In 1995, Maria Fleming founded Little Lad’s in the small town of Corinth, Maine. A young mother at the time, she had a passion and determination to provide healthy food for her community, particularly those who were struggling financially. She was, and has continued to be, uncompromising in her clear-cut goals for the bakery: the food must be vegan and made with pure ingredients, and it must be nutritious, affordable, and delicious. In an interview with 207 from 2018, Maria shared her straightforward goals for her bakery, “I want people to be able to eat quality, healthy food and afford it and not feel like only the rich can afford to eat well.”
At the bakery, Maria has also always prioritized environmentally-friendly practices. She and her team reuse and recycle everything they can: the boxes they receive ingredients in are reused to pack and ship orders out; the cases they buy for packing popcorn get used many times over; they cook with dry beans to reduce the number of tin cans thrown away; and many plastic bags that come in food cartons get reused as trash can liners. Additionally, in order to reduce their carbon footprint, they never use animal products or by-products, as farm animals are responsible for a tremendous amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Little Lad’s works with many local producers and suppliers and sources their potatoes, carrots, squash, kale, maple syrup and many other ingredients from local farms and their organic grains and flours are milled in Maine, out of Maine-grown wheat, as often as possible.
In the early days, Little Lad’s Bakery offered only bread, but has gradually expanded into cookies, crackers, pies, and a variety of other products (such as almond butter, spreads and dips). Maria opened a small cafe at the bakery to serve simple homemade meals, such as soups and sandwiches. In order to save money and make their cafe menu healthier, she switched out baskets of chips for baskets of homemade popcorn, which she made herself using a recipe of her own invention. It was savory, slightly salty, and perfectly seasoned with dried herbs— this “Herbal Corn” was initially an afterthought, but became so popular that she started packaging and selling it separately, until eventually it became the cornerstone of the Little Lad’s business. Their famous popcorn is vegan, gluten-free and non-GMO and comes in a variety of flavors: Sea Salt & Sea Veggie, Garlic Buttah, Snacker Jacks, Herbal BBQ, Buttah, and their most popular, Herbal Corn.
Over the years, Little Lad’s has run 9 small deli-style restaurants in Maine and one larger location in New York City, which enabled them to expand their offerings beyond the bakery, into soups, entrees, sandwiches and desserts to satisfy the customers in these various locations.
Part of Maria’s ongoing goal for Little Lad’s has been to prepare familiar foods with ingredients that are more conducive to health, so that the choice to eat healthy is easy because it just tastes so good! When the “health kick” becomes hard to maintain and doesn’t taste as good, people tend to revert to their old, unhealthy way of eating. Maria has tried to combat that cycle by offering good-for-you food that also tastes good. She has always offered a money-back guarantee (written plain and clear on her products’ packaging!) and feels like this approach has made it easier for customers to try new products and new dietary lifestyles more confidently. Examples of some of Maria’s tasty, clever takes on popular snackfoods are: Cheez-Isn’ts Crackers, We-Eat Thins, Danish Better cookies, Notcho cheese sauce, and many more!
A quarter-century after it was founded, one of Maria’s sons, Orion, came together with two long-time family friends, Arthur and Ted, to produce Little Lad’s popcorn on a larger scale. They decided to make Brattleboro the home base for a new Little Lad’s popcorn factory, which opened in 2023. Determined, passionate, and uncompromising, they’ve expanded on Maria’s mission: they’re bringing Little Lad’s principles and plant-based nutrition nationwide. The original Herbal flavor popcorn is still far and away the most popular, but they have created a few new variations, as well (being sure to stay within the requirements of the original Little Lad’s standards). With the new Brattleboro factory, Little Lad’s popcorn is expanding beyond what Maria has historically felt comfortable with, but Orion and his trusted team are adamant that they will not compromise her ideals. They are committed to carrying on the Little Lad’s tradition of affordable, plant-based, healthy snacks, and a family-focused approach to the business—not only because they need Maria’s trust, but because they, too, simply believe it’s the right thing to do.
In contrast, Maria still works in the Maine facility and a majority of Little Lad’s production is still done the old fashioned way: by hand in small batches in Corinth. There are about twenty employees who currently work in the original location— which was the former IGA in downtown Corinth. It’s been a family affair since the beginning, with Maria’s children helping out and all the employees being friends of the family in one way or another. Brattleboro Little Lad’s is technically in a formal partnership with Maria in Maine—they’re not separate businesses, but there is a distinction between the two locations in terms of the look of the products and the regions they’re sold in. Maria still produces most of the popcorn sold in Maine, in addition to their other packaged snacks, with their original funky and distinctive labels and clear packaging.
Little Lad’s currently offers four different varieties of Granola (all slow-baked for easy digestion and naturally & lightly sweetened), 9 different varieties of light and crunchy, handmade crackers, and 9 different varieties of cookies (toaster oven cookies designed to be eaten warm, light & crunchy Danish “Better” cookies, and soft & chewy Mud cookies). If you visit their cafe and retail store in Corinth, you will find an abundance of freshly baked breads, tarts and hand pies, pies, desserts, sandwiches, soups, salads, and other healthy-minded options (including many vegan options). The Little Lad’s Store and Cafe is dine-in or take-out and their hours are Sunday 11am-6pm, Monday-Thursday 8:30am-6pm, Friday 8:30am-2pm. The cafe and store is closed on Saturdays.
The Blue Hill Co-op is proud to carry a variety of Little Lad’s products. You will often find fresh fruit tarts and hand pies in our cafe coolers, as well as Oatmeal-Molasses Bread, Multigrain Bread, Oats-Wheat-Molasses Bread, and Russian Rye Bread with our fresh loaves. In grocery, you can find Herbal and Buttah Popcorn (as well as their Herbal Seasoning mix in spices), Blueberry & Plain varieties of frozen Belgian Waffles, Hummus, Orange-Almond Granola, Original Granola, Cashew-Date Granola, and 8 different flavors of Little Lad’s handmade crackers.
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