We recently connected with Carla Boyd and have shared our conversation below.

Carla, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I was looking for a nourishing source of clean plant-based protein that could be prepared quickly without sacrificing comfort and real flavor. It didn’t exist.

It was almost impossible to find something that was both comforting, nutrient dense and not soy and allergen-ridden.
At the time, the only “fast-friendly” “veggie” products I could find in the freezer aisles tasted almost “too healthy”– I had a hard time actually enjoying them.

I had already been in the hemp industry, so I understood the value of “food as medicine” but I never really thought of hemp hearts as anything more than something to sprinkle over my granola. But the truth of the matter was, that I had been really sick for a while and my body was not absorbing nutrients properly. One day, I just really started digging deeper into the nutritional value of hemp hearts and I was blown away by their nutritional profile. I felt called to do something about it.

I started playing around with wholesome ingredients and hemp in my kitchen, testing out my creations on guests at the house, then recreating and creating until I was happy with the finished results. I am from the South. I grew up gardening and cooking daily. It felt good to feed others something I felt would actually nourish them. I am not a trained Chef but our Original Hemp Burger was something I was really proud of. It was my baby.

As my body slowly began to heal from a wholesome diet with the food I was creating, I knew I had to share it with the community.
I didn’t know what I was doing. I just knew it was needed, so I dove in head first.

We started at the Farmers Markets and as word spread, people began to request our burgers. I think like any entrepreneur, or chef, the excitement really is magnified when you see the delight on a customer’s face.

The Hemp Way Foods product line slowly evolved and expanded to include: the Original Hemp Burger, Hemp Burger Crumbles and Italian Breakfast Sausages, in a freezer ready pouch that contained no top allergens, no gluten, no added oils, or sugar. It was really something unique to the market and the crazy amazing part was that– people loved them. It did not matter if they were vegan, vegetarian, or meat eaters, people really enjoyed them and that is what really got me excited.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I grew up in the South. Food was designed to bring comfort and I was always out in the garden and always cooking.

At a certain point of my adult life I had become very sick. It became apparent that my body was just not absorbing nutrients.

I had already been in the hemp industry so I understood the general value of sprinkling hemp hearts over my granola, but I never really considered hemp as an “ingredient” in food. As I started diving deeper into the nutritional profile of hemp hearts though, the more I was just like, “Wow.”

That’s really how Hemp Way Foods got started– I was looking for something I could eat that was wholesome, comforting but also nourishing and quick to prepare, so I started to play around in the kitchen, using hemp protein as a main ingredient in my recipes. We always had guests coming around the house and I would test my recipes out on them, recreating and creating until I was proud of the finished product.

Hemp Way Foods has been a rollercoaster of emotion. Some of the greatest highs and lows of my career. I started creating and pressing our original product, The Hemp Burger, one burger at a time with a small, hand-held burger press. A whole year later, we then graduated to eight burgers at a time. It felt quite monumental at the time. As more people requested our products, the more we naturally expanded.

The year of 2020 was gearing up to be an exciting year. We had won a pitch at Expo West and were catering a private concert at SXSW at Willie Nelson’s private ranch. To say we were stoked was an understatement. All of my time and energy went to preparing for these two events. When everything shut down, we had to pivot or throw in the towel. It was a scary time.

I started creating prepared foods at our commercial kitchen, posting our menus on social media and driving around Colorado, making deliveries. Not only did it keep us afloat but it kept the Hemp Way Foods brand name relevant.

In 2021, we brought on sales and marketing and we are gearing up for new growth. We recently signed on with a co-packer and will be able to triple our output without changing the ingredients, flavor or nutritional profile of our products.

I think every entrepreneur will be able to relate when I say– “nothing is easy” and you have to stay true to what you believe in.
It may not happen overnight, but where there is a will, there is a (hemp) way.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

The year of 2020 was shaping up awesomely. We had just won the opportunity to pitch Hemp Way Foods at the upcoming Expo West in Anaheim, California and were booked to serve at a private concert during SXSW at Willie Nelson’s ranch– “Luck Ranch”.

Then, everything shut down. I had been so focused on the two events that I had taken my focus away from growing our grocery accounts. The restaurants that had offered Hemp Way Foods were either not open, or barely surviving. It was a shock and a wakeup call.

We could have folded then but I was not ready to throw in the towel– I believed in what we were creating. One day I was meditating on how we were going to afford to keep the commercial kitchen and that’s when it hit me– I could start creating prepared foods and delivering them.

I am from the South. I grew up gardening and cooking every day. I am not a chef but I knew I could bring people comfort with wholesome, savory and soulful meals. I started preparing lasagnas, pot pies and posting pictures on social media. The word spread and soon I was delivering all over– from Evergreen to Boulder.

This pivot not only kept us alive during the pandemic but helped to keep the Hemp Way Foods brand name alive and relevant. It also helped us to realize how we could take advantage of new local opportunities and serve the community.

Hemp Way Foods will be partnering with a local cafe in Evergreen, Colorado, providing a once a week, vegan pop-up option on Mondays, a time of the week where Evergreen becomes a food desert and restaurants are closed. We recently posted about our upcoming pop-up on a local social page and were met with a resounding “Yes!!”

We may have hit a wall, but we turned right.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

Believe it or not, my first manufacturing tool was a little, hand-held plastic hamburger press. I had rented out space at a commercial kitchen and would create giant batches of the original hemp burger, weigh out 4 ounce “meatballs” and then individually press each burger.

After one whole year of watching me painstakingly press each burger, the maintenance guy at the kitchen suggested I talk to the gluten free pizza company next door. The company had recently retired an older pizza press and the owner was willing to cut a new mold for me and allow me to pay it off over time.

We went from being able to make one burger at a time to being able to make eight. Once we would have eight complete, we would throw them into a blast chiller. It was a big moment in time for us.

For eight years we handcrafted and hand-pressed our burgers and sausages. On a solid schedule, we could make seven hundred units in three days with two hands on deck.

Fast forward all these years of handcrafting burgers and sausages and we only recently signed on with a co-packer, starting mid May of 2022.

Finding a co-packer was not easy. I called everyone in Colorado and was turned away. Each co-packer either felt we were too small, or wanted to work with a more established brand, not one in “growth mode.” It was disheartening. Finally, the last copacker I called said “yes”.

After some trial and error, making sure everything was just right, we will be able to triple our output in just one day without affecting the flavor, nutrients, or ingredients in our classics.

With as many positives in this new phase there are still a lot of hurdles. When we operated in our kitchen, we could produce our products as needed. Due to our new output, we have to plan out our sales and delivery more strategically.

I think this biggest takeaway is that “nothing is easy” and you have to stay true to what you believe in. It may not happen overnight, but where there is a will, there is a (hemp) way.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.hempwayfoods.com
• Instagram: @hempwayfoods
• Facebook: @hempwayfood
• Linkedin: @HempWayFoods
• Twitter: @hempwayfoods
• Youtube: Hemp Way Foods
• Yelp: Hemp Way Foods

Image Credits
Sarah Nava Lauren Gillan