Greg Woodworth and Kelly Coughlin never intended to be butternut squash seed oil producers; it’s hard to intend to be something you’ve never heard of before.  What they meant to be was gourmet cookie bakers.  Their Boston-based Stony Brook Cookie Company offered organic, all natural cookies, but they soon outgrew their “starter kitchen”, and Boston real estate in those days wasn’t a great fit with the gourmet cookie budget.  A wider search sent the Stony Brook founders to Geneva, New York, near the Finger Lakes and Cornell University, which had recently opened facilities for entrepreneurs such as themselves.  Here, they thought, was a place that their cookie company could flourish.

And then, opportunity knocked.  A farmer near their new location was growing butternut squash and processing it for ready-to-eat products, which left them with a mountain of unused seeds.  When Cornell’s Food Venture Center approached Stony Brook about finding a way to use the seeds, it was too interesting a challenge to pass up.  Though they considered making neutral oil for use in the company’s cookies, they discovered that by toasting the seeds, they could make a more flavorful oil with a wider variety of culinary uses.  All of a sudden, Stony Brook had a unique product on their hands: locally sourced, locally produced butternut squash seed oil.

Readers who have spent some time trying to eat locally can understand the hole in the market that Stony Brook was able to fill.  Eaters in many places have been able to find access to local fruits and vegetables, meats and cheeses, and more recently grains and beans, all at a gourmet level, but until now there hasn’t been a “local oil” market.  Many of us have felt that little twinge of frustration when we go to dress our beautiful local greens with Italian olive oil (as delicious as it is).  Stony Brook, pretty much by accident, came up with a product that instantly had a grateful, captive audience.  Of course, to attract that audience, the oil has to be good, and it is; well balanced with an almost nutty flavor.

When you’re a small business owner, sometimes you have to go where destiny and the markets take you, and earlier this year Stony Brook ended their cookie business to focus full time on their oil.  And being a small specialty producer is a full time job!  With a company of only five people, Stony Brook makes, packages, ships, and promotes their product across the Northeast. 

The first challenge of being a small producer of any food product is finding and maintaining a good product.  The second challenge is finding a customer base.  Stony Brook has found success by reaching out to specialty stores, such as Fromaggio Kitchen in Cambridge, MA and Blue Apron Foods in Park Slope, Brooklyn.  These smaller stores, Greg explained, have both an adventurous customer base and an educated staff that can help to teach customers how to use the oil in their kitchens.  While getting on to shelves at a larger grocery store might initially seem like a win for a small company, Greg feels that their product sells better in locations where the customer and the product can be given a little more individual attention.

Stony Brook’s oils are being used in restaurants, too, although supplying restaurants is its own challenge.  Many restaurants prefer to buy from companies that sell many of the products they use, which cuts down on a chef’s paperwork and phone calls.  But chefs shop at specialty food stores too, and it was inevitable that Stony Brook’s oil would end up in dishes like the antipasto plate at Rialto in Cambridge.  As for the next step for the company, Greg says that while they wouldn’t turn down a request from the West Coast, they’re only pursuing expansion within the Northeast.

So, where can you find it and what can you do with it?  The Stony Brook site has a list of purveyors, or if you’re in the Finger Lakes area, stop in for dinner at Simply Red Bistro, where Chef Samantha Izzo uses it on her menu.  Greg suggests using the oil to finish chard or grilled asparagus.  They recently used it in a marinade for brook trout, and customers have even suggested drizzling it on your oatmeal or vanilla ice cream.  However their customers use it, Greg and Kelly are thrilled to have found a way to feed people who are as excited about quality local food as they are.  Sometimes the best-laid cookie baking plans are replaced by something even better.