Budding business – New Missoula owner of Edible Flowers sees potential for growth

Heidi Foley runs Edible Flowers http://www.edibleflowers.net/ out of the old Desmet School building west of Missoula International Airport. Foley’s business sells handmade salad dressings, vinegars, party dips and confettis made from organically grown flowers.

By MICK HOLIEN of the Missoulian

http://missoulian.com/articles/2004/03/16/business/business01.txt

A Missoula woman recently traded in her job crunching numbers to begin a career creating and marketing organic flower-based food products.

Heidi Foley, an accountant who most recently was the comptroller at Modern Machinery Co. Inc., purchased Edible Flowers in November and moved it into the old DeSmet School building west of Missoula International Airport.

*********

EDIBLE FLOWERS

P. O. Box 16533

Missoula, Montana 59808

Toll Free: (866) 721-5604

Fax: (775) 719-2637

email Edible Flowers

*********

Each of the company’s 40 products features at least one organically grown flower – and the products include salad dressings that double as sauces and marinades, vinegars, party dips and flower confetti used for toppings.

Foley believes the future for the business, which includes both wholesale and retail, is diverse and bright.

"Gourmet cooking is just taking off with average people like me," she said. "All the flowers are organically grown, and I like that niche working with those farmers. Š They’re always looking for different ways to increase their business."

The dressings come in flavors such as "Earthy Arugula," "Red Basil," "Purple Sage," and "Dill Blossoms," "Garlic Bud" and Foley’s personal favorite, "Southwest Chili-Squash Blossom."

The vinegars are flavored by the blossoms alone. Sold in Italian decorator bottles, flavors include Tulip, Gladiolus, Mixed Blossom with Chile and Hollyhock-Lavender.

The dried products – including mixed flower and rose-petal confetti and several party-dip mixes – are made by drying blossoms and mixing them with other ingredients to make delicious one-step recipes.

There’s also Flower Garden and Jasmine-Lavender tea and Sparkling Lavender Sugar.

In addition, several gift packs feature a combination of items and recipes.

"I love that part of the business – creating new products and working with the different flowers," said Foley. "I had never really eaten fresh flowers before so it’s really been a fun kind of venture, realizing some of those things that I love to grow and (that) grow well in this area are really edible."

Orders are shipped within 24 hours from Mission Mountain Markets, a nonprofit packing company in Ronan, and some local delivery is available.

Originally based in Santa Fe, N.M., the 9-year-old Internet-based business has been featured on the Food Network and received coverage in Good Housekeeping and Cooking Life magazines.

In fact, it was while watching the Food Network that Foley learned the business was for sale. She loves gardening and cooking and decided to pursue the opportunity.

"For the last year and a half, I really have been looking to do something fun and creative, and I love gardening," Foley said. "I was looking for something to buy and I wanted it to be a good fit for that creative side, and I could do a little bit of both of the things that I’m pretty passionate about."

An accountant for the last 15 years, Foley has never worked for herself, another factor in her decision to branch out on her own.

"The whole thing fit well together for me," she said. "I said, ‘Let’s just take this jump and do it.’ I thought it looked positioned for some big growth."

Foley is looking for organic growers and food representatives to market the products and also plans to have some visibility in a few western Montana stores such as the Good Food Store. But for the most part her customers find her on the Internet, where her Web site gets 200 to 500 hits a day.

Owning her own business after years of working for someone else hasn’t exactly been an easy transition.

"I think you never really have an appreciation of all there is to do until you do something like this," said Foley. "There have been some great struggles and real joys to moving it here. I’m just really working hard on growing it because I think it can become a real vital part of this community."

The bulk of her customers are in the East and Southwest, something she’s focused on changing.

"We’re looking to add more products to our product line that have more of a Montana feel, a Pacific Northwest flair and flavor to them," she said. "I think we have a wonderful-tasting product, but nobody knows we’re out there. It’s just getting the message out that we’re here and what we’re all about."

The company’s research and development department is composed of Foley’s mother, Linda Dennison, and her sister, Kara Shapiro.

"Our creative juices were flowing yesterday so we were coming up with a number of different combinations," Foley said, and laughed. "We just test and see what’s out there."

So does a person who worked with numbers for so many years miss the lure of the balanced bottom line?

"I get enough of the numbers in what I’m doing now," she said. "I don’t miss that. I miss the people I worked with. "I’m really having fun with this and it’s so neat to have fun and be excited about something. There’s a lot of stress about owning your own business so if you can particularly be excited about what you’re doing and the potential of what you’re doing I think that really helps."

Reporter Mick Holien can be reached at 523-5262 or at [email protected].