Homemade CARINARA from Humbl Roots Becomes Market Staple

Looking for something new, healthy and flavorful for your pantry? CARINARA — the Humbl Roots take on traditional marinara sauce, made from carrots and also gluten- and dairy-free — is new to the Downtown Farmers’ Market in Downtown Des Moines (DSM) for the 2024 Market season.

The Original CARINARA might be a good place to start, but while you’re at the vendor booth, check out two other flavors to find the best choice for your next family dinner. There’s Spicy Cracked Pepper CARINARA and Sweet Basil CARINARA to choose from, too.

Read how Owner Jake Burklund, and his wife, Jacque, started the Omaha, Neb. business and became involved with The Market below:

Q+A with Humbl Roots

What is Humbl Roots?

Jake Burlund: We’re a food manufacturing company that my wife and I started in January 2023. We make a pasta sauce that is tomato-free and helps eliminate heartburn.

How did you come up with the concept for Humbl Roots?

JB: This, as all good things begin, started as a cocktail. My wife and I were in a friendly cocktail competition between friends and on a whim, she made a carrot base Bloody Mary, a Carrot Mary, if you will, and she ended up winning the competition. It was delicious! As we both started struggling with some food sensitivities of our own, we had a light bulb moment and realized we could turn that carrot-based Bloody Mary into a pasta sauce. We went through a ton of research and development. My wife is our head of R&D … after multiple years and a few hundred recipes, we came up with the final recipe for CARINARA that we sell today. We found that carrots are actually delicious, and they taste very similar to a red sauce and eliminate heartburn.

What do you bring to The Market?

JB: Right now, the company just makes pasta sauce, and we’ve got three different flavors: Original, Sweet Basil and Cracked Pepper.

What were your first thoughts about being part of the Downtown Farmers’ Market?

JB: We have a pretty big farmers’ market in Nebraska, but we ended up selling more than we ever had during our first appearance at The Market in Downtown Des Moines (DSM), even with rain and lightning delays during that first event. As the summer’s gone on, it’s been phenomenal. The Downtown Farmers’ Market is just so much bigger, the live music and number of people is awesome, and there’s such a huge variety in vendors, too.

What has it been like working with other vendors?

JB: In general, it’s been a very collaborative atmosphere. Nobody is cutthroat. Anytime we have questions, every vendor has been super helpful, especially the Market veterans. There are some people who have been to the Downtown Farmers’ Market for many seasons, and they’re just a wealth of knowledge. They understand that everybody else is running a business, too.

Have you had any fun interactions with people at The Market?

JB: With CARINARA, people don’t always understand what it is, and there’s a lot of skepticism with carrot-based pasta sauce and how it will taste. So, we have fun interactions getting people to taste a sample. We always have free samples for people, just to introduce the product. Our favorites are when we get someone from the Italian or Sicilian communities because they’re very resistant to try a pasta sauce made from carrots.

I remember during our second Market a girl walked by and said, “That’s not pasta sauce. No way. You can’t call that pasta sauce.” She was with her daughter who tried it and told her to give it a shot, so she did, and she loved it. They ended up buying a three-pack!

What advice do you have for other small businesses interested in being a vendor at The Market?

JB: I’d probably give them the same advice that I would give to anyone who has an idea or a concept and is thinking about getting started. Just take the first step. That’s the easiest thing to do. It’s very difficult to get yourself over the hump of acting on an idea, but once you get the ball rolling, it could blow up. We had no idea if people would like our sauce, but we went to market, and they enjoyed it, so we just kept going.

I’d tell anyone thinking about becoming a vendor at The Market that it’s a phenomenal place. You have a whole crowd of people out to experience and try new things. Make sure you interact. Don’t just sit behind your booth … interact with the crowd. It’s a lot more fun that way. Introduce them to your product, and who knows, you might find some customers come back time and time again.

Check out Humbl Roots at carinara.com, on Facebook and Instagram.

There are so many fun events specific to Downtown DSM. Attend annual events like the Downtown Des Moines Farmers’ Market, World Food & Music Festival and Holiday Promenade or find live music happening each week through the "Live Music This Week in DSM” blog series.