Little City Kitchen Co. Blog

The Little City kitchen has been abuzz.  Hot off the press…our organic baby food will now be available at the Alameda farmers market starting Tuesday, May 3.

Most of my readers know that getting into farmers markets has been harder than I anticipated.  Many of the good ones are full, and I wasn’t too excited about starting at a smaller market.  So you can imagine my disappointment when I received a letter saying I’d been waitlisted for the charming Alameda market.

I’ve said it a few times; you can’t take “no” so easily as an entrepreneur. Instead of just accepting this fact, I marched off the following Tuesday and spoke directly with the market manager.  It turns out this was an oversight (whew!), which was quickly followed with the question “when can you start?”

So you can now find LCKC baby food on Sunday mornings at the Burlingame Farmers Market, and Tuesday mornings at the Alameda Farmers Market.  Still working on securing a monthly spot at the Noe Valley farmers market on Saturdays so I can have some presence in the city.  (Note to new readers – if you would buy baby food at the Noe Valley farmers market, sign this petition to help get us in!).

There will also be a few more pickup and delivery options coming soon, so stay tuned if Burlingame and/or Alameda aren’t convenient for you.

Cooking Demonstrations

Many of you know that I love to teach, so it comes as no surprise that leading off-site cooking demos has been a blast for me (and okay, I always love an audience).  I have two events coming up.  Both are discussion on baby’s first foods & child nutrition followed by a baby food cooking demo led by yours truly.

Saturday, May 7^th at Monkey Bars in Alameda:
Click here for event details or to RSVP

Part of the Pediatric Series, led by Tracy Zollinger, Acupuncturist and Herbalist.
**It’s also the Alameda Spring Festival, so Park St. will be lined with arts & crafts and food vendors.  Giveaways and samples all day at Monkey Bars, so it’s fun day for the whole family!

Tuesday, May 10^th at GetzWell Pediatrics:
Click here for event details or to RSVP

Emily Novak Waight of GetzWell Pediatrics will dispel myths surrounding first foods (and talk about why meat may be a better first food instead of rice cereal).  Dr. Julia Getzelman has been a guest blogger of Little City Kitchen Co., so I’m excited to partner with such a great team once again!

Working on a workshop with Kaiser in August and another baby food cooking demo at the Birth & Baby Fair in June.  More to come on both of those…

All in all, it’s been a busy week for me.  Looking forward to another great Sunday in Burlingame, and fingers crossed that the first Tuesday in Alameda will be met with the same enthusiasm.  Now it’s back to the kitchen for me…

I did something on Sunday that I haven’t done in nearly 10 months…I set my alarm for 6:00am and got up early for work.  Even though my body rebelled at getting up when it was still dark, I must admit that I woke up with a smile on my face and hopped out of bed for what would become Little City Kitchen Co’s first revenue-producing day.  I didn’t even hit the snooze button once – holy cow, I was really excited.

I arrived in Burlingame by 7:30am and proceeded to unload my packed-to-the-gills car.  I’m happy to report that even my tent setup went smoothly…thanks in part to some practice time in the backyard of my best friend’s house and to the very nice egg vendor that helped me at the market <insert sigh here>.  Setup in general went easily and before I knew it, it was 9:00am and the market was open.

My First Customer

My First Customer!

My first sale was a pack of the sweet potato and coconut brown rice, a flavor which would turn out to be my most popular of the day.

As I’m putting the baby food in a bag for my first customer, I’m thinking to myself “how much of a goofball would I be if I asked for a picture with her”?  I decided a huge one, but asked anyways.  Abbie M. was a great sport so here’s a shot with her, me, her two kiddos, and the first baby food pack I sold.

One big unexpected thing happened.  About 30 minutes into the market I started noticing a lot of toddlers (12-24 months)…more so even than babies.  Once I told people that these purees were a great toddler snack alternative to applesauce, they went crazy for it!  I developed these recipes with babies from 7-12 months in mind, but at the end of the day, almost half of the people that bought baby food were parents with toddlers over 1 year old.  Who knew??

I brought 3 flavors to the market with me.  The sweet potato and coconut brown rice sold out in about an hour and a half.  The Cuban black beans sold out in another hour after that.  And I returned with only a few packages of roasted golden beets.  Here’s a picture of the last sample, handed out about 10 minutes before the market closed.  Good planning!

And the Verdict is?

And as far as the reaction from the Burlingame parents…overwhelmingly enthusiastic! I had people telling me they were so excited to see someone finally selling baby food, and one mom even texted 3 of her Burlingame mommy-friends to tell them all about me.  Considering it was the first market of the season, and according to the market manager, foot traffic was extremely light, it was a great start AND it looks promising for the future.

So that’s it folks…the end of the startup phase and the beginning of a real business.  More good news coming too, like when you can find Little City Kitchen Co. baby food in Alameda <hint: starting May 3 at the Alameda Tuesday farmers market>.  Now it’s time for me to get back in the kitchen to finish food for this week’s little ones!