Amanda Nesis
Eleven years ago Amanda Nesis had the first of three children. When it came time to feed her young son baby food, she wasn’t too impressed with the options available, so she started making her own. After some trial and error,Nesis realized she had something wonderful, and she started making larger batches of fresh fruit and vegetable purees and selling them locally.
After moving from Westchester to Oyster Bay, and taking a few years off to take care of her children,Nesis decided a year and a half ago to relaunch her products and started selling them weekly at the Huntington Farmers Market. It went over so well, that she expanded and offered a line of fresh, made-from scratch yogurts as well. She quickly found out babies weren’t the only ones eating her products. Adults were too.
“It started out as baby food,” says Nesis, “but now we find that a lot of adults are buying it, which we thought would happen. When people hear ‘baby food’ they think ‘yuck,’ and I think, ‘Well if that’s how you feel then why are you feeding that to your baby?’ Once people don’t view my product as ‘baby food,’ they actually eat it and love it.”
Once Nesis saw the interest, she envisioned a store where she could make her product accessible to everyone. She began looking for space in Huntington Village because she liked the sense of family and community. In August 2015, her dream came true and Spoonfed opened. Working with partner Jaime Koumoulis, who she met at the farmers market and who was a big advocate for her products, Nesis spent six months renovating the space at 44 Gerard Street. A kitchen was built in the back of the store where all the products are made in small batches.
Everything at Spoonfed is fresh and organic, and most of all delicious. What makes the products even more interesting is they are served in BPA-free, food-grade quality pouches that are completely recyclable. They are transparent, so you can see what you’re feeding yourself and your kids.
“I love the pouches,” says Nesis. “Glass is cumbersome and not always portable. The kids, from a year old up, can hold the pouches themselves and squeeze it.” She adds, “It’s great for adults too. You can eat this in the car or on the go, pre/post workout and put it in lunch boxes. They can be frozen and serve as their own ice packs.”
Unlike other baby foods, Spoonfed products are not heat treated to sit on a shelf. The products are non-GMO and made with nothing artificial or processed.
Squeezable products include: strawberry apple; pear parsnip; butternut squash spinach; blueberry, banana, quinoa; kale, apple, sweet potato, and several more flavors and sell for $3.50. The squeezable yogurt smoothies include apple cinnamon, low-fat lemon pear and low-fat strawberry and sell for $4 each. Shelf life varies. Plain yogurt, also available, last for six weeks, while the flavored yogurts last 3-4 weeks. Fruit and veggie purees can last anywhere from three to 21 days.
Along with the packaged foods, Spoonfed makes smoothies to go including an almond smoothie, made with housemade almond milk, bananas, almond butter and dates; a green smoothie made with coconut water, avocado, spinach, apple and lemon, and a berry smoothie made with almond milk or yogurt, coconut water, strawberry, housemade raspberry preserves and honey.
Spoonfed is family-friendly and children are welcome. For those wanting something more, Spoonfed has a small eat-in menu where you can order avocado toast made on whole wheat toast with house-made hummus, baby spinach, avocado and lemon olive oil drizzle. As Nesis says, “It’s a fan favorite.” Other options are seasonal salads, seasonal quinoa bowls, an almond butter snack, and grab-and-go salsa and hummus.
Spoonfed is closed on Sundays, but is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Spoonfed products can also be ordered over the phone and shipped.
