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2 Moms Are Driving Force For Peoria’s Farmers Market
November 16, 2008 by Herb Stalk · Leave a Comment
Two stay-at-home moms turned entrepreneurs are responsible for bringing Peoria’s Park West shopping center its first farmers market.
Shoppers’ growing desire for local and organic produce prompted managers of the retail center, near Northern Avenue and the Loop 101, to coordinate a market there in October.They enlisted Peoria resident Christa Esquibel and her sister-in-law Emy Porter, the founders of Momma’s Organic Market, or M.O.M., to recruit about 30 vendors for a kid-friendly shopping experience.
The market is a regular fixture at Park West on the third Saturday of each month, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Vendors include farmers, jewelry designers and face painters.
Photo by NatalieMaynor.
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In Whittier, Hard Work Bears Fruit For Mother Turned Entrepreneur
November 16, 2008 by Herb Stalk · Leave a Comment
Erika Elizabeth Maldonado is living a dream that not long ago she wouldn’t have dared to try.
All the unexpectedly single mom had left was a will to work for her newborn son, some food stamps, a van, the counsel of a loving mother and an idea: fruit.That idea became reality Tuesday as Maldonado cut the ribbon on her business, Oasis Tropical Fruits & Juices.
The path that led to Maldonado’s new business started two years ago on the sidewalks, at the parking lots and in the storefronts of Whittier, with the young mother pushing a stroller with baby inside and carrying a beach cooler full of cut-up fresh fruit.
Despite her lingering fear of rejection, she sold the fruit.
“I got out of my car and I was shaking,” she said, remembering the day when she first went out to sell the fruit.
That day was hard. She parked at a warehouse business and scoped the place out, looking for workers on a break who might be interested in some freshly cut fruit.
Something worked.
That first day, she made .
The next day she sold more, until eventually her clientele expanded to truckers, medical offices attorneys, hair salons and restaurants.
People were asking her to customize cuts for them, and eventually she found herself selling different items as the seasons changed - tamales, sandwiches, champurrado (a chocolate-based, warm Mexican drink), tortas, chicken mole …
And soon, as she and her young son traveled her regular route from Pico Rivera to La Habra, Maldonado became known as the “Fruit Lady.”
Photo by The Wandering Angel.
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5 Daughters, A Mom And An Eating Place
November 16, 2008 by Herb Stalk · Leave a Comment
Folks who take a break from Interstate 215 for a bite at Tammie’s Family Diner might do a double-take when they see their waitresses. There’s a family resemblance.
If they glance into the kitchen and see owner Tammie Newport, it might start to make sense.Newport, a slender, energetic woman with obvious practice at multitasking, hired her four daughters and stepdaughter when she opened the restaurant a year ago this month. They work as a happy family - and a well-oiled machine.
“The real reason I started a restaurant is because I’ve been a single mom most of my life; I started out real young being a mom,” Newport said. “My youngest daughter was turning 18, and basically I needed to do something with my life.”
Newport’s youngest, Jessica Madsen, cooks with her mother and enjoys the family time she gets in while at work.
“We all work well together,” said Madsen, 19, the spitting image of her mother. “Sometimes it’s been a little hard, but I’m the youngest and I’m Mommy’s little girl, so I love being around my mom all the time.”
Newport’s stepdaughter, Johnnie Walker, also 19, works up front. She says there’s more pressure to do everything well when family is on the line, but it’s worth the good company.
Photo by jslander.
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Canby Woman Turns Love Of Food Into A Passionate Business
November 16, 2008 by Herb Stalk · Leave a Comment
Sue Socher can’t understand why her daughter, Melissa Haskell, spends hours making homemade chicken or beef stock or canning tomatoes when it would be easier to buy them at the grocery store.
“It sounds like a lot of work to make things homemade, but really it is very simple,” Haskell said. “I enjoy making meals from scratch because cooking is my passion.”A graduate of the California Culinary Academy with a degree in culinary arts, Haskell, 36, combined her love for food and passion for cooking to create her business, For the Love of Food, in Canby. She caters events and teaches cooking classes.
She believes that anyone can learn the basics of cooking and with a few tricks of the trade serve “magnificent, delicious, healthy meals to their loved ones.”
Haskell has lived in Canby for four years with her husband, Mark, a dentist, and daughters, Katie, 8, and Maddie, 6.
Image from Crystl.
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Tricia Hodson Finds Wide Interest In Her Crocheted And Knit Creations
November 16, 2008 by Herb Stalk · Leave a Comment
When Tricia Hodson opened up a shop on Etsy two years ago, her sigh of relief was likely heard all around Garrettsville, her home of 11 years. Gone was her concern that her crocheted and knit creations would bomb locally.
“My neighbor doesn’t have to love them,” the stay-at-home mother of two said lightly. If long, fingerless gloves hold no appeal for people who winter in Northeast Ohio, she said, maybe someone in Australia would want them.“I was kicking myself, wishing I’d joined Etsy sooner,” she said.
When Hodson, 44, taught herself to crochet and knit six years ago, she started with what she calls “typical craft show crochet stuff,” but her interest deepened to a love “of all things fiber.”
“I love creating with yarn,” Hodson said, and she stocks her shop accordingly. She loves to crochet shawls and ponchos, so she makes lots of them. Her 11-year-old daughter has at least four ponchos, she said. Same for fingerless gloves, which take her about two hours to crochet, or two days to knit.
Since she is seldom without yarn and a crochet hook, she’s able to keep her store stocked with 60 or so items and have enough to supply her bookings on the holiday craft show circuit, which will be in full swing in mid-November. She prefers natural fibers, which are more expensive than synthetics, but she uses synthetics to keep items affordable.
Photo by Bethany L King.
