As We Turn “2”, We Share Pinwheel Provisions' Origin Story…

We’re asked all the time, “Where did the idea for Pinwheel Provisions come from?” or “How did you think of the concept?” The idea of a local community market focused on flash-frozen produce and ready meals, and local, artisan accompaniments to them, seems very novel to people when they first discover us. So, as we proudly celebrate our 2nd anniversary in Narberth this week, I wanted to share the journey that led to Pinwheel’s “birth”…

I come from a food-obsessed family. While we all have different interests, personalities, and priorities, food was always the place of convergence: my family is made up of individuals united by blood and food. Through college, grad school and my corporate career, I was always preoccupied with food: a great restaurant meal; a new flavor; what to provide your body that makes it feel happy, instead of lethargic, unhealthy or oversaturated. Eating well was definitely my passion. But it also became my mission once I became a working parent. At that point my focus expanded from “good meals” to “good, healthy, safe meals made fast & easy.” But in exploring convenience meal options, I found my choices were limited and pretty unsatisfactory: highly processed prepared foods from grocery stores; takeout, of dubious nutritional value; and home-delivered meal kits, which were expensive, involved tons of wasteful packaging, didn’t supply great-quality ingredients, and still required a good amount of time & effort to turn into an actual meal. What to do?

An avid traveller, I always look to see how people in other countries respond to the same challenges we have (in this case: getting nourishing meals on the table while working and managing other household priorities.) Takeout and home delivery services are a uniquely American phenomenon; mealkits haven’t generated interest in other countries; and while high quality prepared foods are available, they’re expensive and most household don’t purchase them often. So I wanted to understand what other options there are for busy people outside the US who want to feed their households home-style, nutritious food when they don’t have the time to cook them.

The revelation for me was how much Europeans appreciated and relied on flash-frozen produce and dishes as the mainstay of the household meal. Throughout the UK, Ireland, Scandinavia and continental Europe you can find markets dedicated exclusively to frozen meal components. You can pick up farm-frozen “scoop-your-own” produce at independent markets just about everywhere, which encourage customers to bring their own reusable containers to cut down on single-use plastics. Large food retail chains like Picard (France), Cook Shop (UK & Ireland), M&S Simply Food (Europe-wide), that sell only high quality frozen entrees, side dishes and desserts, are wildly popular. Europeans embrace not just the convenience of frozen food, they recognized quite a while ago its nutritional superiority to the weeks-old produce being sold as “fresh” in their grocery chains, and valued the fact that frozen food never went bad and would rarely go to waste. Frozen food has been the area of greatest growth in retail food sales in France and the UK for well over a decade and Parisians, in particular, are obsessed with throwing dinner parties composed only of their favorite frozen Picard dishes. Go figure!

Images of flash-frozen “scoop your own” produce and pastries, and frozen ready dishes from markets in the UK, France, Sweden, Spain and Ireland.

But it was genius! Having produce on hand in your freezer that never went bad and could be tossed from the freezer directly into the skillet, oven, microwave, etc., with no thawing, washing, chopping, or cleanup made it so much easier to incorporate fruits and veggies into one’s regular diet. And flash freezing, which maintained the at-harvest flavor, texture and nutrients of produce, was a far cry from the clumped together, flavorless, colorless, conventionally frozen produce in our grocery freezer aisles. In addition, European frozen dishes had no resemblance to our mass-produced “TV dinners,” but were full of flavor and nutrients, with options for every dietary restriction, and went from the microwave to the table in minutes; they were a godsend. Nutritious, economical, sustainable, locally produced, convenient & delicious. Why didn’t we have this stuff available at home?

Pinwheel Provisions was my attempt to make the amazing convenience and nutritional and environmental benefits of the frozen products that are so commonplace in other countries available locally. And we are so grateful for the warm reception and loyalty the concept has received! While we started as a tiny popup in Kennett Square as a test pilot in 2019, Narberth was always the community we all had in mind for the “real thing.” So on Feb. 29, 2020, a leap year date that only occurs every 4 years and a mere 2 weeks before the PA Covid shutdown, we “took the leap” and launched Pinwheel in Narberth, in our tiny “temporary” space as a 3-month proof of concept. While we couldn’t possibly have imagined the turn of events that took place 2 weeks later with Covid, or that we’d still be in in our “starter space” 2 years later because of it, we are thrilled to still be here and excited to be exploring near-term larger space options in our beloved Narberth.

From 2019 to today…

Thank you for your support of Pinwheel and for sharing your enthusiasm with your friends and family. We would not still be around without it. And while we’re not looking to rival the flash-frozen European retail giants just yet, we do hope to continue to provide you products that help you land the kind of meals on your table that you’d make yourself, given the time & resources. We are so fortunate to have a wonderful, dedicated staff that will always help guide you to “just what you need!” and we deeply value any feedback you’d like to share, positive or critical.

Please come and visit the shop on Sat. March 5 (10am-4pm) and Tues. March 8th (2pn -7pm) to celebrate our 2nd birthday with us! We want to share our celebration with all of you with a special free “thank you” gift for our visitors (no purchase required). And we look forward to celebrating birthday #3 in Narberth in 2023!

Warmly,