She loves drawing and painting, playing her guitar, riding dirt bikes, gardening with her mom and making treats in her Easy Bake oven — but what STREAM Charter School first-grader Natalie Stroup really enjoys is running her own business, Natalie’s Nuggets.
The 7-year-old — with support from her mom and dad, Amanda and Travis Stroup, and big brother Carter Stroup, 8 — started her farm-fresh egg business in Oroville a little more than a year ago when she was in kindergarten.
“We just had too many eggs,” said Stroup. “Mom said, ‘Maybe we should sell them to help pay for their food.’ I said that was a good idea, probably.”
Natalie Stroup, 7, CEO of Natalie’s Nuggets sits with her mom and company CFO, Amanda Stroup, along with her big brother, Carter Stroup, 8, the business’s head chicken wrangler, as they drive their quad from home to the self-serve egg cooler to check the day’s sales on April 19, 2024 in Oroville, California. (Kyra Gottesman/Mercury-Register)
Already her mom’s helper when it came to collecting eggs and making sure the barn yard birds had water — but not with the feeding, she said, because the “feed bags are waaaay too heavy for me to lift” — Stroup got to work brainstorming a business name and creating a logo.
After a couple of false starts — including one in which she suggested the name “Natalie’s Poop Nuggets” because “it looks like the eggs come out of their butts when they lay, even though they really don’t” — the budding 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 where egg availability as well as videos of the company’s CEO and support staff are posted.
Stroup took on the role of lead sales person pitching her product to friends, family, teachers and neighbors. It wasn’t long before purchases picked up and Stroup and mom added a corner self-serve egg cooler with a large sign promoting Natalie’s Nuggets on the corner of Pioneer Trail and Mt. Ida Road to their marketing efforts.
“We did it so people driving by see it and think, ‘Oh I want some eggs,’” said Stroup. “They just stop, take the eggs they want — a dozen is five bucks, and if you want two dozen it’s 10 bucks — and put the money in the envelope that’s duck [sic] taped to the inside of the lid.”
Mom serves as the company’s CFO, keeping the egg money in an envelope in a kitchen drawer to purchase feed, but Stroup gets to keep tips and a cut of the proceeds, sometimes.
“When there’s leftovers, we keep some for later just in case, but I also get some that I keep in my nightstand drawer,” said Stroup. “When there’s enough, I put it in my wallet and go to Fosters Freeze, maybe. I like vanilla and chocolate swirl ice cream and Oreo milkshakes.”
After wrangling a chicken, Carter Stroup, right, gently hands the bird to his sister, Natalie Stroup, CEO of Natalie’s Nuggets, on April 19, 2024 in Oroville, California. (Kyra Gottesman/Mercury-Register)
Dad and brother Carter also work for Natalie’s Nuggets. Carter is the business’s official “chicken wrangler” because “he’s fast, really fast,” said Stroup. And dad’s marketing brought Stroup her biggest customer to date. He was ordering food from the Farm to Fork food truck and asked the owner, Sarah Padilla, if she was both the farm and the fork. She told him she was just the fork but sourced all her ingredients locally. So, dad introduced her to his daughter, who told Padilla all about Natalie’s Nuggets.
The two cut a deal, and Padilla has been buying eggs for her breakfast sandwiches and baked goods from Stroup since the beginning of April.
“I love it,” said Padilla about 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 those skills. They are such a lovely family.”
Natalie’s Nuggets currently has 24 laying hens with another 25 or so that will begin laying later this year. The breeds include Black Copper Marans, Ameraucana, Barred Rock, Lavender Orpington and “barn yard mixes.” The 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 love to eat any of them scrambled with a side of jelly and toast.”
While there are too many chickens to name, two of the four roosters who fertilize the eggs do have monikers.
“One is Little Richard and the other is Todd,” said Stroup. “Todd’s a little pill.”
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Stroup’s business plan for the immediate future is to create a new logo for Natalie’s Nuggets in which the chicken will have a bow because, she said, “I’m a much better artist now than I was when I was in kindergarten.”
As far as plans for when she’s “all grown up,” the purveyor of eggs said, “Well that’s a long time away, but I’m thinking about becoming a vet, probably. Like for big animals like bears. I want to live in Alaska where it’s cold and snows and there’s bears because I like winter.”
Until then, the president of Natalie’s Nuggets said she’s quite happy living in Oroville with her mom, dad, brother, pigs, goats and, of course, her chickens.
Reach Kyra Gottesman at [email protected].
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