‘Locally Grown’ Baby Food Maker Enters Retail Market

As retailers look for ways to get in on the burgeoning local foods movement, Fayetteville mom Angie Coleman is introducing a line of baby food made with locally grown produce.

Coleman is the founder of Boston Mountain Baby, a business venture that has quickly evolved from a kitchen experiment into a deal with local grocers.

Like many mothers, Coleman wanted to feed her six-month-old son fresh, organic foods. She thought if she and her husband shunned canned foods for fresh, why should she feed her child stuff from a jar that had a shelf life of up to a year?

So she started making her own baby food in her kitchen, buying produce from the farmer’s market and putting it through a food processor. The first thing she noticed was that her homemade food looked nothing like the stuff from the jar.

“The food was actually the color that it’s supposed to be,” she said.

Because the vegetables retained more of their nutrients, they also retained their natural color.

Coleman loved the process of taking fresh vegetables and turning them into food for her son. There were no mystery ingredients and she knew exactly where the food came from and how it was made.

She decided to turn her kitchen prowess into a business. She asked a handful of friends to try the food with their babies and toddlers. The feedback was nothing but positive, she said.

So with a commercial kitchen, a Web site and several orders already coming in, Coleman is ready to sell the products.

Her start-up costs were minimal. Since she rents the kitchen facility, she didn’t have to invest in a building or any major equipment. Most of the $2,000 she’s put in on the front end went toward her insurance policy for the year.

Coleman’s timing is appropriate as consumers begin to show concern for where their food originates and retailers look to cash in on the trend.

A national survey of restaurant chefs by the National Restaurant Association found “locally grown” food to be the hottest industry trend for 2009.

Two area grocery stores have signed on to carry Coleman’s products.

Starting this month, shoppers can find the products in the frozen food section at Ozark Natural Foods in Fayetteville and the Pinnacle Station Local Market in Rogers.

Nathan Strayhorn, manager of the Pinnacle Station, said one of the market’s goals is to support local vendors.

Strayhorn said he felt like the Boston Mountain Baby products would be a good fit.

“It looked like a high quality product that would be of some interest to our gourmet market customers,” he said.

Coleman is hoping the food will eventually be available at grocery stores throughout the region and possibly as far as Springfield, Mo. and Tulsa.

“I don’t want to get away from the localness of it,” she said. “I think I could go that far and still keep my carbon footprint small.”

By using local produce rather than produce is transported across the country, she’s minimizing her impact on the environment while also supporting local farmers.

The recipes are simple. She buys the produce that’s in season at the Fayetteville Farmers Market, steams it, purees it and packages it. The end result is a re-sealable package of 12 one-ounce frozen cubes.

So far, Boston Mountain Baby is offering eight different varieties of baby food, including “Bumper Crop Broccoli,” “So Sweet Potatoes,” “Go Green Beans,” and “Squish Squash.”

Coleman said she has plans to develop fruit varieties of the baby food as well as a line of toddler foods.