Well Baskets—

Good Eats For Good Health

By Kaaren Valenta

After Tamara Doherty’s father-in-law had a heart attack, he complained about all the food that the doctors told him he should not eat.

“He’d say “I can’t eat this, and I can’t eat that’ but no one told him what he should be eating,” Ms Doherty said. “I started to think about it and realized that a positive approach was needed.”

The result was a business called Well Baskets, which Ms Doherty started from her home on Turkey Hill Road. “Well Baskets: The doctor is in the basket” provides gift baskets centered on health and wellness. The company has a website, www.wellbaskets.com, and ships nationally.

“I’ve always been interested in nutrition and in food as medicine,” Ms Doherty said. “I believe in the power of healthy food to help prevent disease, maintain good health, and manage the symptoms of ailments.

“I like to focus on what you should and can do to help yourself, rather than what you shouldn’t or can’t do. The approach is always positive.”

The gift baskets provide an alternative to flowers, fruit baskets, and candy, for any occasion.

“The baskets are full of natural foods and products designed to educate, promote wellness, provide symptomatic relief, and celebrate occasions in a healthy way,” Ms Doherty said. “I did a lot of medical research to create baskets that focus on specific health issues.”

Basket prices range from $12.99 for a “healthy snackers” basket to more than $100 for a super deluxe heart health basket, and all can be customized to suit a customer’s preferences. There are baskets for men’s, women’s, and children’s health; athlete’s health; cancer fighting; relaxation; allergy relief, cold/flu, pain relief, and heart health; baskets for new moms and babies, and healthy baskets for birthdays, baby showers, holidays, thank you gifts, housewarming gifts, and congratulations.

“I can customize a basket for a specific health issue or any occasion,” Ms Doherty said. “I ship by UPS — nothing in the basket is perishable — and will hand-deliver within Fairfield County.”

Well Baskets was launched in May, nearly eight months after she started to put together a business plan.

“The business plan probably was the most difficult part,” she said. “It was a big proposal. I took it to Newtown Savings Bank and they were very nice, and approved it.”

To hold the inventory she would need for the gift baskets, Ms Doherty called on her husband, Shannon, who converted their garage to a warehouse with shelves and worktables. Her parents, Joy and Ed Knapp, moved from Norwalk to Newtown in time for Mrs Knapp to help her daughter with her new business. Tamara Doherty’s brother, Jason Restuccia, who lives in Illinois, helped design the company website.

“This is kind of a family business,” Ms Doherty said, laughing. “Even our daughter Tegan, who is 5, gets involved. She really likes the children’s baskets.”

The Dohertys, who also have a son, Eamon, almost 2, met as students at Western Connecticut State University, where Tamara earned a bachelor’s degree in English and Shannon earned a bachelor’s and a master’s in history.

“We got married right after graduation,” Ms Doherty said. “I worked for awhile selling insurance, until our daughter was born, then I started working from home as a website manager for a toy company.”

Setting up her new business was a little daunting at first.

“Every time something new would come up, I’d say ‘how am I going to do this’ but I just kept moving ahead and worked through it,” she said. “There were a few days when I woke up and said, ‘I must be insane,’ but eventually everything worked out.”

She began taking the well baskets to places like road races, where health-oriented people tended to be, and to donate baskets as raffle prizes at events where they would be noticed.

Decorated with dried and silk flowers, wrapped in clear cellophane, the baskets made a positive statement. Each contains a book or gift product for healthy living, as well as a selection of natural foods.

For example, a get well basket, $29, includes honey sticks, green tea, dark chocolate, dried apricots, an almond and raisin snack mix, roasted red pepper and tomato soup, pita chips, a health mix snack, and fruit leather in a handmade basket.

“These goodies have been chosen specifically for their ability to boost immune system functioning, giving the body more power to fight illness,” Ms Doherty said. “Apricots contain impressive amounts of beta carotene. Vitamins E and C have immune-boosting properties and foods like almonds and red pepper are rich in them.”

The healthy dieter basket, $49.95, features steelcut oatmeal, creamy broccoli soup, Rocamojo coffee, smoked salmon, bean or lentil soup mix, green tea, roasted nuts, pita chips, and a food guide for weight loss.

“Rocamojo coffee is made with certified organic soybeans and is a delicious way to enjoy the health benefits of soy,” Ms Doherty said. “Rocamojo is available as a pure roasted soybean coffee or in a 50-50 blend of roasted soy and certified organic coffee.”

Ms Doherty points out that the healthy dieter basket does not contain sugar-free, low-fat, diet products. “The foods [in the basket] are real foods that have the capacity to speed up your metabolism naturally,” she said. “Foods such as oatmeal and beans are good sources of fiber and complex carbohydrates.”

The children’s basket features healthy snacks, a children’s cookbook, and a “Five a Day, the Color Way” magnet that helps keep track of the amount of healthy fruits and vegetables that a child eats.

Healthy heart baskets are the most popular basket, Ms Doherty said, and incorporate foods like blueberries, salmon, and dark chocolate, all of which nutritionists are promoting as good for your health. The $49 basket includes trail mix, dark chocolate, smoked salmon, no salt-added pasta sauce, whole wheat pasta, lentil or bean soup mix, green tea, unsalted melba toast, dried blueberries, and a recommended food guide for heart health. A deluxe basket features additional foods plus the book Cholesterol Cures or the Phytopia Cookbook or a Healthy Heart CD.

“The books and CDs provide a lot of information,” Ms Doherty said. “I think a lot of people want to eat better but they don’t know how to. The baskets help. I think it gives people a positive approach. It gives them some control. Since I don’t have a family history of health problems, I look at prevention.

“I find it exciting to think that you can do all that with food — especially when chocolate is involved.”

For more information about Well Baskets, call 364-8618 or visit the website www.wellbaskets.com.