In this episode of Food Revolution, SFSI Director Matte Wilson chats with Garrett Waln, owner of Zaniya Botanicals. Zaniya Botanicals was launched after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and over the past seven months, Garrett has refined his craft and expanded his business. This past summer, he sold bath bombs and sugar scrubs at the Sicangu Harvest Market, and also sells via Facebook. Garrett shares with us the origin story of his business, his plans for the future, and provides insight from his experience running a small business on the Rosebud Reservation.

Full transcription & show notes available here.

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(Intro) Hau Mitakuyapi, and welcome to Food Revolution, brought to you by the Sicangu Food Sovereignty Initiative. Every other week, we'll be bringing you stories of food sovereignty from community members and tribal food producers working to build a more just, equitable, and regenerative food system for our Sicangu Lakota Oyate - the Burnt Thigh Nation. Together, we're building tribal sovereignty through food, and we've set a place at the table just for you. Join us and be part of the Food Revolution.

Matte (00:00:29) Hi, this is Matte with the Food Sovereignty Initiative. I'm here with Garrett Waln, owner of Zaniya Botanicals. Yeah, we'll get, let's get into it. All right, Garrett, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background? Where are you from?

Garrett (00:00:41) I'm from Arizona, and my background be best described as Jack-of-all trades, master of none. I've done nearly everything. Basically, anytime anybody needed help, they'd know call Garrett. I’ve even got an IT background.

Matte (00:00:56) How and why did you start your business? How long have you been in business and how has your business changed over time?

Garrett (00:01:03) I started basically as soon as COVID happened. My mom started doing bath bombs and she just was doing it to have fun with it. And I'm like, Oh, I think that looks interesting. And we were stuck at home for two weeks, so I'm like teach me. And then it just basically started snowballing. After so long, we had the bath bombs basically down pat. So I decided to start doing sugar scrubs. After a few months of research, I was able to figure those out. I think I went through about eight batches of sugar scrubs, which is a lot of sugar wasted, but I eventually got that one figured out and now those are taking off and now I'm trying a new soap blend offer.