For Jeanne Heise, her small business began four years ago with an herbal garden. From that, an idea took root that has since blossomed into the production of her own recipe for salad dressing and pasta.

"At first it was just that I needed to do something with all those herbs," said Heise. "I had so much, I was like, 'What am I going to do with this?' I wanted to do something with it."

While Jeanne's Country Herb Products is the definition of a small business -- it's run solely by Heise and her husband -- it must have had some degree of success. The products have been selected to be featured in the Best of Missouri Market on Oct. 5 and 6 at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, a fair of food products, crafts and music.

"We've been working on a really small level," said Heise. "But we want to really start getting the word out. We hope this will give us a boost. We realize we need to expand."

Wanted low-fat dressing

When Heise, an avid gardener, began having surplus oregano, basil, chives and other herbs, she decided to make her own salad dressing. She wanted something low-fat, and everything she had tried on the market tasted bitter or bland.

"None of it seemed very good," she said. "I wanted something sweet and tart. Something that didn't really taste like it was low in fat, but was."

After mixing and matching, she discovered a recipe she liked, coming up with a red-wine-based dressing that Heise said is also perfect for hoagies, coleslaw and as a meat marinade. She also met her low-fat goal -- the dressing only had 35 calories per two teaspoons.

At first, the idea was just to make some for herself. She packed it in her lunch, which she ate with colleagues at Central High School, where she has been a nurse for 23 years.

One day, a co-worker forgot to bring her own salad dressing and asked to borrow some of Heise's.

"This is really good," the co-worker told Heise, who politely thanked her. "No, really. Would you make me a bottle?"

She started making some of the dressing for a select group of friends. Eventually the friends said they hated to ask her to do it for free and offered to pay her for it.

Heise agreed. Eventually, she was making more than 20 bottles a week. At first, making the dressing was fun, but eventually it became bothersome.

"Frankly, it was burden," she said. "I was making salad dressing all the time. It seemed like I was doing nothing else."

Found a bottler

So after discussing it with her husband, Dave, they decided to find a bottler, which could fill orders. They found a graphic artist to soon their small company was born. Later, they added the pasta products.

Heise began asking smaller specialty shops to carry the pasta and salad dressing. It now can be purchased at Patricia Ann's, River Ridge Winery, High Street Station, Show Me Shop, the Enchanted Garden and even some places in St. Louis.

"We were one of Jeanne's first customers," said Dawn Fallert, owner of High Street Station in Jackson, a gift and home decor shop. "It was really good, so we started selling it in the store. It's been a good seller for us."

Heise was buying two flats a year to sell -- a flat is 50 cases, with 12 bottles in a case -- and now she'd like to increase that. She hopes to get the products on the shelves in stores like Cracker Barrel, Wal-Mart and Schnucks.

She also hopes that participating in Best of Missouri Market will push the product.

"We're just honored to have been selected," Heise said.

Sold themselves

But Nora Stern, co-chair of the popular annual market that features 100 vendors, said Heise's products sold themselves.

"We thought they were very tasty and that it would fit in well with our market," said Stern. "These products will be in a very select group. We just don't take anybody. We turn vendors away every year."

Thousands of people are expected to attend, Stern said, and the people are invited to savor homemade breads, soups, sauces, jellies, jams, pies, cookies and other items.

The event usually consists of three huge white tents set up on the northeast corner of the garden featuring a collection of food items and wine, in addition to whimsical jewelry, pottery, bent furniture, quilts, handmade baskets, garden sculptures, handmade soaps, harvest gift baskets and even flowers and plants.

"It's a good way to get your product seen," Stern said.

That's what Heise is hoping for. She's in the process of preparing recipe cards and is working on a Web site. They are working on getting some customers through mail order and preparing some Christmas baskets.

"We're gearing up pretty hard to market it," Heise said. "We want to get it into larger areas. We love being a small business. We just want to be a little bigger."

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137