Mother Butter: The Most Local Seed Butter you can buy
If you’ve ever added flax to your smoothie, you probably did it for the health benefits alone. But there’s another reason to love flax. It’s a local food. “When flax seeds are fresh from the farm, they have the most delicious flavor and aroma—I can smell them a mile away,” says Kristin Dudley, founder of Mother Butter.
She would know. Every few months, Dudley visits Beaver Farm in Phoenixville, where Andreas Shad, the farmer, hands off hundreds of pounds of just-harvested flax seeds. Dudley uses them to make Original and Chocolate Mother Butter in small batches. But they aren’t the only seeds in the jars—the flax is combined with pumpkin, sunflower, and sesame seeds to make an unusually complex butter. Unlike most other seed butters, you can smell Mother Butter’s freshness the moment you open the jar.
The reason for Mother Butter’s partnership with this local farm runs deeper than a pursuit of fresh flavor. Long before she founded Mother Butter, sustainability became an essential value for Dudley. She studied sustainability in graduate school and worked on sustainability projects earlier in her career. But when she heard Judy Wicks, local food movement pioneer and founder of White Dog Cafe, speak on the subject at an event, Dudley knew that buying local ingredients would be a priority for Mother Butter.
“Judy talked about her experiences working with local farms and how satisfying and important that was. But she brought up something else: The idea that buying your ingredients locally keeps money in your community. That benefits us all. I’m a lifelong Philadelphian and so passionate about our area. It just makes sense to me,” says Dudley.
Though she was firmly committed to sourcing as many local ingredients as possible, it proved more complicated than you might think. “It’s pretty difficult to find farmers harvesting edible seeds. I learned that flax and pumpkin seeds can be grown and harvested in this region, and I started searching,” she recalls.
Eventually, Dudley was led to Beaver Farm, a part of the Camphill School, which offers a transition work-study program for young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. “I was so excited when I heard they were harvesting flax seeds, and they weren’t for animal feed or making linens!” says Dudley. Her visit to the property sealed the deal. “Knowing that we’re supporting the Camphill School with our purchasing makes this all the more important.”
Not all of Mother Butter’s seeds are grown in this area, but Dudley is optimistic she’ll find a local farm harvesting high-quality pumpkin seeds, bringing her even more in line with goals for local sourcing. Until then, her other organic seeds are sourced through a beloved local business, Nuts to You. It would probably be cheaper to use another supplier, but the idea of investing in our community is always a factor in her business decisions.
Dudley imagines taking Mother Butter national. But for now, she’s focused on growing the market for her nutrient-rich, allergy-friendly seed butter here in the Philadelphia region. “Serving our community and planting seeds of health here is most important to me,” Dudley says. To learn more, visit mother-butter.com.
