Return To Nature

The fresh items of Liberty Naturals.

The island had an abundance of farmers markets and health food stores, so when a couple moved back to the mainland from Oahu, they wanted to start a business that would create that option for Liberty Lake.

"We really liked the easy availability of healthy, local foods," Kramer McNett says.

Early last month, McNett, originally from Liberty Lake, opened up a health food market called Liberty Naturals along with his girlfriend, Heather Del Carlo. The market fills a space that has long sat empty in a small strip mall on Country Vista Drive. McNett's father, the third partner in the market, owns the building and had been trying to come up with something to put in the space when McNett suggested a health food store.

"Heather and I were particularly passionate about this," says McNett.

"Definitely, we thought it'd benefit the community as well," Del Carlo adds.

The inventory features an array of organic and natural grocery items including coconut oil, ketchup, dried fruit, canned beans and soups, baby food, tea and coffee. They also stock allergen-free foods like sunflower seed butter and gluten-free breads and pastas. A whole section is dedicated to items like natural dish soap, paper products, lotion and toothpaste.

"The main goal in the long run is to be completely locally based with our produce," McNett says.

Currently they have local root vegetables along with local eggs, milk, meat and honey, and plan to increase the selection as they go. Soon they plan to open up their drive-through so customers can call in a grocery order and pick it up at the window, grab deli items from Pilgrim's Market in Coeur d'Alene or get a fill-up from the three taps of Bare Culture Kombucha they aim to install soon.

For McNett and Del Carlo, it's about encouraging people to return to eating natural foods and moving away from the artificially produced foods developed over the past several decades.

"I don't think our body is receptive to those," says McNett. "So I believe in going back to natural forms of eating things that we know what they are."♦