Made in San Francisco

A Little Yumminess - San Francisco Bay Area
March 2, 2012

Creativity abounds in San Francisco, as local parents develop products and services that little ones will love and parents will be happy to buy for them. Here's just a shortlist of what's lovingly "Made in San Francisco" for families.

Tucked away in a quiet block of North Beach, Park and Pond is a super stylish shop that specializes entirely in locally made goods. When they say local, they mean local. All the items they stock are produced within 100 miles of San Francisco. You can find everything from whimsical art to jewelry, home decor and a great selection of kids' gifts. It's worth a detour off Columbus Avenue.

Park Life is the perfect place to browse and do a little kid-friendly gallery hopping in the Inner Richmond neighborhood, the store features artsy, modernist merch as well as small press publications (including their own Paper Museum Press imprint), and San Francisco-centric t-shirts and other goodies. Park Life's contemporary art gallery features 10 exhibits a year and is a perfect place to sneak in a little art during an excursion to Clement Street restaurants and shops.

Big Dipper Baby Foods located at 331 Cortland Avenue in the very cool Bernal Hill neighborhood sells fresh baby food and squeezed to order juices made from local and organic ingredients (pictured above!).  For busy parents, who want to give their little ones freshly, as good as home-made baby food this is the place to go.  They usually have unique combinations like poached pears with millet, whipped parsnips with apple and cardamom and liver/apple/carrot with caramelized onion.  For older kids, they have ready to go kids meals with dishes like chicken fried rice, calzones stuffed with roasted eggplant and Italian sausage and BBQ chicken with skillet potatoes.  This is fresh, delicious food and you will feel good about supporting the owner who is also a parent. In addition, to being able to buy from their adorable counter in the Cortland market, they deliver to residences and day care centers in SF.

"Living, playing, lawyer-ing, law-professor-ing, crafting and raising a family right here in the Haight, SF" is the motto of mom-owned business, Made in Haight. Since 2010 she has been creating delightful and unique jewelery, hair accessories and other crafts for children. The designs are creative and little (and big) girls love them. It's also a business you can feel good about supporting since a portion of the proceeds are donated to local charities and her materials are purchased from local, sustainable businesses as much as possible.

Little Passports is a San Francisco based company started by two moms who wanted to develop a fun and inspiring way for children to learn about the world.  When you sign up for Little Passports, you receive a starter kit which consists of a little suitcase, a passport, a world wall map.  In addition you get access to online games that the kids can play. It's a neat way to get your little ones interested in the world beyond our country starting a young age.  In addition, children love the thrill and excitement of getting something on the mail from their travelling pen-pals.  This makes a wonderful and unique birthday present that stretches the child's birthday out!

Stacie Dong and Simran Singh are the moms behind A Little Yumminess, a family food blog where they share spiced-up recipes and kid-friendly food adventures. You can also find them on Facebook.