For 20 years, Fairweather Natural Foods has
stood the test of time. With a loyal client base, owner Jen Rattray has
made it through the slumps in between seasons, dry winters and incoming
competition. Her store remains in the same location on Ironhorse Drive
where it has always been, Rattray happily recommending herbal
supplements and tracking the latest in health trends, from vegan non-soy
dairy to gluten-free bread mixes.
"I think its amazing how
innovative this industry has become," Rattray said. "It's so cool that
people are figuring out how to make raw food shelf-stable and how in the
supplement industry there's been a big shift away from this
pharmaceutical, synthetic grade multivitamin to a more popular natural
food supplement, taking high-quality organic food and binding it with
vitamins and minerals, growing them in with the food."
Sitting on
the rows of food in the store, locally-sourced ingredients and
employee-owned businesses represent the modern health food movement, a
constantly evolving selection of what the health food industry has to
offer. Some of the brands are instantly recognizable, but other food
stuffs are rarer, the brands that could only be carried by small
businesses like Fairweather Natural Foods.
"We can offer the
community a selection of everything that you would need in a natural
food store," Rattray said. "You can shop bulk. Our produce is
exclusively organic. We have a pretty complete selection of supplements.
Everything in this store is guaranteed to be free of artificial
ingredients, everything is natural."
Before the plant-based,
health food brand Probar became what it is today, a nationally known
business selling in grocery stores across America, its first distributor
was Fairweather Natural Foods. Stories like this make up a small but
important part of what keeps her business alive, Rattray said.
Rattray
is originally from New Jersey, but she found a passion for healthy
living after getting a job after high school at a natural foods-themed
diner. Moving on the Boulder, Colo. for college, she threw herself into
the discipline. Rattray even spent a year studying herbal medicine in
California before she finally made the move to Park City.
Fairweather
Natural Foods offers a wide grocery selection, herbal supplements and
personal body-care products. In recent years, Rattray has grown the
other side of her business, a small café selling soups, salads and
sandwiches.
It's the kind of business where customers sick with
the flu call in asking for a natural food remedy. Rattray would pack a
bag of groceries or whatever they needed, setting the bag aside for a
friend on their way to pick up. She's made special soups and sandwiches,
recommended a natural treatment for this-or-that ailment, catering in a
way only a small business could.
"We have good service here," she
said. "You come in here and we know your name. As you become a regular,
you get that customized service that you won't necessarily get in a big
store. Because we're smaller, we can help people individually."
To
celebrate the 20-year anniversary, Fairweather is offering specials all
month long and on Saturday shoppers will receive a complimentary
grocery bag, samples and gifts from various natural food vendors. There
will also be an opportunity drawing for a special Fairweather Natural
Foods gift basket.
