Can you find a way of reducing this word puzzle to a manageable size?

Break it down to shared letters and letters in just one word. That’s r, a , and n. But that makes me asked how are they in common. Granola works if the common includes the two a’s in granola and natural. Or can it only be used once?

Your analysis is right. The extra a does not count as a common letter. The word has 5 letters from organic, 5 letters from natural, and subtract the common letters. 7 = 5 + 5 – 3.

I was working along the same lines as @Adirondackwannabe. Think of the words as being made by playing cards, like in stud poker.

The letters R, A, N are shared cards (letters), and the two words have their own hole cards as O, G, I, C and T, U, A, L. You need to select two letters from each of the words’ hole cards. Granola seems to be the logical choice.

You guys are too quick. For some reason, it took me a while to find the right letters. There are 6 ways of choosing 2 letters out of four, so the total combinations of letters (disregarding order) is 6×6 = 36. I found curtain and cranial, neither of which have anything to do with natural food stores, before I found granola.