies and without, started to steal bites and place orders. After lots of rave reviews, we realized maybe we were on to something and the journey of 88 Acres began.
Freedom Feature: Nicole & Rob "88 Acres" | Strength and Sunshine @RebeccaGF666 Connecting the celiac disease and food allergy/intolerance community together by sharing our stories to food freedom.

what are the foundations, values, and mission of your company?

88 Acres is a healthy food company. We handcraft our vegan, Non-GMO snacks with simple, wholesome ingredients sourced from the best farms around. All our foods are made free of peanuts, tree nuts, gluten, dairy, soy, eggs, and sesame.

There is purpose behind every aspect of how we took 88 Acres from our beginnings of baking at home to launching a mission-based food startup. Four core values drive what we do.The first is Economic Development. We hire from our inner-city community where our bakery is located and support team member growth. Second, we are focused on sustainably minded sourcing, which means we only work with partners who share our values. Stemming from that, we also look to provide ingredient and supply chain transparency to our consumers. Lastly, education is important to us. We partner with like-minded organizations to foster wellness and sustainability in our community, whether it’s a group advocating for Non-GMO’s or supporting women’s empowerment.

Freedom Feature: Nicole & Rob "88 Acres" | Strength and Sunshine @RebeccaGF666 Connecting the celiac disease and food allergy/intolerance community together by sharing our stories to food freedom.

tell us about your products and what makes them unique?

We opened our own dedicated bakery to ensure the highest product quality for all and safety for those with food allergies. Our bars are handcrafted in small batches by our amazing baking team, many of whom have been with us since the beginning. But the resulting chewy, made-at-home taste is why we started the company and we would not be satisfied with anything different for all our consumers.

what’s your favorite or most popular item(s)?

Our most popular flavor is chocolate sea salt. We love it because it’s healthy but also satisfies the sweet tooth. But I am most fond of Triple Berry, our original flavor. It’s inspired by my mom and grandma’s summer pies with New England flavors of blueberry, cranberry, and currants. Our third flavor is also inspired by New England fall, with pumpkin pie spice, dried apple, crystallized ginger, and golden raisins. (<— Triple Berry is my personal favorite!)

Freedom Feature: Nicole & Rob "88 Acres" | Strength and Sunshine @RebeccaGF666 Connecting the celiac disease and food allergy/intolerance community together by sharing our stories to food freedom.

what do you hope to see in the future; for yourself, the bakery, and the gluten-free/food allergy community?

We are just getting started at 88 Acres. We just launched our second product, Seednola. And shortly will also be launching new bar flavors and a line of seed butters. We have been selling in 300 locations in New England over the last year and seen tremendous growth and encouraging consumer feedback. We will continue to expand following this momentum. It’s an exciting time to be in the food industry. There is a lot of innovation happening and growth in the Non-GMO, organic, gluten-free and plant protein categories. The latter opens up new options for vegans and those with milk allergies.
any favorite recipes you’d like to share?
As entrepreneurs, Rob and I are always on-the-go. We live on overnight oats for breakfast. I make them in mason jars, so they’re easy to grab in the morning and are ready to eat. I alternate between different fruits to keep it interesting, such as blueberry, strawberry banana, and dark chocolate & raspberry.
Now for the giveaway! 88 Acres will generously send one lucky reader a bag of Chocolate & Sea Salt Seednola and a box of each 3 flavors (Chocolate Sea Salt, Triple Berry, Apple & Ginger) of their seed bars.
Freedom Feature: Nicole & Rob "88 Acres" | Strength and Sunshine @RebeccaGF666 Connecting the celiac disease and food allergy/intolerance community together by sharing our stories to food freedom.

To enter, just leave a comment below (mandatory entry) on what flavor bar you’re most excited to try! For 2 additional entries, follow me on Instagram and leave your handle below in a separate comment, and like Strength and Sunshine on Facebook for a third entry (leave a separate comment for each entry please!) US addresses only, and I will notify the winner 1 week from today (October 13th)!

Make sure to follow along with Nicole and Rob at 88 Acres on their website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram! Thank you, Nicole and Rob! You have a beautiful brand and such an amazing future ahead!

So tell me:

+ What flavor seed bar are you most excited to try? The Triple Berry really is my favorite! So sweet, salty, and delicious!

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Comments

  11. Heather says

    i would love to try the chocolate sea salt! the seednola looks awesome too – so different than regular granola 🙂

    Reply

  12. shelley says

    What a scary experience but what a wonderful way to turn it into something that will help so many people! I hope your venture is a huge success and I’ve got to admit that chocolate sea salt sounds divine.

    Reply

  16. kimmythevegan says

    Great feature! I love the story and I always appreciate people making allergy-friendly food, even if it’s not specific to my food-allergy (though it looks like these bad boys are vegan – yay!). I’ll have to check them out =)

    Reply

  27. Farrah says

    Those snack bars sound so, so good! 😀 I love that they foster sustainability and use awesome ingredients! :] I’m not sure which flavor would be my favorite! Perhaps the apple + ginger–it sounds perfect for fall!

    Reply

  28. Judy Morano says

    i am entering as I am so excited that your products are free of the very things my 2 grandsons are allergic to: nuts, sesame, eggs, tree nuts. The little guys are 6 and 4 and have a difficult road ahead of them. It’s so nice that you make these bars that they can have. What a treat for them!

    Reply

  29. nadia says

    These bars sound amazing! And free from EVERYTHING! It’s nice to know there is a bar that caters for all the different common allergies 🙂

    Reply

  36. karen rieser says

    What an incredible journey for Rob & Nicole! They have definitely created a product that is not only good for you but tastes fantastic! I can’t wait to try the apple & ginger bar with the flavors of fall! Great article!

    Reply

  40. Donna says

    Thank you for supporting 88-Acres!! My favorite is the Triple Berry!! I am one of the lucky ones who has had the privilege of “taste testing” these delicious bars since Nicole and Rob first came up with the idea in their kitchen!!!
    Love, Nicole’s mom

    Reply

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rebecca

Meet Rebecca

Hey there, welcome to Strength and Sunshine! I’m Rebecca and I’m so glad you’re here! This is your go-to destination for delicious, fun, and (mostly) healthy gluten-free and allergy-free recipes, tips & tricks, advice, as well as celiac and food allergy coaching services!

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