One new St. Albert Farmers’ Market vendor discovered that motherhood has a way of changing the direction of a person’s life in unexpected ways.
Mandy Olsgard-Dumanski is a toxicologist by profession with a master’s degree from the University of Saskatchewan. However, after giving birth to her now 11-month-old son Kovey, the new mother began whipping up organic baby food that is pesticide, chemical and hormone free.
“I didn’t like the high volume of processed food laden with chemicals,” says Olsgard-Dumanski. She works as a toxicologist for WorleyParsons and completes risk assessments and studies all chemicals and their effects on humans and animals.
“Most chemicals are endocrine disrupters and can affect the reproductive system,” she explains, adding that chemicals have also been known to cause developmental problems. “One step in avoiding this is to use less processed food and eat more natural foods.”
When friends asked for Olsgard-Dumanski’s homemade baby food, an entrepreneurial streak kicked in and she created BabyLove Organic Frozen Baby Food. “We all want the best for our children.”
Two supportive organic vendors that have supplied fresh produce and grains are Sturgeon County’s Peas on Earth and Edmonton’s Planet Organic.
She explains that traditionally in cooking baby food, manufacturers use a high temperature that loses anywhere from 40 to 70 per cent of valuable nutrients.
Cooking in her own kitchen, Olsgard-Dumanski roasts the vegetables and steams fruits at moderate temperatures before mixing them with barley, oatmeal, brown rice and quinoa into 10 different dishes.
What stands out in BabyLove recipes, named as a play on words, are the unusual combinations of foods rarely used by large-scale manufacturers. For instance, Apparently Figtastic blends apple, pear, fig and oatmeal; The Root of It All mixes carrots, beets, squash and brown rice, and Thai is the Essence champions coconut milk, sweet potato, carrots and brown rice. Iron You Glad, the only meat-filled baby food on the menu, features ground beef, tomatoes, spinach, squash, zucchini and quinoa. “About the only fruit I don’t use are peaches. They tend to lose most of their nutritional value when frozen and only the sugars remain.”
Once batches of gourmet baby food are cooked and mixed, they are packaged in biodegradable four-ounce cornstarch-based containers that are microwave friendly and compost in two to four months.
“I didn’t want petroleum based products. Again there’s an issue with phthalates and BPAs. If you don’t have to be exposed, why should we be?”
Olsgard-Dumanski provides spoon-size samples for both parents and children. “If people try it, they come back. They say it tastes like real food. What else should it taste like?” she laughs.
For more information visit www.babyloveorganicfoods.com.
