CALDWELL — You've undoubtedly heard the phrase, out of the mouth of babes.
Well, if an 8th grader qualifies as a babe, then a local family's daughter gets all the credit for launching an idea that is experiencing booming success.
Fireside Mallow Co. produces handcrafted, organic, gourmet marshmallows.
Believe me, they're not the marshmallows you grew up with, as people in Idaho and across the country are now discovering.
Welcome inside Fireside Marshmallows. These are delicious. I will just tell you that you will never look at marshmallows the same after visiting with Grace, Russ and Stacey Nelson the developers of Fireside Marshmallows.
They're delicious, they're amazing, they're craft, they're handmade.
So where did you come up with this? I've never seen anything like this except from you guys. Grace, where did the idea come from?
“It was after my eighth-grade graduation, me and my friends were out at our fire pit roasting marshmallows and like out of now where I just came up with this idea to do like a s'mores store. So I came inside and told my parents and...”
And they said yeah!
“Pretty much!” replied Grace. “Most of the time like I come up with crazy ideas all the time and they just kind of ignore them, and they, we just kind of ran with it after that.”
So this one stuck. Yea.
So mom, Stacey what was it that stuck with this idea that your eighth grader came in with?
“We just thought it was a fabulous idea because there was nothing else out there like it,” said Stacey. ”I had never heard of anything else out there like it, so after research looking for gourmet marshmallows for our gourmet store, there was none. So Grace and I decided to make marshmallows. We did some research, found recipes and took about a year to master our marshmallow.”
It's not easy, is it?
“No, no. Nothing's easy. No, it wasn't.”
And then I understand you decided to start a catering business because s'mores are such a big thing right now, is kind of what really got you started?
“It was, it was. We did weddings, corporate, graduation parties,” said Stacey.
And it was a big hit?
“It was, it was a big hit. But then people started asking us, 'Where can I buy your marshmallows?' And we had never thought about that before,” said Stacey.
And moving from the kitchen and catering with their hand-crafted products to selling and distributing them retail involved a world of business knowledge they knew they didn't have. But fortunately the Nelsons heard about Boise State's Business Development Center and they were accepted for a program that provided not only know how but a mentor who guided them through an explosion of growth. Their small storefront in Caldwell is just the tip of the iceberg for this family now selling and finding devoted customers nationwide.
Would you have ever dreamed when Grace came in with this idea when she was in the eighth grade that you would be here today?
“Not at all, no idea, couldn't imagine it, I didn't,” said Russ. “When they first brought it up stayed right on the couch and didn't pay any attention to it.”
Alright, but are you glad? Has it been quite an adventure for your family?
“It has. We've grown as a family,” replied Russ. ‘And as it's grown, the kids are starting to see that this definitely has more possibilities than it did three years ago.”