(FORTUNE Small Business) – Vermont Butter & Cheese Cultured Butter, $19 a pound To support herself while studying in France, Allison Hooper, 45, milked goats on local dairies. She returned to her native New England and a decade later founded Vermont Butter & Cheese Co., selling European-style dairy products--crème fraîche, fromage blanc--to French chefs in Boston and Manhattan. Her latest offering is a cultured butter, which thickens and ferments for a day before churning, resulting in a deeper flavor. vtbutterandcheeseco.com

MetroMint Peppermint Water, $2 Peppermint, long used to soothe upset stomachs, is the inspiration behind Rio Miura's latest sugarless product--water flavored with crushed peppermint. The 35-year-old Miura, who conceived of MetroMint while parched and stuck on a fishing boat in the middle of a Montana lake, began her San Francisco-based company by selling coffee and tea to Japanese customers via catalog. Next up: orange mint and spearmint, due out in time for summer. metromint.com

Bella Cucina Spreads, $7-$8 Repeat customers at Alisa Barry's Mediterranean-inspired café in Atlanta started asking for her sauce and sandwich spread recipes so that they could make them at home. Barry, who studied with Alice Waters at Chez Panisse in Berkeley and spent a year eating her way through Spain, shut the shop and started bottling. Today the 41-year-old's foods--made by hand in small batches--are sold at Crate & Barrel and Saks. Besides churning out new items (such as her bruschetta and panini spreads, flavored with spinach, artichokes, and sun-dried tomatoes), Barry recently opened her first storefront in Atlanta, where she sells kitchenware that complements her food. bellacucina.com

B.T. McElrath Chocolate Truffles, $10-$54 Too small to work the fields of his family's farm as a child, Brian McElrath was banished to the kitchen, where he learned the art of cooking at his grandmother's side. After working for 20 years as a chef, Brian, now 43, creates European-style truffles paired with unusual ingredients: lavender and black peppercorn, balsamic vinegar, and his latest, chile and lemon. Made in Minneapolis, they're sold at gourmet grocery chains across the Midwest. btmcelrath.com

Ravioli Store Artichoke Pesto Ravioli, $9 a dozen The ravioli on the room-service menu at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York City is actually made 60 blocks south, in the small industrial kitchen at the back of Michael Nasoff's Ravioli Store. For 15 years the shop has been churning out small batches of exotic pastas--aged goat cheese in a black peppercorn pasta, potato and truffle in a chive pasta--for the city's best-known catering companies, hotels, and restaurants, and even the Museum of Modern Art cafés. Now it sells directly to the public, adding seasonal flavors, such as this spring's artichoke pesto in lemon pasta. raviolistore.com

LesserEvil Popcorn, $40 a case As the former head of marketing for Ben & Jerry's and Snapple, Michael Sands created many calorie-packed ice creams and juices. But late last year Sands, 40, defected to the other side--healthy snacks--when he launched LesserEvil, the maker of air-popped popcorn in flavors such as BeeNutty! with honey and peanuts; Santa Fe, flavored with bell peppers and pumpkin seeds; and SinNamon, with cinnamon. The Bronxville, N.Y., company makes its popcorn with the alternative sweetener maltitol instead of sugar and cooks it in copper kettles. lesserevil.com