Moon's Grove Farms Homestead

Our Story

Will Brame and Jennifer Kleiman founded Moon’s Grove Farms Artisinal Keto Candies in 2018.  They have lost over 250 lbs (combined) by adopting a low-carb Ketogenic diet.  They share a sweet tooth and passion for good food!  They also share a tendency towards obesity and, in Jennifer’s case, diabetes.

Jennifer’s a1c was 12.1 at its worst in her carb-loving day.  After years on Keto, her a1c is 5.0 and her diabetes symptoms are all gone. Seeing her success with it, Will started Keto too. He weighed over 400 lbs just two years now, and is down to the mid-200s.  He’s seen a vast improvement in his mobility, energy, and loves his new waistline.   Avoiding sugar and sugary fruits made them both healthier than ever.  Still, they really missed the joys of sweets.

A candy revolution begins

Low carb candied citrus rinds

In her quest to cure herself of Type 2 Diabetes, Jennifer spent the last few years helping to run online support groups for diabetes and ketogenic diets and closely following Keto science. That’s when learned about the rare sugar, allulose.  It occurs naturally in figs, raisins, maple syrup, and even the human body.  It’s been studied for decades, but the process of refining it was too expensive for commercial distribution.  That’s changed.  It’s now commercially available using a fermentation process from non-GMO corn. The body of research on it is very positive and reassuring — so much so, that the FDA recently approved it as a non-sugar sweetener.

Allulose is the sweetener that makes our candy different from the rest.  Most sugar substitutes have a weird taste or don’t caramelize properly to make good candy. Maltitol and similar sugar alcohols taste ok at best and like chemicals at worst.  They’re technically low-carb, BUT they cause a rise in blood glucose and trigger insulin. For diabetics or people trying to avoid blood sugar spikes, there are only a handful of decent sugar substitutes. Monk fruit, erythritol, maybe xylitol.  On the other hand, not only does allulose taste and caramelize like sugar, allulose carries known health benefits!

As an early allulose adapter, Will has honed his skills with this natural sugar substitute. His first batch of allulose crystallized ginger was so good, Jennifer said she hadn’t felt such a visceral, guilt-free joy in years. That success inspired Will to experiment with other allulose-sweetened confections.  One day he tried candied citrus peels. The citrus candies amazed our Keto/low-carb friends with their sugar-like sweetness.  Even friends who aren’t Keto praised them and begged for more — more flavors, more experiments, more samples to give all their friends on diets.  Will began cooking larger batches just to keep up with the demand.

In 2018, Jennifer saw the business possibilities of Will’s confections.  They put their head together and decided to found Moons Grove Farms. They rented a commercial kitchen, Will got certified as a Food Safety Manager and finalized recipes, Jennifer does all the business/marketing/legal work and is also our head scientist. What a superwoman! All  MGF confections are made at our State-certified, FDA-inspected kitchen in Atlanta.  In Summer 2019, Moons Grove Farms debuted 100% delicious nut and fruit granola, plus a variety of different crunchy nut and seed bars at Farmers Markets and events to much acclaim and appeals for more more MORE!  We’re waiting on FDA approval and hope to list our newest products for sale online later this year.

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We are grateful for our partnerships with local juice companies, Journey Juice and Roots Pressed Juices, who supply our citrus peels.  They’re working with us to reduce landfill waste and make tasty candy!