in the news

1/03/07 // New company offers organic menu for tiny gourmands

Via the Los Altos Town Crier.

By Megan Ma, Town Crier Staff Writer

Los Altos resident Peggy Weimer was used to cooking up batches of vegetables for her baby daughter. It was a healthful alternative to jarred food, she thought.

But after chopping, steaming and freezing the pureed vegetables into cubes, Weimer said she was exhausted. The healthful, homemade formula was “taking away from the time I could be spending with her,” she said.

But when she had her second baby girl, Weimer found someone else to do the job for her: Baby Cubes & More, a San Jose-based company that offers the Nami line of frozen foods.

The company, which steams farm-fresh rutabagas, papayas and other produce, then purees and freezes them into small cubes, offers 21 types of organic fruits and vegetables in frozen-cube form for the under-1-year-old crowd, with foods focused on fresh taste and sound nutrition.

Whether you want to thaw the cubes into an applesauce consistency, serve cold for toddlers or mix ingredients to create a balanced meal, the cubes have instant variability and a convenient appeal for busy parents.

While the idea is fresh, it’s not a new business model. The company joins a growing array of baby food businesses aimed at infants and their health-conscious parents.

With no additives, Baby Cubes & More CEO Iria Nishimura said the cubes promote healthful eating habits in tiny tots early on.

“The foods taste like what they’re supposed to taste like. We don’t add anything to them,”

Nishimura said.

Like Weimer, Nishimura is a working professional who tried to cook each night for her infant son - sometimes as late as midnight. But the routine and demands of her job were too much.

“I realize how hard it is for mothers. Starting this company has been a huge undertaking, but it’s worth it. This is a gift to other mothers,” said Nishimura, who plans to sell her product in local stores throughout the Bay Area.

Nishimura said she laughs at the unintended irony her current job has created.

“I created this to save time for other mothers, and now it’s so much work running this business. But I believe I do everything really well,” she said.

Nishimura, a former health-care executive, said small cubes have the added benefit of allowing mothers to monitor the portions their children ingest.

The produce is mostly local, Nishimura said, and primarily organically grown, carefully chosen from local farmer’s markets.

Baby Cubes & More delivers food in the Bay Area. Customers place orders online, and orders are usually delivered by the next business day. Each bag comes with 10 1-ounce cubes that can be defrosted one at a time to eliminate waste. Each bag costs $4.98 plus shipping.

For more information, visit http://www.babycubes.biz or call (866) 695-3508.