SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT (publ. 6/3/21/2015, pg. A4)
A story about a Los Gatos 12-year-old entrepreneur who makes peanut butter incorrectly stated where she plans to donate a percentage of her profits. She plans to donate to the Crohn’s Foundation.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the foundation to which a percentage of proceeds will be donated. This is the corrected version.
Most people think there are two types of peanut butter: smooth and chunky. But a young entrepreneur is taking the peanut butter world by storm with flavored nut butters that she makes at home and sells locally as “Bella’s Nutty Butter.”
You can buy jars of the gooey good stuff at Billy’s Boston Chowder House in Los Gatos and at the Los Gatos Coffee Roasting Company. The Roasting Company also sells crepes and bagels filled with Bella’s Nutty Butter.
The brains behind this phenomenon are 12-year-old Isabella Taroni and her mother, Kristina, who lives in San Jose’s Cambrian neighborhood.
They obtained a cottage food license that allows them to make the all-natural organic nut butters at home and sell them to the public.
“Two years ago my mom was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, and one of her friends gave her some homemade peanut butter,” Isabella said. “I ate it in two days.”
Two other things came into play: Isabella started getting acne and quit eating fatty foods, and she wanted an allowance.
“She wanted me to pay her to walk her dog and make her bed,” Kristina said. “I told her to figure something else out.”
The answer turned out to be nut butters, which the mother-daughter duo started making last December.
“I started trying out flavors and giving them away to friends,” Isabella said.
Kristina added, “Pretty soon we had 20 orders.”
Nowadays, Kristina fulfills as many as 30 or 40 orders during the week while Isabella attends seventh grade at San Jose’s Stratford Middle School.
On weekends, the mini business moves into full swing, when Isabella has time to man the food processor. The peanuts go in first, then extra flavors.
One of the most popular flavors is her gingersnap peanut butter. “Kids really like to eat the gingersnap-flavored butter with apples,” Isabella said.
Another best-seller is a peanut-cashew-banana combination. Still other concoctions feature peanuts mixed with almonds, espresso beans or figs. Some have protein upgrades, and flax and chia seeds.
The nut butters do not have any preservatives, and most are gluten free.
After expenses, the income Isabella derives from selling her nut butters is donated to the Crohn’s Foundation.
Visit bellasnuttybutter.com.
