---

– All Job Categories –  Accounting Admin & Clerical Automotive1 Banking1 Biotech1 Broadcast - Journalism1 Business Development Construction Consultant Customer Service Design Distribution - Shipping Education Engineering Entry Level Executive Facilities Finance General Business General Labor Government Health Care Hotel - Hospitality Human Resources Information Technology Insurance Inventory Legal Legal Admin Management Manufacturing Marketing Nurse Other Pharmaceutical Professional Services Purchasing - Procurement QA - Quality Control Research Restaurant - Food Service Retail - Grocery Sales Science Skilled Labor - Trades Strategy - Planning Supply Chain Telecommunications Training Transportation Warehouse

Armed with steamed vegetables and a food processor, Michelle Orgill took a step back in time.

In a gathering at Mommy Matters, a parenting resource center in north Fresno, she pureed sweet potatoes, then scooped the pulp into a strainer. After pressing it through, she offered samples to parents and babies.

Parents murmured their surprise at the flavor. They also liked the sample of sugar-snap-pea puree.

"It tastes like vegetables, but it still tastes good," says Danny Ochoa, whose first son is due in July. The freshly made baby food "seems like it's going to be healthier. ... When I've tasted baby food before, it tasted almost like candy."

About 80 years after commercial baby food went on the market, some health-conscious parents are moving back to the food their great-grandparents served. Instead of reaching for jarred baby food, they want preservative-free purees of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Glimmers of the trend started in the late 1980s, when Mommy Made and Daddy Too! in Brooklyn, N.Y., launched a home-delivery service for fresh baby food. Mommy Made eventually stocked stores in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, but it was a company ahead of its time. Without the technology to extend the shelf life of its steamed, unpasteurized products, Mommy Made shut down in 1996.

At that time, fresh baby food was considered extremely radical, says David Kimmel, co-owner of Mommy Made. "Many of the supermarkets didn't really understand it."

Now, fresh baby food is a growing market, powered in part by a broader demand for healthy food.

"I think that the mechanisms that are driving that have much more to do with the quest for health overall. And it's not necessarily focused in that age group," Kimmel says, referring to parents.

Shoppers of all ages want food with fewer chemicals -- an attitude reflected in the quick growth of organic products. Sales of organic food rose from $3.6 billion in 1997 to $16.7 billion in 2006, according to the Organic Trade Association's 2007 Manufacturer Survey. Baby food is one of the growing categories. When the association started tracking organic baby food in 2003, sales were $169 million. By 2006, revenue totalled $235 million.

Also, the rise in child obesity has made parents more aware of their children's food. Parents such as Ochoa want their children to like fruits and vegetables without added sugars.

With the rising prices of food and gasoline stressing family budgets, there's another reason to choose fresh baby food -- as long as parents make it themselves. At her demonstration, Orgill held up a 4-ounce jar of organic baby food that was priced about 90 cents. By contrast, the sweet potato she pureed made a lot more food. Its cost: about 25 cents.

These themes -- better flavor, fewer preservatives and lower cost -- prompted Mommy Matters owners Gena and Craig Kirby to teach classes about homemade baby food. But while parents liked the food, they said they didn't have the time to cook it.

"People would come up to me afterward and say, 'Can you just make it for me?' " Gena Kirby says.

Based on the feedback, the Kirbys teamed up with Orgill, a former pastry chef at Pangea restaurant in Fig Garden Village, to create a new company.

At Orgill's demonstration last week, parents heard the business pitch: Green Baby Bistro, their home-delivery service for fresh baby food, is signing up parents for its expected launch in May. Green Baby will provide fruit and vegetable purees that parents can refrigerate or freeze.

Continued on the next page >