Alison Conklin Photography
Jessica Young
Founder & CEO, Bubble Goods | bubblegoods.com
Bubble Goods brings together foodstuffs from small producers pursuing their passion around the country to one online marketplace favoring few ingredients with no preservatives or refined sugar. Founder and CEO Jessica Young explains how to borrow Bubble Goods’ simple yet stringent standards to hone your own shopping habits.
The Bubble Goods Experience
Bubble Goods is committed to offering only the best products, and their rigorous standards reflect this dedication. Every product is subject to a vetting process, including full food-safety certification and strict scrutiny of ingredients. Home kitchen brands are a no- go, ensuring everything is professionally produced and safe. Very importantly, weekly taste tests are held in Bubble Goods’ New York City office to make sure the flavor factor is up to snuff.
“We’ve vetted all the products on Bubble Goods,” Young says, “but you can choose your own adventure with tons of filters.” Sensitive to the specific needs of the modern consumer, Bubble Goods gives the option to save a profile set to auto-immune protocol (AIP), or vegan and gluten-free, etc., so that your options will be tailored to your needs.
Customer curiosity and brand referrals generate new discoveries added to the roster all the time, like pet products full of natural ingredients. Occasionally, Bubble Goods pursues a special brand, like the cheesemaker peddling her wares at Bethlehem’s Christkindlmarkt who stood out on Young’s visit. Now Keystone Farms’ world-class cheese is up on Bubble Goods, and shoppers are introduced to yet another delightful, high-quality food.
Select Your Shops
Young’s first tip: bypass the big-box stores. “Shop locally,” she says, “or from an individual brand for specific needs like recycled bamboo toilet paper.” The idea is to put a real place or person behind the product, ideally a product with some ethical initiative.
So many makers are now becoming my friends in real life.
“Do you know where your food is coming from?” Young asks. Walk down to your local farmers market and you’ll likely be able to ask growers face-to-face. This serves so much more than the nutritional content and freshness of our meals. “So many makers are now becoming my friends in real life,” Young says. The sense of community and local infusion of your dollars has rippling health benefits for all involved, and supports better food systems.
Find a farm stand and you can know that the produce in front of you wasn’t shipped hundreds of miles, artificially ripened and stacked in a warehouse for weeks. And processed foods are not necessarily an enemy. A slathering of almond butter, a crispy Parmesan pork rind or a mango-chili chocolate bar all have a place in the healthy diet, and whether at your neighborhood farmers market or on Bubble Goods’ curated marketplace, you can get your little
treats from small-batch makers with honest ingredients.
What and When
“What we do at Bubble Goods,” Young says, “reading ingredients, everyone should be doing on their own.” The word “bubble” in the company’s name represents transparency: in who makes the food, where it comes from and what’s in it. To eat healthy and shop responsibly requires taking the time to gather this information, and it starts with reading labels. “Ideally, there shouldn’t be more than 10 ingredients,” she says. “It should be things you can pronounce, or that your grandma could pronounce.”
In addition to the who/what/where, there’s also the when. What’s in season. “You shouldn’t be eating strawberries now,” Young says. Fresh strawberries, that is. And why would you want the pale and flavorless mold-magnets shipped into grocery stores? “In the freezer section the fruits are much more in season and nutritionally dense,” she advises. Frozen fruits and vegetables shouldn’t be overlooked, as they’re picked when ripe and retain virtually the same nutrients as fresh.
Even major grocery chains can stock local items. Young recommends you take a peek at the dairy section, where an Ohio-based butter company, Minerva Dairy, sells its amazingly flavorful butter rolls in some Valley stores.
In Favor of Freezing
“I’m a big proponent of the home freezer as well,” she says, moving from the matter of shopping to the territory of meal prep. Following a sense of seasonality can lead to better nutrition and food habits, and with the power of the freezer, we can set ourselves up for smoothies and other fare crammed with local fruit and greens all year long.
As erstwhile head of product and operations at Daily Harvest, a frozen meal delivery service, Young knows a multitude of healthy, nourishing dishes can persist perfectly in cold storage. Follow Bubble Goods’ people-first, eco-conscious selection standards and, in no time, you’ll have a network of friendly local sources for wholesome and fulfilling food you can squirrel away for the depths of winter.
Published as “Ask the Expert” in the October 2024 edition of Lehigh Valley Style magazine.
