For readers who aren’t familiar with your products, can you please tell us a bit about At One Foods?
We make a range of all-natural snack bars and balls. They’re made from dried fruits, raw nuts and seeds only, so they’re gluten-free, raw, vegan and paleo friendly as well. We don’t add any sugar as the natural fruit sugars are sweet enough. We also focus on including superfood ingredients to really supercharge the nutrition of the products – things like chia seeds, raw cacao, mesquite powder and incaberries.

What inspired you to launch At One Foods?
Both my husband Andrew and I are passionate about good food. After living in London and Hong Kong for close to 13 years, we embarked on one last big holiday in Europe before returning to Australia at the end of 2011. We’d been part of the corporate whirl in these big cities, but after all of that we made a lifestyle decision to slow down and change directions. We planned to do our own thing and wanted to pursue our passion, so it made sense that it was in food. Both Andrew and I are good home cooks, but we’re no chefs, and with three young kids we didn’t fancy running a restaurant or cafe. The idea to develop snack foods stemmed from Andrew competing in the Marathon des Sables, which is a 250 km self-sufficiency running race in the Sahara desert. After eating dehydrated foods and heavily processed sports snacks for a week during this race, we came up with the idea of developing all-natural, additive-free snack foods.

What’s been the greatest challenge so far?
Taking the business from a small boutique to something bigger and engaging with service providers that are used to working with major supermarkets – at first they don’t think you’re serious and won’t give you the time of day. And once you finally open that door, they want you to just slot into the same old practices that everyone follows. But we want to be different, we don’t want to be just another profit-driven brand on the supermarket shelf.

And what’s been the greatest reward?
To see happy customers returning each Wednesday to see us at the Jan Power’s Farmers Markets – Queen Street.

2014 is set to be a big year for At One Foods … can you let our readers in on the plans?
We’ve just launched a crowd-funding campaign through Pozible. We recognise that there’s unsatisfied demand out there for nutritious and tasty snack foods that aren’t full of additives, so we’re looking for people who believe in natural products like ours to help us take the next step of getting some of our products packaged and onto the shelves of high-quality retailers. We’re also planning to launch an online store so people all around Australia can enjoy our snacks.

What are your long-term goals for At One Foods?
We think we’re at the beginning of a natural food revolution and we want to be a big part of this change, helping people across Australia and the world eat high-quality, nutritious foods. This has been a dream of ours for a long time. To see our products out there and the excitement that people have when they eat our snacks is so exciting.

You also have three young children; how do you balance your business and family commitments?
I personally find this one of the hardest tasks. I’m learning time management daily, as I was used to full-time domestic help for nine years living in Hong Kong, so lowering my standards and realising I’m not ‘superwoman’ was a must. I make sure I attend as many kids’ activities as I can, as that’s the benefit of having your own business. I also dedicate some days to working in the office, which is at the bottom of our five-acre property as far away from the house as possible so I can separate house duties from work.

If you could encourage the public to try one new food product, what would you suggest?
Incaberries! They’re an ancient berry indigenous to the high-altitude tropical regions of South America. These concentrated bursts of flavour are incredible, offering an amazing sweet-sour taste that’s matched by no other fruit. As well as this, they have an incredible nutritional profile, with high levels of antioxidants and fibre, amongst many other things.

What are some other local small businesses that are doing great things?
There’s a new cafe in our Sunshine Coast suburb of Doonan called Sunspace Cafe. It’s incorporating a permaculture garden into its operation,which is a great idea not only for the fresh ingredients it provides, but also for the educational benefits to the customers. We also love Buchi Kombucha, which is made in Brisbane.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
When I was a little girl, my great grandmother gave me a plaque that reads, ‘It’s nice to be important but more important to be nice’. I’m about to pass it on to our eight-year-old daughter, Zahlia.

The last time something took my breath away was … Watching Andrew complete the Marathon des Sables in Morocco. I slept in the Sahara desert one night and was lucky enough to see the Paris Orchestra play in the middle of the desert, which was so surreal. There were around 900 athletes to start and Andrew was the first Australian to finish!

What are your essentials for a well-spent weekend?
A good balance of outdoor activities, browsing food markets and finding some ‘me’ time for meditation.

What’s something you’ve been meaning to do on the weekend but haven’t got around to yet?
Converting our old study into a Zen Room, just for me!

How do you define success?
Mastering the balance of business and family.

What are your words of wisdom?
Live in the now! If you’ve made mistakes in life, don’t look back and dwell on them – learn from them. Always remember to breathe …

FAVOURITE WEEKEND SPOT TO:
Perk up … Cool funky markets with a bit of everything.
Relax … Being a busy mum, I’d have to say lying in the hammock beside our pool and actually finishing a magazine.
Dine … Bohemian Bungalow, Eumundi.
Indulge … Ikatan Spa in Noosa for the whole day!
Shop … Browsing through homewares shops.
Catch up … Having a barbecue with great friends and just chilling out.
Be inspired … Sitting on our terrace while looking over the treetops of the Noosa hinterland.