Rachel Carlyle Edington and her two youngest daughters served gluten-free pastry samples to a big crowd at the Women 4 Wellness fair last week at Salish Kootenai College in Pablo.

As friends moved through the crowd, Edington paused long enough to give hugs and say hello as she explained her products to potential customers.

Meanwhile, Edington’s Gluten Free Mama products have just been introduced to 200 Safeway stores nationwide and Whole Foods is reviewing her products for potential distribution in its stores.

On a daily basis, Edington’s work as owner of Gluten Free Mama in Polson straddles the line between keeping the company personal to customers and taking it to the next level.

She’s flying to Rhode Island in June to meet with the buyer for United Natural Foods.

“In the last year it’s gone boom,” Edington said about the marked increase in people wanting her gluten-free flour blends and pastry mixes that are manufactured in Polson.

She now offers almond and coconut flour blends, along with pancake/waffle, pizza, scone, cookie and pie-crust mixes.

The owner of the building Edington and her husband Rob lease for the manufacturing facility has expanded it twice to accommodate Gluten Free Mama’s growth.

“I foresee needing a bigger facility in one to two years,” she said.

Edington, 37, was an “ordinary mom” when she started the business in a backyard shop with $500 of her own money seven years ago because her youngest daughter, Lexie, now 7, was diagnosed with celiac disease, a condition that prevents people from digesting the gluten found in wheat, barley, rye and oats.

Years earlier in high school, Edington had unknowingly laid the foundation for her business by cooking for a school of 200 girls. She owned her own cake decorating business for a time and studied at Bon Vivant School of Cooking in Seattle.

That knowledge became the steppingstone in developing Gluten Free Mama flour mixes.

“My products don’t crumble and they’re not cardboardy,” she said. “They have flavor.”

As the business grows, Edington strives to have a personal connection with her customers. On Gluten Free Mama’s Facebook page, she responds directly to customers’ questions and concerns and offers monthly games and prizes as a marketing tool.

Amid her business success, Edington has been dealing with her own personal health crisis.

Two years ago she was diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia, a nervous system disorder that causes intense, stabbing pain in areas of the face. The pain forces Edington to spend several hours in bed almost every day. The disorder affects the entire right side of her body, throwing off her balance and zapping her energy.

“I can do my marketing from bed,” she said. “What I do is mostly computer and phone work.”

She got remarried in February and her husband oversees the employees, manufacturing and shipping. Rob Edington brought three teenage children to the blended family, and with Rachel’s three daughters, it’s a “Brady Bunch” atmosphere.

“We call ourselves the ‘Eddy Bunch,’” she said with a smile.

A year ago Edington had gamma-knife radiosurgery, a procedure that delivers a focused, high dose of radiation to the root of the trigeminal nerve. The surgery bought her eight months of relief, but last September the pain was back in a big way.

“It’s been really bad since then,” she said.

Edington needs a second brain surgery but has no health insurance and can’t afford the operation. She relies on medication and is thankful her husband and children are able to carry the load when she can’t.

Despite the physical challenges, Edington recently finished a new gluten-free cookbook she’s very proud of. “In the Kitchen with Gluten Free Mama” offers more than 200 recipes for gluten-free foods, along with dairy and egg-free alternatives.

“The new cookbook is 10 times better than my first one, and my first one was fabulous,” she said.

The next five years will be a pivotal time for the business. With a certified gluten-free kitchen, Edington is considering offering her facility to other gluten-free manufacturers. She’s also mapping out a plan for what happens when the company reaches the point of needing major capital investment.

“Within five years we’ll either need capital investment or we’ll be bought out” by another company, she said. “I want a solid plan so I can continue to be the face of the company. Customers can relate to me because I’m a mother; I’ve experienced this [gluten-free challenge] firsthand.”

For more information about the company and its products, go to www.glutenfreemama.com. Products can be ordered online, and the website contains a list of stores nationwide that carry Gluten Free Mama products.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.