About Us

Hello! My name is Holly Hall and I am the owner of Ghee Well.

Originally born & raised in the Fresno area, I moved to Arcata in 2008 to attend Humboldt State University (now Cal Poly Humboldt). I had never visited Humboldt county until I drove up to put a deposit on an apartment, but I quickly fell in love with my new home and deciding to stay after graduating with a B.S. in Kinesiology.

In 2013 I met my husband Andrew while we were working at a local grocery store. I was a vegan for several years before I met him and had developed some health issues that I believe were from inadequate nutrition and over-training — heart arrhythmia, lightheadedness that led to loss of consciousness on several occasions, eventually having a full on seizure while walking up a flight of stairs. He introduced me to his “paleo-ish” style of eating which included putting butter and MCT oil in his coffee every morning. He told me that he sometimes purchased ghee for his coffee as a special treat, which I had never heard of before, so I ordered a jar to try it. As a sucker for anything caramel-flavored, it was love at first bite (or, in this case, sip).

I learned how to make my own and started out making ghee specifically for coffee, creating flavors like vanilla, cinnamon ginger, butterscotch & so on. I would make large batches and give away a lot of the jars as gifts. After a while, a few of the people I had given them to started asking me if they could purchase more… and that was when the idea for Ghee Well was born!

The beginning was suuuuper slow going. I’ve always been the type to hold down multiple jobs at once, so at the same time I was trying to start the business I was also working full-time at a local cheese factory, part-time as a personal trainer and striking coach at two different gyms. Technically, we’ve been “in business” since 2018, but I didn’t make an official sale until 2020.

What happened in 2020, you ask? Well, in late March of 2020, both of the gyms I worked at shut down. A few weeks later, I got laid off from my full-time job. The first time in my adult life that I’ve ever been unemployed. What should’ve been a devastating loss became one of the best things that have ever happened to me, as it finally gave me my time back and allowed me to build Ghee Well into the business it is today.

I still work part-time as a trainer because I love it. In my spare time I enjoy punching things (boxing + Muay Thai kickboxing), lifting weights, hiking, making/eating delicious food, beach bumming, messing around on the drums and occasionally running around town in a homemade butter costume.