Inspiration can come from anywhere — even the movies.
For Elisabeth Burrow, her vision was clear: she wanted to build a company like Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, a place where everyone felt included, valued and joyful.
Though she didn’t set out to break barriers and build a thriving artisan nut company, that’s what she did. And she’s achieved her success by staying true to herself and her values, putting authenticity and inclusivity first.
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“I want to make products that bring people happiness and joy, and while I’m doing that, create a working environment that embraces differences and abilities,” says Burrow, founder, president and chief roaster of Jewels Under the Kilt.
As an artisan nut maker, Burrow offers more than 36 products with flavours ranging from plain roasted and salted through to apple pie and orange vanilla cream. Nearly all the nuts and flavour ingredients are grown or sourced locally, and if Burrow doesn’t grow the nuts and ingredients herself, she knows each supplier personally. This connection is an example of how important relationships and trust are to her business.
Authenticity in action
In 2010, Burrow left her career in health care and moved from the Greater Toronto Area to a farm near Fergus, Ont. She thought she would be happy to enjoy a quieter pace.
But that changed when she started “fooling around with nuts,” combining an excess of maple syrup with a variety of nuts she discovered growing on her 95-acre property.
Burrow now has an orchard of more than 300 nut trees, including indigenous species such as black walnut, butternut and hickory, along with heart nuts, pecans and pinenuts.
Looking back she says she found a knack and a joy for roasting and creating flavoured nuts. Friends and neighbours raved about them, prompting her to set up a display at a local farmers market. “To be honest, I realized I needed a chance to get off the farm and socialize, so it made sense to get out and talk to people about my nuts,” quips Burrow.
When she realized she wasn’t “nuts” and that her new interest in roasting could become a viable business, she quickly embraced it as a way to create an inclusive employment opportunity for youth and adults with disabilities. This was inspired by her daughter, Jessie, who has “Up syndrome,” Burrow’s positive personal description of Down syndrome.
“Everyone has a purpose, so I set out to create a company for people who need a chance and an equal opportunity to work,” says Burrow, who has successfully employed youth, individuals with all ranges of abilities, and people who just needed someone to take a chance on them.
“I’ve always had an ‘outside of the box’ approach and I’m proud to have built a place where everyone works as a team, at their own pace and in a relaxed environment.”
Burrow’s business model also incorporates generosity at its core. She’s known for sending boxes of nuts to cheer people up in her community and across the country. “I send a box of nuts when people need them,” she says, explaining it’s her way of saying thank you, showing support or just paying it forward.
Burrow also embodies her commitment to celebrating differences and abilities by showing up authentically every day, no matter where she is. She says that for years she dressed the part, showing up every day in her former career in dresses and heels.
But she’s done with that now. “I show up just as I am, every day,” she says. That means no matter if she’s at a trade show, meeting with her retail customers or walking her orchard, Burrow acts and dresses as the genuinely passionate, caring and self-proclaimed “nut lady” that she is.
She attributes much of her success to her ability to stay true to herself, explaining that by being authentic and openly sharing her values, passion for inclusivity and embracing differences, she has naturally attracted like-minded employees, suppliers, vendors and retailers.
The best advice Burrow says she can offer fellow farmers and food entrepreneurs is to be yourself and to never judge a person based on first impressions. “I want to build a business that’s true to my values, and really, who wouldn’t want that, too?”
Flavour and integrity
As Burrow focused on creating opportunities over the years — such as growing her staff, testing and roasting new nut flavours, managing her orchard and forging new partnerships — Jewels Under the Kilt began to thrive.
What she didn’t anticipate was that she was quickly becoming a leader in the nut roasting industry, breaking into a male-dominated field and paving a new path for how business could be done.
Burrow was the first female in the Canadian nut industry to run an independent business from tree to table. And, in the spirit of breaking barriers, she was also the only female nut roaster.
“I take my nut making very seriously so that each and every customer falls in love with my recipes as much as I do in the making process,” says Burrow, explaining that there’s a science and an art to nut roasting.
She’s proud of her patented process that preserves the natural nut oils and flavours. To source her local flavour ingredients and additional sources of nuts, Burrow did her homework. She wanted to get to know every supplier personally and says, “It’s important to me that I know every farmer and where everything comes from.”
This philosophy also applies to ingredients that aren’t grown locally, such as cocoa, cinnamon and coffee, so she’s built personal relationships with fair trade farmers to maintain a direct connection to all her food sources. “People trust me to provide them with the highest quality, local product because I’ve created relationships based on trust with my suppliers.”
Her commitment to quality and trust also serves Burrow when it comes to expanding the business. So far, she’s relied solely on word of mouth for growth. She loves attending food and trade shows where she can easily draw a crowd by inviting people to “try my nuts.”
Over the years, the business has grown exponentially with the addition of social media and the company’s website, but Burrow holds firm to her success strategy of relying on word of mouth and only growing at a pace that allows her to learn along the way.
Her decision-making process is guided by both the pace of her growth and her core values. She says she’s built her business “one nut at a time” and wants to continue at that speed. Her commitment to inclusivity and fostering personal growth means that her employees and their abilities factor into many of her decisions, too.
Burrow is also a champion for tree nut production and would like to see the industry grow. She says there are endless opportunities for nut farming across Canada and believes it is an untapped market, especially with so much focus on sourcing local and Canadian food products these days.
Growing with purpose
When Burrow first started, she was roasting nuts one day a week in a community kitchen. Since then, she’s built a dedicated roasting and packaging facility on her farm to serve her growing customer base that now includes customers and retailers across Canada, the U.S. and even overseas.
“As our business grows, so do the opportunities to build a community and support people, by offering employment or just sharing boxes of nuts to brighten their day,” says Burrow as she reflects on just how far the business has come.
Not only has Jewels Under the Kilt expanded exponentially, but Burrow’s salted walnuts recently received the 2025 Better Homes & Gardens Food Award for roasted nuts. She’s also a member of Canadian Women in Food, a national association that’s dedicated to amplifying the voices of female food entrepreneurs promoting a more inclusive space for women in food.
“I’m proud of what we’ve built — food that people love, an inclusive environment for people to work in and a life that’s authentic and sustainable for my family,” says Burrow. Looking ahead, she’s open to continued growth, or scaling back her business, too, but whatever happens, her business decisions will be aligned with her values.
