How things change - or the story of our mueslis

We have been making mueslis for over a year. They sell well and have been very popular in the lower North Island and the top of the South. We were making three varieties, to our own taste - Toasted, Swiss and Swiss* (which is Swiss without coconut). However, sometimes you have to go with the flow and move with the times. A customer asked if we made Gluten Free Muesli - of course was the answer!!!! After much research and testing we now make Gluten Free Toasted Muesli as well as a Gluten Free Swiss Muesli. In researching recipes, I also did a bit of research into the muesli itself. I found that muesli was introduced around 1900 by Maximilian Bircher-Benner, a Swiss physician. He made it for patients in his hospital, where a diet rich in fresh fruit and vegetables was an essential part of therapy. He and his wife had been served a similar dish on a hike in the Swiss Alps. Muesli in the way we know it now, became popular in Western countries in the 1960s when people began taking an increased interest in health food and vegetarian type diets. Traditionally, muesli was eaten with orange juice and not milk. As a teenager I recall making occasionally, and for a treat, the new and very trendy (then) Bircher Muesli where one soaked rolled oats over night in a mix of condensed milk and grated apple, and then added fresh milk in the morning. I suspect it would be too sweet for my tastes now, though I will confess to the odd sneaky taste of condensed milk straight from the can!