Always be churning is the motto that Kristin Dudley has adopted a year into her seed butter business.
Dubbed Mother Butter, the brand, fittingly, made its debut on Mother’s Day weekend in 2021. And like its name, a big part of its focus is on mothers and mothers-to-be.
She co-founded LympheDivas, a medical compression garment company, while finishing her undergraduate studies at Drexel University and later worked at Comcast in talent brand and attraction, during which time she earned her master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania. After putting her career first, by the time Dudley and her husband were ready to start a family she was in her mid-30s and they discovered it’s not quite as simple as they thought.
Healthy couples’ chances of conception drop from about 25% per menstrual cycle in their 20s and early 30s to just 10% by the age of 40, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Dudley’s friends had taken similar career-focused paths and it got her wondering if there was a way to support a woman’s hormonal system.
While data remains limited on how diet can impact a woman’s reproductive health, Dudley discovered one study linking a Mediterranean diet to positive impacts. A 2018 study published in the NlH Library of Medicine also suggests diets “high in unsaturated fats, whole grains, vegetables, and fish have been associated with improved fertility in both women and men.”
In her research, “something that I had discovered was the power of seeds – pumpkin, sunflower, flax, and sesame specifically. And the thing about seeds, they are incredibly rich in nutrients, but you don't reap their nutritional benefits unless they're ground,” Dudley said.
Armed with that knowledge, Dudley began thinking up ways to create a snack food that would harness the power of those seeds. Having grown up in Delaware County with folks who loved the convenience of Wawa, that weighed heavily on her and so she decided she didn’t want a supplement or anything fussy.
She took her cursory idea to the Drexel Food Lab where she worked with Jonathan Deutsche, the lab’s director, to put together a 12-week research and development study. They created about 50 snack concepts, many using a seed butter. Because it was in so many things, Dudley began referring to it as “the mother,” much the way in French cuisine five sauces are referred to as the mother sauces because they are the bases of many others.
Dudley wasn’t initially in favor of a seed butter, but listened to the results of their survey group of 200 women. “When we asked them, what do you like to snack on, a lot of women mentioned peanut butter,” she said.
At their final focus group, they ended up putting out the seed butter on its own to see how the group reacted. It was a hit and Dudley had a direction to pursue.
The original Mother Butter debuted last May. Dudley describes it as “sweet and salty,” with a similar mouthfeel to peanut butter.
Since launching, Dudley has introduced a chocolate flavored butter, but the original remains a best seller. She’s also recently begun a foray into candy products, having introduced the Mother Butter Cup, which she likens to a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. For now, it is exclusively available for in-person sales, but Dudley expects candy endeavors to grow in the coming years. Mother Butter products are available online in local independent retailers like Riverwards Produce and Hermann's Coffee in Philadelphia and Good Beet in Westmont, New Jersey.
The products are gluten-free since Dudley has celiac disease. They are also vegan and nut-free and remaining nut-free will remain a part of the brand, Dudley said. The original flavor comes in 4-, 8- and 16-ounce jars, which start at $8 and go up to $18.
Sales come from all over the U.S., but remain concentrated locally. “I really like this opportunity to grow deep here in Philly – that is my goal,” Dudley said, noting she's bootsrapped the business.
Based out of the kitchen at the Old Pine Community Center in the Society Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia, all of Mother Butter’s products are handmade in small batches and Dudley doesn’t foresee pursuing a co-packer.
Instead of focusing on wholesale partnerships with large retailers, she wants to remain rooted in the region. That might include one day opening what she calls “a factory store where people can see the butter being made, really creating an experience," she said. "I think we're going to go down an untraditional path."
How are customers eating Mother Butter?
I always get folks sharing that they're eating it with bananas or with apples. Otherwise a lot of people love it in their oatmeal. Our original recipe, we use a little bit of coconut sugar, which is almost like a brown sugar, so I think that it just pairs really nicely in oatmeal. I also have plenty of customers who share that they simply eat it off the spoon. Originally that's actually how I imagined selling it and marketing it but people do want recipes. Two scoops, which is our serving size, gets your recommended daily value of Omega-3 [fatty acids] alongside all the other little micronutrients that are in there and a good amount of protein.
How are you creating a "parent-friendly" work model at Mother Butter?
It's something that I am going to continue to have to test and research and realize how we can work differently with time, but as of right now, what I do is I offer super flexibility. What that means is that I'm currently not asking anyone to commit to a certain time or day. I have a flexible working schedule so people can sign up on the calendar and opt in to take a spot in either our kitchen or our warehouse. They're very short shifts, about two to four hours. … Creating more of an opt-in working program is certainly new, but I don't think it's an impossible thing to do. I've had a lot of mothers who have left their jobs, they might consider themselves stay-at-home moms, but they want to get out and do something.
