Audio Slide Show: Going nutz

BOWDOINHAM - The basement's warm, sweet and spicy. One entire wall's covered with dehydrating ovens. Inside them: soon-to-be-famous - maybe even eaten-by-George-Clooney famous - Nutz.

The last batch arrived earlier this month in Los Angeles.

Fifteen hundred bags of Seth and Davy Pruzansky's organic, raw food treats are going in actors' gift bags at the Screen Actors Guild awards Jan. 27. The brothers have heard of companies paying for the honor, even paying to be considered for the honor. SAG approached Living Nutz, unasked.

The company is based in an unassuming cream-colored ranch with offices upstairs, "close to Portland but still kind of in the woods," said Seth Pruzansky. "I need trees and nature. It's part of the lifestyle."

The order isn't the biggest for the 7-year-old company, but it's definitely the most high-profile.

Living Nutz makes almonds, walnuts, pecans and seeds spiced with 19 flavors, including Lemon Tahini Twist, Spicy Onion Garlic, Pesto, Chili and Teriyaki, and sweets like Cina-Bun and Banana Bread. It's a seven-day process, starting with a long soak in water and ending with five days in a dehydrator. The 4-ounce bags sell for between $6 and $8.

The bags sent to SAG were a mix of flavors. Everything's raw and certified organic.

Pruzansky said he's done a lot of experimenting with different diets, a "constant exploration for the healthiest way to be in this world." For seven years, he ate a diet of entirely raw, vegan foods and loved it.

"I could do the most amazing things - my brain operated so much more clearly," he said.

The company was born partly from that experimenting and from his brother Davy's passion for cooking. Their first food foray: a version of breakfast granola. It got some good reviews, but wasn't a total hit.

"Dehydrating it and rehydrating it kind of gave it a soapy taste," Davy said. They moved onto nuts, and success.

"We're famous in New York as the Almond Brothers," he said. After another company got on them to change the name, they became Living Nutz. In the logo, Seth and Davy's names are written on a pair of almonds.

Davy is head chef. Seth is president. The business employs seven people. Ten percent of sales are done online, the rest through natural food stores like Whole Foods and Royal River in Freeport.

"We hope (exposure at the SAG awards) is going to do something tremendous, but we'll see," Seth said.

With the popularity of raw food diets in California, they've already got a few celebrity clients.

"Woody Harrelson has said amazing things about the product," Seth said. "Shirley MacLaine put us on her Web site."

MacLaine's assistant bought her 24 bags last year.