This Cottage Industries article features a company called “Mama’s Goodies, ”which produces Iranian-inspired artisan nut butter brittles in unique flavors including sesame, which is traditional in Iran, and almond, another Iranian flavor. They also produce the brittles in cashew, pecan and macadamia – coconut flavors. Their story is a good one to share around the holidays because they are Iranian immigrants who are living the American dream as entrepreneurs by starting their own family business.
Here is their story:
In 1979, Rohy Khorshidian, her husband and their four young daughters fled Iran for a better life in the United States. They left behind all of their personal belongings but retained the things deeply rooted in their heritage. One of those things was Rohy’s old-world family recipe for nut butter brittles.
In the early years as new immigrants, Rohy strived to help her family adjust to their new life. One thing she did to “make her feel at home” was to work in the kitchen making her nut brittles that she had become known for in Iran. She began with the traditional flavors of sesame and almond. Before long, Rohy was recognized throughout the community for her nut brittles, often taking them to family gatherings and giving them to neighbors as gifts. When she was invited to an event, the host would often call and say, “Don’t bring anything except your nut brittle”.
Her daughter Kathy saw her mother’s gift as an opportunity. As a former businesswoman turned stay-home-mom, Kathy decided to market her mother’s brittles, but also to teach her young children the importance of following their dreams. Kathy lost her husband to a sudden illness when her children were only 9 and 5 years old. Today, her son, Ryan, is 14 and her daughter Dana is 10 years old. She wanted to show her own children the importance of pursuing your passion, moving forward and feeding the entrepreneurial spirit. And thus, in 2008, Mama’s Goodies was born.
Today, Mama’s Goodies produces five unique flavors of nut butter brittles –and Rohy and Kathy are always there to taste and approve each batch to insure they have that old-world, homemade quality. Rohy still makes her own batches every week, which she continues to share with friends and family.
The skills that she needed to acquire to start the business were to learn the ins and outs of the food industry, learn how to market a food item, but most importantly, learn how to deal with many walks of people.
Their biggest challenge has been to Brand the company name in this economy when many retailers are not adding on new vendors AND downsizing their current inventory.
Kathy has learned that there is nothing that is easy in life, but if you love what you do and have a true passion for it you will succeed no matter what the economy is doing or the odds whether the odds are stacked against you in a food industry. She says that she loves to cite Confucius’ phrase “Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life”. She is living proof of that phrase!
To order from Kathy and Rohy, visit www.mamasgoodies.com.
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a friend
– Once again, a Book Club family favorite. Our reviewers recommend “Blokus, regular and trigon editions”. They call it “fun for all ages (with modified rules for 3 year olds)” and many of them simply said “we love Blokus”.
