Mothers attending a Make Your Own Baby Food class in Bangor on a recent weekday afternoon say they're here for two reasons: to save a little money and to have more control over what goes into their babies' bellies. "I came to the class because I thought it would be a healthier choice," says Melissa Hardie, who lives in Bangor with her family. "You know this means that I have to steam vegetables or I have to cook stuff down, and then it would just be a better choice for me and the rest of the household. It's also good for cost."

Hardie brought her 7-month-old son, Jeremiah, to class. They're learning to use a food mill with fellow participant Rebekah McLaughlin of Bangor. "I have a 5-month old son and he has Hirschsprung's disease, which is a congenital defect in the large intestines. He had to have a portion of it removed so he really needs to have a very healthy, special diet -- high fiber," McLaughlin says.

McLaughlin and Hardie say they're suprised by how easy it is to use the food mill, which is a device with a hand crank that grinds food and pushes it through a sieve. "I didn't know that it would be such a simple machine," Hardie says. "It doesn't even require you to plug it in, so that's very cool. It just seems like it makes it much easier, like moms don't have enough to do."

The women are taking a class offered by Kate Yerxa, a statewide nutrition and physical activity educator at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension.

"Showing how much money you actually can save over the long run, is a significant amount of money," Yerxa says. "How many diapers does that buy? Would that pay an electric bill one month? Putting that into perspective helps. And also, maybe it is a couple of extra hours of food preparation, but ultimately you're going to build up a freezer stash. And it will be just as easy as going to the store and buying food. Instead of pulling it off the shelf you're going to be pulling it out of your freezer."

Yerxa mentions to the class that sweet potatoes are on sale for 99 cents a pound at the grocery store, while the organic sweet potato baby food in jars amounts to $4.09 a pound. In addition to cost comparisons, the class also learns about food safety.

Yerxa says parents should serve only one or two tablespoons per feeding of high-nitrate vegetables, such as beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, celery, collard greens, lettuce, spinach and turnips. She says the naturally occurring nitrates in these vegetables can lead to health problems in babies less than a year old.

The classes, also offered in Portland through the Cumberland County extension office, are usually capped at around 10 students. Portland-based extension educator Kathy Savoie says the classes have grown in demand and enrollment over the past couple of years, partly because of the economy and partly because of the movement to eat locally-grown food.

"I have seen an increase in the interest for the workshops that we've been offering," Savoie says. "And I would say the reasons for this are parents' increased interest in having greater control over the foods that their children are eating to improve their health and wellbeing."

Savoie and Yerxa say they'll be offering more free baby food-making courses throughout the fall through the extension office and local hospitals. For more information and babyfood recipes, visit www.umext.maine.edu.