Meet the High Falls resident who combined her expertise in food, nutrition, and postpartum care to bring organic granola to the region.
Kelly Geary gave birth to her first child at age 41. “It’s a new, profound feeling to care for a little human,” she says. “Parents don’t get a ton of support. It’s hard to find community, as we’ve moved away as a culture from families living all in the same place.” Geary, who’s offered postpartum care services since 2007 (and has been a birth doula since 2019), knows firsthand that new moms need help with just about everything. Her work includes helping mothers with emotional and physical recovery, nutrition consulting, soothing and feeding the baby, and light housework and cooking.
Prior to becoming a doula, Geary was a chef. She ran a vegetarian restaurant in California, took a nutrition-focused culinary program at the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York City, and did meal prep for CSA shareholders out of her kitchen in Brooklyn. She was also, for a time, a chef at Michelin-starred Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Tarrytown and co-wrote Tart and Sweet, a canning and pickling cookbook.
In 2015, she traded Manhattan for High Falls and was a private chef and caterer before becoming a doula. Several years ago, while working with a client with gestational diabetes, she was inspired to combine her background in nutrition with her focus on family care. “My client and I were trying to find an easy, sweet snack that was healthy and didn’t spike her blood sugar,” says Geary, so she created a homemade, organic, nutrient-dense granola. Geary’s recipe is fiber-rich, protein-packed, and easy to eat while holding an infant—three things new moms need most.
It wasn’t long before her clients’ families and friends began craving Geary’s snacks. So she took the leap and launched her granola brand—Sweet Deliverance—out of Common Table, an incubator kitchen on Hurley Avenue in Kingston. Geary and her business partner Nena Johnson now whip up three unique flavors (sour cherry and pistachio; strawberry and salted peanut; and turmeric and super seed) that are free of gluten and refined sugar.
“I’ve been working hard to create quality food,” says Geary. “I have an entrepreneurial spirit. I’m always trying to figure out ways to make a living doing the creative things that I enjoy.” In the future, Geary is hoping to produce a fourth flavor blend—perhaps one with tahini and cocoa nib or a peach-blueberry-sun butter combo. After that… maybe jams and overnight oats.
The granola is sold at 20 shops including Talbott & Arding in Hudson, Love Apple Farm in Ghent, Otto’s Market in Germantown, Accord Market, and Stella’s Fine Market in Beacon. You can also order the brand online at sweetdeliveranceny.com.
