Welcome to our second feature about Plum Baby and their fantastic organic foods and recipes. For the first Plum Baby feature, click here. We fell in love with this company and all they stand for but we had a few questions and Susie Willis (creator of Plum Baby) very kindly let us interrogate her! So, without further ado, here are Susie’s words and some more recipes from her wonderful organic baby superfood range.

Susie’s third child arrived after a gap of 8 years and as she revisited the baby aisles, her immediate thought was ‘is this as good as it gets?!’ Little appeared to have changed over the years, and as a mum who is passionate about two things in life - kids and good food - the idea for Plum Baby jumped out and Susie was ready for a really ambitious challenge. There was no question in her head that she would create a groundbreaking noise in baby food, and set a challenge to the traditional brands.

Plum Baby was launched in March 2006 as the first range of babyfood to offer recipes based entirely on organic superfood ingredients and they haven’t looked back since. They are now the fastest growing baby food brand in the UK, and are set to grow the brand beyond meals. Watch this space!

Why call the company Plum?

I had a cookery school called ‘The Purple Plum’ Cookery School, based in The New Forest in Hampshire. I had a ‘baby Plum’ course, that was dedicated to educating new mothers on the nutritional benefits of certain foods for young babies, and how to create wonderful recipes.

I know that you have sourced many ingredients yourself over these first few years and I imagine you have learnt a lot about nutrition along the way, what were your most startling revelations and exciting discoveries?

Goodness yes. I can only say that I have found sourcing of the ingredients that are not only organic, but baby grade, the most challenging! It is not like buying from your local farm shop or supermarket! On the quantities we need, we actually have to plan around crops and pre-order tons in advance, and maintain the standards on quality.

I am very lucky to have an adventurous pallet, from a very early age my parents instilled in my sister and I, that you had to taste something at least once before you could say you didn’t like it, no matter what it looked like! More often than not, we did like! Do you have any such philosophies with your children?

All best laid plans and all that! All my children were the best eaters as babies and toddlers, and as soon as they turned into children, ie around 5 plus, they rejected most of the foods they once loved. My son is the worst (now 15) and will only eat one dimensional foods, though both my daughters are more adventurous. My youngest daughter is the most daring, and still pops olives into her mouth, and will give most things a go!

I love the Plum website, it’s so informative, interesting (I adore Fact of the Day!) and so well written. I really enjoyed the Plum Family biographies and couldn’t help noticing there are many mummy and daddy Plums in your team! Is this a happy coincidence or was it important to you to have family-orientated people working with you?

Both really. I think this brand and business is more likely to attract and appeal to those who have a natural understanding of the world of babies. For those likeminded folk, not only is working at Plum an opportunity to learn about fast growing, entrepreneurial business, but also premium ‘challenger brands’ and their effect in the market place. The excitement of the brand is infectious, and we are so lucky being in such a positive situation to attract great people.

The Advice & Tips and the Plum Mum Pages are a pleasure to read, even for non-mums! What sort of feedback have you received? Have you considered creating a forum for Plum mums?

Funny you should say that. Yes. We want to have a forum to discuss all matters that surround the concerns that conscious parents have these days on subjects around organic, green issues (ie. Packaging, the environment etc) and even jobs etc.

Another very important part of motherhood is the bit leading up to it - pregnancy. Nutrition is of vast importance during this time and I have read that you yourself maintained an organic diet during your pregnancy with Francesca. How important do you feel it is, to eat organic during pregnancy?

HUGELY important. So much so that I want to bring out a range of nutritional foods to support pregnancy and post birth! Watch this space.

Many of my friends have also chosen an organic diet after finding out they were pregnant but they still worry about what they can and can’t eat, there seem to be so many ‘rules’. Do you feel there is scope to include some Mother-to-be recipes and nutritional advice in the near future?

I think there are plenty of people out there ‘preaching’ about what to do or what not to do. I am afraid that I am not one of those preachers, but the old fashioned type who would recommend that you do not need a book to tell you how to behave/eat/act during pregnancy, but to trust your instinct, ask your mum or granny! I fear we are all rather over-nannied and it goes against my principles to suggest that an instruction manual is needed on what should be the most natural, instinctive things in the world!

Finally, Plum has had a very exciting childhood and the range of products continues to grow with your latest release of nourishing and flavoursome porridges. What are your Plum plans for the future?

To hold the hands of our Plum babies as they grown into toddlers and young children. To offer them natural, wholesome foods that are in no way a compromise and can assist in relieving some of this dreaded guilt that we are all pressed into feeling these days!

Plum developed the first range of baby food based entirely on certified organic superfood ingredients, like the mother grain ‘Quinoa’. The company always source fairly traded ingredients wherever possible. Their inspired recipes have breathed new life into the baby food market in the UK; with their use of premium ingredients and adventurous recipes Plum have since become the fastest growing baby food company in the country.

Roasted Seasonal Root Vegetables with Olive Oil and Parmesan

1 x Sweet Potato
2 x Carrots
2 x Parsnip
Or indeed anything that you can buy that it fresh out of the ground this time of year!
1 tablespoon of Olive Oil
Sprinkle of finely grated Parmesan Cheese

Set oven to gas mark 5 / 190 C / 375 F and chop the sweet potato, carrots and parsnips into cubes, leaving the skins on. Roast in olive oil in a roasting tin for about 45 minutes. Do not season.

When all the veg are baked soft, remove from the oil and when cooled, pulse until you get a smooth puree. Add good sprinkle of finely grated Parmesan cheese and serve.

Note - If you find it is a little too dry, and smidge more olive oil.

Enough to feed 2 baby sized lunches or 1 big babies dinner
Suitable for 7 months plus

Broccoli with Spinach and Garlic

1 x Garlic Bulb
3 or 4 x Sprigs of Broccoli
2 handfuls of Spinach leave

I always recommend that you always have a cold, roasted garlic bulb to hand. Then you can scoop out as much of the soft flesh as and when you need it. To do this, wrap a whole garlic bulb in foil, and bake until you can easily squeeze out the soft pulp. Put aside a small teaspoon for this recipe.

Find the freshest broccoli by checking how firm the stem is (i.e. if it is bendy, it is not fresh). Gently steam for around 5 minutes - when you can easily put a sharp knife into the stem, it is cooked. Use the juice from the pan to enable you to puree/blend the broccoli to a soft and smooth consistency. Steam the spinach leaves until they start to soften, this should take about 3 – 4 minutes. Again, blitz until smooth. Add to the broccoli and garlic.

This should be enough to fill one growing baby for dinner.
Suitable for 4 months plus

I’ll be featuring more delicious recipes from Susie and Plum Baby in the coming weeks.

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