Great Byrd Mill Baking Mixes

I recently blogged about enjoying Byrd Mill Raspberry Pancakes and Steamer Hot Cocoa on a winter day as the snow falls. Byrd Mill makes some other gread breakfast/brunch mixes we sell as well. In addition to Raspberry Pancake and Waffle Mix, we sell Cinnamon Muffin Mix and Lemon Blueberry Scone Mix. The Raspberry Pancake and Waffle Mix goes well Monastery Creamed Honey ( I suggest Raspberry, Brandy, Almond or Natural) or Preserves from Graves Mountain (I suggest Seedless Red Raspberry, Strawberry or Cherry). The pancakes also go well with our Virginia maple syrup. Cinnamon muffins go well with Apple Butter from Graves Mountain or Monastery Cinnamon or Almond Creamed Honey. Lemon Blueberry Scones go well with Monastery Cinnamon, Lemon, Brandy or Natural Creamed Honey.

These are only recommendations of what we enjoy with them, so be creative. Visit thevirginamarketplace.com for these goodies and more.

Here's the history of Byrd Mill: The Tradition of Byrd Mill began in 1740. Young Patrick Henry visited the mill often, bringing corn, wheat and buckwheat from his father's nearby plantation. Byrd Mill continued in operation at its originial site until 1968 when an untimely fire bought an end to production in the original building. Byrd Mill now located in Ashland, Virginia manufactures some of the finest gourmet mixes available while still offering many of those old tyme products.

Monastery Creamed Honey comes from Holy Cross Abbey, which is a monastery of the Cisterian Order of the Strick Observance (Trappists) sheltered by the Blue Ridge Mountains in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

Graves Mountain Lodge is nestled deep in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains near Syria, Virginia. Graves Mountain Lodge established a cannery in 1980. They use family reciped to make their old-fashioned preserves unmatched for their quality and goodness. They cook their preserves in open kettles. The batches are kept small and each product is made as needed. They use the finest quality fruit, pure cane sugar and all natural seasonings in creating a product they feel as as good as "Grandma used to make."

The Maple festival in Highland County is coming in March. Take a step back in time to Highland County, "Virginia's Switzerland." Travel back roads and mountain byways to the annual Highland Maple Festival. Held on the 2nd and 3rd weekends of March, the Maple Festival has been an annual event in Highland County, Virginia, since 1958. Each year, thousands of visitors are drawn to this unspoiled, rural region of Virginia to celebrate the "opening" of the trees and observe the process of maple syrup-making. Sugar camp tours provide a unique and educational experience that portrays a rapidly vanishing way of American life.