Heather McCartney Creates Ethnic Edibles

by Walter Greene of Carib News

Heather McCartney is the force behind Ethnic Edibles, the company that produces cookies and cookie cutters based on traditional African shapes and symbols. The shapes include an African mask, a Djembe drum, a South African Ndebele doll and the shape of the African continent. Thee ethnic flavored cookies include ginger, chocolate and a new Caribbean offering of exotic flavors like pineapple, macadamia, coconut and selected spices.

Heather started the company in 1977 after a trip to Africa where she was inspired by the richness and culture of the motherland. "I was captivated with the decorative and tribal arts of African culture and wanted to replicate them in a fun and educational way," staled the former Bronx dance teacher. Heather has been a dance educator for the public schools of New York City for seventeen years, where she worked to establish viable arts-in-education programs for several middle and senior high schools. She has also worked in arts education research and real estate and holds degrees in Dance Education and Education of the Gifted.

To launch Ethnic Edibles, after her trip to Africa, Heather, eager to share her enthusiasms with others, baked a batch of ginger cookies with the facial demarcations based upon the many masks and dolls she saw... And the rest as they say is History. "Cookie dough proved to be the ideal medium for me to replicate the African artwork I admired. Besides, if I made a mistake, I could just eat it away." Her product package includes an African creation story, African proverbs and a history of each of the cookie cutters. The package also has the cookie mix, recipes, an icing bag and easy-to-follow illustrations.

The company was spotlighted on WCBS-TV as a promising new enterprise and has enjoyed exposure in major news media like The New York Times and Newsday. Heather is in the process of writing a children's picture book about Africa and is expanding her business to include cookie catering. Ethnic Edibles is available at select outlets like: Macy's Blackberry Shop at The Cellar, Herald Square; Zawadi in Brooklyn; The Harlem Collective; The Brownstone; That Old Black Magic in Mamaroneck; Turning Heads Salon on 135th Street, Manhattan; The Majoco Collection in Plainfield and Zambezi Townhouse in Rosedale. You can also visit on the website: www.EthnicEdibles.com

In the News

Thanks for joining!