When you're feeding a little person you suddenly feel terribly responsible for their health and often start looking more carefully at what you are putting in their mouths.
And that's really how it started for James Crow and Tommy Holden. They had been friends for years and always talked about going into business together. They both came from an upbringing where "natural was best" with Tommy's parents working with organic produce and James' parents making a natural skincare product for eczema, now known as Pot of Gold.
"We wanted to make something delicious that we could feel comfortable feeding our families and that was also made ethically," says James. "It seems others were looking for the same thing."
Originally they liked the idea of living the dream and selling their iceblocks at Piha over the summer. They knew they'd have to go through a lot of council consent for that though, so thought they may as well do it on a bigger scale if they were going to jump through the hoops.
They started producing Nice Blocks at the back of what is now Little Hero cafe in Pt Chev in November 2010 and gave them out at a gallery opening. People loved them and they were soon doing lots of other events, selling them out of a handmade old-school icecream cart.
