We’re excited to announce that Saffron & Salt has been certified as a Women’s Business Enterprise! The Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) certification is given by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), the nation’s leading third-party certifier of businesses owned and operated by women. Why does it matter? Because being WBE-certified will give Saffron & Salt access to programs, initiatives, and opportunities designed to help women-owned businesses succeed. We get to add the WBENC certification logo to our products, so people know what they’re supporting. And on a more practical level, more opportunities for support means we can develop more new products and you can keep giving your meals a kick in the teeth. It also means a lot to me on a personal level. Growing up, my Grandma Margaret spent her summers canning food from her farm and selling products at the stand out by the road. When I was young, my parents insisted on taking me over there to help her with cooking jams, making pickles, and preparing jars to seal in the pot of boiling water on her stove. The kitchen was always hot, we were always sweaty. And at the time, I thought I was helping her with chores — or maybe just learning how to preserve food. Learning traditional feminine values from the older generation who just didn’t understand what my generation was interested in. What I didn’t realize was that I was actually learning how to nurture the entrepreneurial flame in my young heart. She may not have had a brand in the modern sense, but Grandma Margaret was a business woman nonetheless. I like to think the WBE certification would make Grandma Margaret proud. In her generation, I would’ve been called a firecracker or feisty or maybe even a smart cookie (if I was lucky). Women weren’t supposed to be ambitious in her time. But imagine what she could’ve built with a little formal support and a few more resources. There have always been women business owners, even when their only option was operating out of their home, like my Grandma Margaret. I’d bet you have a few covert female entrepreneurs in your family tree, too. So here’s to celebrating the women who have always made up their mind to do exactly as they pleased. Join us in making Grandma Margaret proud and working to create our most delicious year yet!