How this vegetable farmer gets his kids to eat their veggies
As president of BoomVeg, I’m probably supposed to say that all the company’s best ideas are mine. But of course they’re not — not even close.
It was April, the BoomVeg maven of marketing, who first imagined a blend of veggie powders specifically for kids. It coincided with our desire to get people to eat their fruits and vegetables in creative, non-traditional ways. April was mixing up BoomVeg powders and using them all over her kitchen to sneak nutrition into foods her son was eating. She included a little BoomBeets powder in his smoothies (woohoo, bright pink!), a little BoomGreens powder in spaghetti sauce and as a rub on grilled chicken. The idea was to capitalize on the things he was already eating, to level up the nutrition without having to bend over backwards — without him even knowing.
Taste matters
When we started the formulation process for the BoomKids powder, we were diligent when it came to taste. Some veggie powders are stronger than others, and the last thing we wanted was for kids to make a YUCK face when tasting anything that’s Boomed, secretly or not. We elected to leave spinach powders out of the BoomKids blend because it’s a little more pungent than most. We chose beets, celery and kale instead, and the response has been really overwhelming.
To date, BoomKids is our best-selling powder blend since we launched it back in June. Parents are texting, emailing, and commenting on Instagram saying they never thought their kid would eat beets and kale. Even if the kids have no idea they’re eating beets and kale, I consider it a big win. Comments and compliments aren’t all the validation I need, but they’re validation enough to show we’re on the right track with these powders.
Some parents have asked why we don’t include raspberries, strawberries, or other fruit into our organic veggie powders. I tell them I don’t know anyone who struggles to get their kids to eat berries or fruit. Instead of adding fruit, we considered our BoomKids! blend an extension of the belief that our nutritional veggie powders have a fit for everybody. We knew kids wouldn’t ask for kale, beets, and celery, so we had to find a way to empower parents to give it to them. The solutions were BoomKids! and a tiny bit of parental fibbery. Because masking ingredients in familiar foods is a classic way to get kids to try new things, right?
Top secret BOOM!
Honestly, my kids can’t tell when I’ve Boomed their food. They know what I do for work, though, and they know I’ve definitely Boomed them at some point in the past. It’s become a point of pride for me that they watch to see if I’ve Boomed their stuff. It wasn’t my intention to put them on high alert, but it is entertaining nonetheless.
So, in case you missed it, we at BoomVeg feed our powders to our own kids, albeit sneakily. I love adding vitamin A, vitamin K, magnesium and zinc to their diet, as well as trace minerals in leafy greens and root vegetables that help support developmental growth and a healthy immune system. They are free of excipients and gross fillers. With two whole servings of veggies per stick pack, BoomKids powders are the purest expression of the field. In other words, if you’ve ever seen beets, kale and celery, you’ve seen exactly what’s in these powders. Nothing more, nothing less.
With the crazy-positive response we’ve seen from parents for BoomKids, we look forward to blending up BoomKids 2.0, which will offer more root vegetables like purple carrots and rainbow chard. My intention is to tweak these blends at every harvest to improve nutritional density and flavor. Have any ideas for our next round? I’m always happy to hear from you.
Until then, eat your veggies...and Boom on.