Travis and Scarlett Sybrowsky are strongly rooted in their community, their beliefs and their endeavor to educate and provide healthy lifestyle alternatives. With a unique retail business based in the Lansing City Market, their goal is to help others by not only sharing the benefits of healthy eating, but also actually providing the tools and the instruction on how to do it.

“Healthy eating is not just about reading labels or picking up packaged grocery items claiming wholesome grains,” Travis and Scarlett share. “It is also about knowing how to do it yourself for just pennies and really reaping the benefits of natural grains.”

As former nine-to-five bankers, the Sybrowskys found themselves in a now common situation: layoffs and life change. Scarlett had begun the mental and emotional process of deciding that she wanted to do something that was truly reflective of her self and her spiritual roots and had decided to forge ahead on her dream of owning and operating what is now The Grain Market—and that is when Travis got laid off.

“We were at a crossroads, but made the decision to make our dream a reality,” the Sybrowskys state.

Scarlett had already been teaching classes and baking for a decade and had been sharing her knowledge and techniques with her church. More and more, other area churches asked her to provide classes to its members and educate them on the basics of grains and all natural cooking. She enthusiastically obliged and knew that she was on to something.

For nearly a year, The Grain Market has been growing and attracting patrons who follow the same belief of healthy eating and doing away with processed foods and grains stripped of natural proteins and body fuel.  Featuring over 15 different grain and seed selections from amaranth to quinoa, The Grain Market provides organically grown life basics that will sustain hunger and put goodness back into daily routines. With neatly stocked shelves of mostly area-grown grains, beans and rice, Travis and Scarlett are reinventing themselves and the way their customers eat and live.

“Our goal is to educate and transform eating patterns,” Travis reiterates. “We offer demonstration classes here at the market and the response has been awesome.”

Classes range from pressure cooking to bread making using high-quality specialty kitchen appliances that are designed for convenience and ease. As their number one goal is education with cost-effectiveness, demonstration classes are affordable and designed for practicality. Patrons who elect to attend the bread-making class will be introduced to the simplicity of grinding grain, making 100 percent whole wheat bread, and even trying their hand at making homemade pizza.

For those who are interested in the new modern-day pressure cooker, hands-on cooking classes will show how to make delicious four-minute jams made with xagave, (a low-glycemic, organic sugar replacement made from Xagave nectar that is diabetic friendly), completely natural and filling vegetable soup in six minutes, and shredded chicken barbeque in seven minutes just to mention a few possibilities.

“The pressure cooking classes have become an area favorite,” Scarlett says. “The Nesco three-in-one cooker is one of our top sellers. It is an amazing machine that is safe and easy to care for. And learning how to cook with a pressure cooker teaches people how to save time and money.”

Boasting the advantages of a pressure cooker, the Sybrowskys point out that healthy eating is easier and more accommodating to busy lifestyles because a pressure cooker seals in valuable nutrients and cooks 70 percent faster than a traditional stovetop.

“You can cook a rock solid frozen chicken in approximately 10 minutes,” Travis assures.  “Therefore, you eliminate having to go out to dinner if you forget to take out your meat and you avoid having to thaw your meat in the microwave which takes away nutritional value. The Nesco is an amazing and essential kitchen aid.”

Although the bread-making and pressure-cooking demo classes are favorites, their dehydrating and sprouting classes are piquing interest, as well as Scarlett’s basic cooking classes with grains, beans and xagave. Interestingly, Scarlett shares that she regularly uses beans as a staple in her homemade brownies, which not only makes them delicious and satisfying, but healthy as well.

The Sybrowskys also proudly share that although they are not a bakery, rather a provider of baking needs and supplies, they enjoy sharing their recipes with patrons and do sell freshly baked bread made with and from their own market selections. With the encouragement and generosity of a local bakery in town, Scarlett commits herself to grinding her organic grains every Friday and supplying upwards of 50 loaves per week to The Grain Market customers. The bread is available after 3:30 p.m. and is guaranteed to still be warm.