82-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 8,1986
Search For Healthy Foods
Ends In Natural
BY SALLY BAIR
Lancaster Co. Correspondent
RUSSELLVILLE - Kathy
Gordon’s first natural fruitcake
was devised from dried fruits that
“looked pretty together,” and a
batter she thought would work
well. Kathy recalls, “I cut up the
fruits, threw them in a pan, made a
loaf and it tasted so good."
Though at the time the fruit and
nut roll was mostly the result of
Kathy’s search for healthy foods
for her asthmatic children, that
was the start of Kathy’s Kountry
Kitchen. Kathy lives at 1901 Old
Limestone Road, Oxford, with her
husband, Jim, and two children,
Jennifer Eden, 9, and Everett, 6.
The business originates in the
family kitchen.
Kathy recalls, “The main reason
I got into this was because of my
asthmatic children. 1 was sear
ching for other areas of care other
than doctors.” She has vivid
memories of “nights and nights of
sick kids." Although it took them
four years, she managed to get
both children completely off
medication.
Her search for alternatives to
medication led her to studying the
family eating habits, and changing
them to made-from-scratch foods.
Her goal when she developed her
fruit and nut log was to find a
dessert “that tasted just as good as
one with sugar.”
After she made the loaf, she had
many people taste it and received
lots of favorable comments. One
woman suggested that she make it
into a log, which Kathy did, and
then she began making them in a
big way.
It was Christmas time when the
idea came to her and that first year
she gave out 150 one-pound logs.
Kathy says, “It was a taste
people were really liking.” She
also said that her husband, Jim,
had always wanted her to bake for
a living, so it seemed natural to
expand upon this delicious
product.
To be perfectly legal, Kathy had
her kitchen licensed, and has been
in business ever since. After her
first log, she decided to make
Because goat’s milk is so easily digested, the Gordons keep
three goats to satisfy their milk requirements. Here Kathy
plays with one of them.
FniHeake
carob coated logs for Easter, and
fashioned half-pound eggs.
Since she wanted the business to
continue year round, she
discovered that she could spread
the mixture on a cookie sheet and
sell bars, something that went well
in the summer.
Kathy says, “I am always
looking for something new, so I
made some into bonbon size, and
offered them by the dozen. People
really like one bite sized, and I sold
lots.”
Kathy marketed the delicious
confection mostly in health food
stores, and then one of her store
customers requested that she
make the roll and coat it with
chocolate. With reservations,
Kathy found a good quality coating
chocolate and found that the log
sold very well. Now the natural
fruitcake is sold with the choice of
carob coating, white and chocolate
coating.
For this holiday season, Kathy is
offering logs of pound or half pound
size, in addition to the bite sized in
any coating. Kathy said she feels
one reason her fruit and nut
combination is accepted so well is
that there is no citron flavor as
with most fruit cakes. “It is not
your typical fruitcake it is not
perfumey.”
She continues to use the original
three fruits that she chose because
of their pretty color: pineapple,
papaya and apricots. Pecans and
raisins provide the additional
flavoring, and she purchases all
the supplies in bulk for her
business.
Kathy points out that getting her
kitchen licensed to be able to sell
the logs was a simple matter. She
first contacted the Department of
Agriculture which has a booklet
outlining the process. Then she
met with a department employee
who told her what she needed to
comply with regulations, and what
he expected. He also advised her to
check the local zoning and to have
her water tested.
Zoning was no problem, but they
discovered that they shouldn’t be
drinking their water because of its
high nitrate level. Kathy now feels
#
I
Kathy Gordon demonstrates how she grinds dried fruit to use in her natural fruit and
nut log. Her husband, Jim, made the heavy duty grinder she now uses.
VUmesiead
that may have been contributing to
family headaches. Now she uses
only bottled water for her recipe.
Sometime after they had
discussed the requirements for the
business, the employee scheduled
a visit to her home to see her kit
chen; later he came unannounced.
The license fee is $5 annually.
Kathy said, “They want it clean,
and they don’t want you to use a
common towel. Also you shouldn’t
be preparing the food if you have
the cold or flu.” She has found the
regulations to be simple to follow,
and is pleased to be licensed.
About her logs, she says, “The
shelf life is so good. It doesn’t spoil
and it stays good.” Because of its
long shelf life, it is a natural for
mail order, something Kathy
thinks she may get into as time
passes. So far she has restricted
her marketing to stores in the
immediate area to make delivery
simple.
Originally she began selling in
health food stores in Lancaster,
but found it too far to drive easily.
She wouldn’t mind expanding the
number of stores, but would do it
only if stores could accept mail
shipments, something some of
them are not eager to do.
Kathy says, “I would like to
expand if I could find the right
person to guide me in that way. I
would like to see the business
grow, if that is what the Lord
wants for me.”
uf»V
As part of the business, Kathy
said she is always looking for
decorative boxes to pack the bite
sized pieces in. She now has some
heart shaped ones that she hopes to
have in her stores tor Valentine’s
Day.
The business is a family affair,
with Jim helping with the wrap
ping and cutting, He also made her
a grinder to grind the dried fruits
after her food mixer grinder gave
out. She said he also devised a way
of nicking trays to allow her to
make even cuts for the bar cookies,
so each bar is identical.
Jim was the one who solved her
labeling problem, when no com
mercial printer wanted to include
all the ingredients Her husband
composed a label on the computer,
and kept making it smaller until he
had a label that w as acceptable
Kathy felt very strongly about
:ne need to label the logs so that
buyeis wcuiu Know exactly what
the\ wi-ie itmg ! 'w ... h! n
i *.
was important to include
ingredients in the label'so people
would know, for instance, that I do
not use aluminum baking powder.
When I buy a snack food, I always
read the label.”
Kathy says her actual cooking
time has decreased considerably
since she started. “I’ve learned
lots of shortcuts through doing it.
My hands are used to doing it, and
I can pinch off just the right
amount of dough.”
Also an experienced hairdresser
who works three days a week in
that profession, Kathy says, "I try
to bake on the two days that I am
off work. I try to educate my
customers so they know that’s
when I can fill orders.”
As she reflects on the process of
T**'*
Kathy Gordon cuts one of her fruit and nut logs, a delicious
sweet" with all-natural ingredients.
*
f
4
weaning her children from the
medication, Kathy says, “I made a
lot of mistakes, and sometimes
took the children off medication
too soon. It took years of re
building. We changed our diets and
rebuilt our bodies. You must go
slowly.”
She adds, “It takes time to make
dinner. I start from scratch. I
make time to do it, because I reap
what I sow.” She also packs lun
ches for her children, and she said
they try pretty hard to stick to
eating the proper foods because
they can feel the difference in their
bodies.
Although Kathy has tried
working on additional products,
she says, “I want to stick with one
product. I wasn’t consistent with
other products.” At this point she
is not experimenting because, “I
like what we have.”
Then, looking to the future, she
says, “Maybe someday I’ll have a
bakery. I would like to have an all
natural bakery.”
Kathy welcomes private orders
of any size, and is going to at least
one area store to distribute
samples. But, she says, “I want to
grow gracefully.”
Most of her increased marketing
to date has been word of mouth
(Turn to Page B 4)