She enjoys drawing and painting, playing guitar, riding motorcycles, gardening with her mom and making goodies in her Easy Bake oven — but what STREAM Charter School first-grader Natalie Stroup really enjoys is to run her own business, Natalie’s Nuggets.
The 7-year-old — with the support of his mom and dad, Amanda and Travis Stroup, and older brother Carter Stroup, 8 — started his Oroville farm-fresh egg business just over a year ago when he was in kindergarten a garden.
“We just had too many eggs,” Stroup said. “Mom said, ‘Maybe we should sell them to pay for their food.’ I said that was probably a good idea.
Already helping her mother when it came to collecting eggs and making sure the birds in the barn had water — but not with feeding, she said, because “the bags of food are too heavy for me to lift.” – Stroup got to work brainstorming a company name and creating a logo.
After a few false starts — including one where she suggested the name Natalie’s Poop Nuggets because “it looks like the eggs come out of their asses when they lay, even though they don’t actually” — the fledgling entrepreneur settled on Natalie’s Nuggets – Farm Fresh Eggs” with the tagline “Let’s Get Crackin’!” The logo features a self-portrait of the business owner, a chicken and eight colored eggs.
Mom created a Facebook page for Natalie’s Nuggets that posts egg availability as well as videos of the company’s CEO and support staff.
Stroup took on the role of lead marketer, pitching his product to friends, family, teachers and neighbors. Before long, purchases increased, and Stroup and Mom added a self-service corner egg cooler with a large sign advertising Natalie’s Nuggets at the corner of Pioneer Trail and Mt. Ida Road to its marketing efforts.
“We made it so people walking by would see it and think, ‘Oh, I want some eggs,'” Stroup said. “They just stop, pick up the eggs they want—a dozen is five dollars, and if you want two dozen, it’s $10—and put the money in the envelope, which is a duck [sic] glued to the inside of the lid.
Mom serves as the company’s CFO, keeping the money from the eggs in an envelope in a kitchen drawer to buy feed, but Stroup gets tips and a cut of the revenue sometimes.
“When there are leftovers, we save some for later just in case, but I also take some that I keep in my nightstand drawer,” Stroup said. “When there’s enough, I put it in my wallet and go to Fosters Freeze, maybe. I like vanilla chocolate ice cream and Oreo milkshakes.
Dad and brother Carter also work for Natalie’s Nuggets. Carter is the official “chicken buster” of the business because “he’s fast, really fast,” Stroup said. And her father’s marketing brought Stroup her biggest client yet. He was ordering food from the Farm to Fork food truck and asked owner Sara Padilla if she was both the farm and the fork. She told him it was just the fork, but she sources all her ingredients locally. So Dad introduced her to his daughter, who told Padilla all about Natalie’s Naughties.
The two struck a deal, and since early April, Padilla has been buying eggs for his breakfast sandwiches and baked goods from Stroup.
“I love it,” Padilla said of working with the 7-year-old egg merchant. “It’s great that Natalie is building the skills to become her own boss. I really respect the family for supporting her and teaching her these skills. They are such a wonderful family.’
Natalie’s Nuggets currently has 24 laying hens with about 25 more that will start laying later this year. Breeds include Black Copper Marans, Ameraucana, Barred Rock, Lavender Orpington and “barn mixes”. A variety of breeds and mixes produce eggs in various shades of blue, green and brown.
“The dark army green color is my favorite,” said Stroup. “But I like to eat any of them mixed with a side of jelly and toast.”
Although there are too many hens to name, two of the four roosters that fertilize the eggs do have nicknames.
“One is Little Richard and the other is Todd,” said Stroup. “Todd is a bit of a pill.”
