We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nick Van Nordheim. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nick below.

Alright, Nick thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

My Mom was always into health food- she would drag my sister and I into these super small niche health food stores looking for herbal supplements. I was fascinated by the products and how it was so different than a traditional grocery store. She would buy these carob covered raisins and try to make us eat them, but we knew that it was not chocolate, and not interested! I attribute these moments to why I was attracted to the idea of alternative health.
My first job out of high school was working at a farmers market selling Organic fruits, and I was always extolling the virtues of Organic and natural products in my spare time. My parents let me explore my interests, and it seemed I loved the Natural Food space, and so I really committed myself to it and infused the principles into my life.
When I think of what my parents did right, I think of the independence, exploration, and tenacity they infused into me. I wouldn’t be here if I had not learned those characteristics. Once I found the CPG industry it felt like I needed to be here, and continue to be relentless in my pursuit of changing the food we eat and creating optimal nutrition for humans and animals.

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 can’t claim that I came up with the idea for ghee- it’s a product that means an incredible amount to the people of India and is very important in their religion and their medicinal system (Ayurveda). My appreciation of culture and ancestral foods that have been made for hundreds of years, but still have a place on our tables led me to ghee.
I had taken a class on Ancestral eating; sourcing, preparing, and consuming foods that our ancestors ate before the age of industrialism, and it switched something in me that this is the food belief that I wanted to spread. At the time I started making ghee I was a vegetarian and wasn’t too keen on eating a ton of animal based fats, which was a pillar in the Ancestral way of eating. When I first heard about ghee- I was like, “Yes! An animal based fat that doesn’t contain lactose, casein, and is a more humane fat than a tallow or lard- sign me up!” The only thing was that ghee was not widely available at the time, even in natural grocery stores. Also, the qualities that I was looking for like grass-fed/ pasture raised, Organic, and Humane treatment of animals were nowhere to be found. I figured if I was looking for these qualifications that others would be too.
I started making ghee from a source of butter that met all those needs, and started increasing awareness of it. It’s not so much that I came up with the idea, but wanted to adapt it and provide others like me with something that they could use and feel good about the animals that it came from.

Full Circle Ghee was born out of the belief that we’re coming back around to the foods that generations ago were commonplace and better for us than industrialized copies. Our brand represents this by sourcing our products from highly reputable sources in California that are Organic, use regenerative farming practices, and treat their animals in a certifiably Humane way. We seek to provide the highest quality ghee that’s not just good for us, but also the animals it came from. Taking care of the animals and the land is the only way we can create a more sustainable future with the dairy and meat industries.

I’m most proud of being firm and uncompromising in the value of Full Circle Ghee. In the vein of keeping true, we’re embarking on getting our products Certified Organic, as well as Certified Humane this year!

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

We do manufacture our products in a commercial kitchen in San Diego, and have done it since our inception. With a product like ghee, it’s a fairly straightforward process in production, but there are a lot of variables (details) in it’s production. Since I had no idea how to make it, I would read books about Ayurvedic medicine, and other cooking science books. Now, the books taught me a few things, but the real gaining expertise happened by actually doing it. Like other manufacturers would say, “the way I thought it was going to go- it didn’t, so what do I do?” I look back on those times and I’m certainly not happy with the quality I was producing compared to now, but it was a starting point in learning the best way to produce quality driven handmade products to scale.
The best lesson I have to offer is there is always a way to accomplish what you’re producing; be tireless in the pursuit of making a product better. When customers tell me that my ghee is the best they’ve ever tasted, I’m reaffirmed that what I’m doing means something, and that I’m elevating the expectations of the category.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Word of Mouth cannot be beat! Seriously, when people start talking about your products and how it has helped them, changed their habits, or elevated their lives it should not be overlooked. Those are the people that will tell everyone, even the people that didn’t ask! We started at farmers markets, and being able to talk to to your customers has been one of the best things for the business. Sometimes, I don’t even need to talk about the product when you have a customer that believes in what you’re doing that they’ll share everything with a stranger. These are the people that will go into a store and ask for your products, and really be the “street team” that you want.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.fullcircleghee.com
• Instagram: fullcircleghee
• Facebook: fullcircleghee
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-van-nordheim-7624873a

Image Credits

All photos owned by me: Nick Van Nordheim