About Mama Tong
If you are looking for the real Mama Tong, you will find a dedicated team of mamas that make soup. "Tong" means soup in Chinese, and we create soups for hungry mamas that want something nutritious and satisfying to eat. Wa-lah! Mama Tong.
My name is Lindsey Ott and here is the story of how I became the owner of Mama Tong Soup…
I have always loved babies. Since I was a little girl I wanted to hold and care for the teeny tiny humans around me. This love turned into quite a lucrative business that lasted into my college years. It was there that I landed a job as a nanny for a mama who worked as a midwife and advocate for women’s empowerment around birth. During that time, I went to my first women’s gathering, attended a birth, devoured books on midwifery and new baby/mama care, and felt called to follow a path as a midwife. As my life unfolded in my 20s, I found myself traveling in Hawaii and landed on an organic farm in a very remote part of Maui. I still found my way to midwifery classes and continued to read and study, but soon enough the farm life consumed me. My love for plants and growing food took precedence over anything else.
In 2009, my son was born and the experience of pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood took on a whole new meaning. I was left with a more complete idea of what a mama needed after pregnancy, and so my focus turned towards postpartum care.
My son and I moved back to California in 2011 where we continued to live the farm life outdoors, working with plants and food, until we found ourselves in the Bay Area in the summer of 2013. The time had come for me to put my love of nurturing new mamas and babies together with my love of amazing food, to create a business that could sustain my son and I here in this busy city.
My quest began with finding other businesses that fed and cared for new families and this is when I got in touch with Mama Tong’s creator, Jane Lin. I offered my time and kitchen assistance in trade for an education in Chinese postpartum soups and Jane offered to sell me the business! Jane was ready to move on to something new and I was ready to take on a small business, and so my adventure began. Over the next few weeks I learned where to find the ingredients and how to put them together to create the delicious flavors that are Mama Tong soups. I got the Good Eggs webstand back up and running. I was in business!
I slowly made the recipes mine, tweaking here and there and transitioning all the ingredients to organic. Aside from the traditional Michiu Rice Wine and the Chinese herbs found in the Herbal Chicken Soup and the Mushroom Stew, which come from Springwind and Mayway, both high quality Chinese herb distributors, every ingredient is certified organic.
I believe I can create beautiful products that nourish, heal and taste delicious. I believe I can create products that I want to eat and share with my friends and family. I believe I can create products that support high integrity farms and ranches and provide me with the sustenance I need to enjoy a good quality of life for my son and myself. Thank you for supporting my vision. Enjoy!