Smilo, also known as Nature Nate's LLC, operating out of a small, unsuspecting manufacturing building in north Clark County, has been providing popped sorghum to stores for years. Now they have partnered with Three Sisters Nixtamal, an Oregon-based company, to produce a sorghum tortilla chip.
The sorghum tortilla chip under the branding of Smilo, a small indigenous-owned business in Washington state, is the world's first sorghum tortilla chip. Sorghum is a gluten-free and corn-free ancient cereal grain, which makes it a great option for many people with dietary restrictions, the company states.
Nate McClellan, Smilo's and Nature Nate's LLC founder and CEO, says the tortilla chip is a way to reintroduce sorghum to the world. The sorghum grain is nixtamalized, a process that prepares the grain to be made into tortillas. Then, the tortillas are fried in avocado oil and lightly seasoned with sea salt to produce the chips.
Smilo, doing business as Nature Nate's LLC, was founded in 2013. Its most popular product line is "Better than Popcorn !®", a line of popped sorghum with several flavor varieties. Smilo products are available for purchase online, and "Better than Popcorn !®" popped
sorghum products are also available in stores across the United States and Canada.
McClellan said for every 10 people he asks, two people know what sorghum is. In the process of building popularity to becoming a national item in stores right out of rural Clark County, Chuck's Produce was the first store to sell the snack items.
"We have a, I'd say, a multi-channel distribution," McClellan said. "We have Unify, which delivers to about 500 grocery stores, and then we have Amazon, which is about 60 percent of our sales. And then we have our website."
Locally, Nature Nate's popped sorghum can be found at select locations such as the Hockinson Market, Heisson Store, Amboy Market, Amboy Hardware and General Store and more. Locations can be found at naturenatesllc.com/pages/find-a-store.
McClellan first began exploring a healthy food business with numerous other gluten-free grains.
"I discovered all of these grains, these gluten-free grains, that I had toasted, roasted, popped and expanded all of them and made them into this light, crunchy snack," he said. "But, it looked like bird seed. Though it sure was good. It worked really well on salads, and it had a following, and I got it in the grocery stores."
At that same time, he did have sorghum, but not the way he does now.
"I was at the farmers market and this math teacher from Battle Ground High School came up and said, 'I love your Glorious Grains. I eat it all the time, but I really like that white one, what is that?'" McClellan recalled. "I said that's sorghum and then he said, 'Oh, can you make me some of that? I'm going on a road trip.' I had my kettle there, and so I popped him up a bag, and he gave me a $10, and it's just like the moment the light bulb went on."
For McClellan, after the light bulb moment happened, the choice to build a food product line off of a lesser-known grain continued to come to fruition over one simple thing: the multitude of health benefits.
McClellan listed dozens of reasons why the grain is a super food. On the packaging itself, the benefits are easy to identify: the food contains a prebiotic fiber, is lectin-free, is very low in glucose, is a vegan food option, and is gluten-free.
With the rapid growth in popularity of the newly released tortilla chip under the Smilo branding, it is presently sold out on the website and Amazon, but McClellan said he is looking into ways to boost production. McClellan said one production bolstering option may take place in the state of Nebraska with a larger manufacturing facility while keeping the rural Clark County location running. McClellan said it is important not to leave his roots in Clark County.
Five-ounce bags of the tortilla chips are available when supplies last on Smilo's website — naturenatesllc.com — and will soon be in stores.
