Gaia's Pantry: Clarinets, Java Jive, and a Family Recipe
- Zest Food Hub
- Mar 26
- 2 min read
Originally from Edmonton, Jo McDermott and her spouse moved to Salmon Arm in 2009, looking to get away from the big city to start their family. On their relocation list was Salmon Arm and Vancouver Island, they ended up choosing former for being half way between Alberta and the Coast, where both their families reside.
With musical training completed in Colorado, McDermott quickly established herself as a clarinet and piano instructor and a part time employee at a local coffee shop called Java Jive which she later purchased and owned for some time.
After a brief hiatus from the demands of owning a busy coffee shop, she longed to return to the food business in a different way, securing more flexibility and creativity and Gaia’s Pantry was born. Gaia is the goddess of mother earth and McDermott’s offers real food made from real ingredients providing simple, healthy and nourishing products customers can feel good about eating.
It all started in her kitchen in 2022. Using a family recipe for granola, one she relied upon to fight morning sickness when expecting her daughter, she set up at the local farmers’ market. Based on the early success, new granola flavours and a line of hot cereals were added. In speaking with her customers, she developed gluten free versions, a niche so important for her customers that she now works in a wheat free kitchen and uses only natural sweeteners.
Gaia's Pantry soon outgrew the family kitchen and by kismet, she says, an opportunity arose at Zest Commercial Food Hub. With second hand and repurposed kitchen equipment, and plenty of room for the dozens of ingredients, she was able to grow the business in a sustainable and supportive way, noting the camaraderie of the group of tenants she works with at Zest.
“We all share the same challenges as we work to find the right balance between meeting the needs of our family and those of our business.”
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The appetite for her product line was bigger than she originally expected, and now she regularly fills online orders from afar. She now provides products for the school district’s Feeding Futures food program, is starting to sell into coffee shops, and is developing her wholesale market.
“My daughter often helps out at the market and is proud to tell our customers that you can pronounce every ingredient in our products, unlike what you might find on a typical box of cereal. She’s learning real life skills, like math and customer service and I’m so pleased to be able to provide that opportunity for her here. Salmon Arm has most everything we need, and what we might not have access to here, we can easily get nearby.”
“We are accountable to each other" she says, and through Gaia’s Pantry she is living that accountability to her customers, to her community, and most important of all, to her family.
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