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Mother-daughter duo dare to dream
Dani Murphy
HILLSBORO — From a disconnected place away from home Dani Murphy and her daughter Tatum Kane began baking and freeze-drying their way into a business where they see God provides everything they need.
“We truly believe God has provided all that we need for our bodies, and we want to bag that up for our families,” Murphy began as she explained what Preppin’ Mama is all about.
Preppin’ Mama is currently a pop-up shop which offers a variety of freeze-dried foods, candies and homemade cookies.
Located in the country outside of Hillsboro, Murphy lives in a cozy home filled with joy and surrounded by nature.
Walking up to their home, free-range chickens, which provide eggs for their cookies, happily greet guests as Murphy’s husband Jacob tinkers in a shed doing chores.
Sitting in their family kitchen just above their freeze-drying workspace, Murphy and her daughter look back at where they have been and where they are now in amazement.
“I’m so very proud of her,” Tatum said of her mom. “And it's just really fun watching her too, because she's my mom. So I learned so much from her. So if anybody ever compliments me, it's 100% my mom.”
“She was a single mom for so long with four girls and I’ve never once not been blessed,” Tatum continued. “She has constantly provided … I’m just glad that her dream is coming alive.”
According to Murphy this dream began in 2020 on the other side of the state after having to move due to difficult circumstances and in order to keep her family safe.
“When we moved to like Western Iowa like we didn't really know the community that well or have really any connections so it was literally just her and I every night just like huddled up on the couch watching movies like about baking and then we just started doing it together,” Tatum said.
“We’re all inside and Tatum and I started baking,” Murphy said. “Not just like normal baking.”
While the world shut down, Tatum and her mom got hooked on watching bake-off shows like the “The Great British Baking Show” and felt like they knew a thing or two about how to make good treats.
“For me, everything comes back to quality food for your family,” she said. “So, the cookie ingredients are organic sugar and unbleached flour. They have farm fresh eggs from our very happy free-range chickens. The ingredients in the base of that cookie are just legitimate and they’re fantastic quality ingredients.”
As they experimented and implemented their philosophies for quality ingredients, they found that not only their family loved the results, but others too.
“They got pretty darn good, and then people wanted them, and then more people wanted them,” Murphy said.
“We won the Christmas Bake-Off,” Tatum shared.
So, they kept baking, and they kept winning school and town bake-offs as they continued to receive raving reviews.
They soon expanded into creating coco bombs, which Murphy says are Tatum’s specialty.
“She is the chocolatier,” Murphy said.
According to Murphy, Tatum also helps with the chickens, gathering fruits and vegetables, and teaching her the art of social media.
Murphy did more than baking delicious treats, but she remained focused on bringing quality food to not only her family, but others.
“We were trying to find ways to not only get quality food, but save quality food,” she explained. “So, we kind of like started doing normal food preservation processes.”
She began with canning like her mother had taught her until she learned more about freeze-drying.
Once she realized how much longer freeze-dried food would last and the amount of nutrients maintained through this form of preservation, Murphy was highly interested.
Freeze drying, however, was a large financial investment, but Murphy found provision for this dream in her husband.
“He is incredibly supportive with the business and the idea of growing and preserving our own food,” she said. “So, he put the initial like $10,000 in and got us our first freeze dryer and the equipment to start freeze drying.”
With Tatum right by her side, they began to learn how to persevere food effectively, though there was a lot to learn.
“You would think it is really simple,” she said. “You put it into this machine and it’s going to come out freeze dried and everything is great.”
It is through her hard work and the continued support of her husband that Preppin’ Mama continues to grow.
“My husband for my birthday actually this year in January 2023 gave me a piece of paper that said he filed for our LLC,” Murphy said. “I cried.”
“It was really awesome,” Tatum said with excitement. “It was a very emotional day.”
Their LLC was approved this February and they hit the ground running as they set out to take their product to their community at different vendor events.
As they did so, the demand continued to grow. Murphy says they have to put limits on cookie purchases at events and they often run out of their most popular freeze-dried items.
Murphy has felt very well received by the community through these pop ups and partnerships with Jefferson Antique Mall carrying her products and Insanity Coffee featuring her cookies as part of a drink on their menu.
With such support from the community, they recently added two more freeze dryers to the operation.
While that means they lose more and more space in the basement of their home but they wouldn’t change it for the world.
“We are not even at one year and we’re blowing up and I hope we really get to where this is fully established because my dream, my heart is to give people good quality food that is sustainable, reliable, and that will fill their cupboards and their families’ tummies,” Murphy said.
Murphy says their family always kept involved in their community, but when they had to move across the state, they lost a lot of that.
“We have had a pretty intense past, each part of our journey we have learned and taken a little nugget with us that we can apply today,” Murphy said.
Returning to Eastern Iowa, Murphy is grateful to once again grow roots in her community.
“There are dreams here,” she said. “Lots of them that include greenhouses and lot more machines. I want to feed people. I want people to be OK, and that’s where all this comes from.”
Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com
