Mom's Love Virginia Food, Part 2

Here's some more ideas for sending love from Virginia for Mother's Day. If a gift basket is not what you are looking to send for Mother's Day, how about a brunch gift box. We have several: Virginia Brunch Selections includes Byrd Mill Raspberry Pancake and Waffle Mix, Graves Mountain Strawberry Preserves, Blue Crab Bay Shrimp Dip Kit and Cream of Crab Soup, Southern Shore Specialties Crab Town Nuts and First Colony Colombian Supremo Coffee, Brunch Favorites includes Byrd Mill Cinnamon Muffin Mix, Graves Mountain Apple Butter, Blue Crab Bay New England Clam Chowder and Clam Dip Kit, The Peanut Shop of Williamsburg Hot!Southern Nuts andFirst Colony Surpremo Colombian Coffee and Spice Up Brunch includes Byrd Mill Lemon Blueberry Scone Mix and Cinnamon Muffin Mix, Graves Mountain Apple Butter, Monastery Natural Creamed Honey and The Peanut Shop of Willilamsburg New Orleans Style Spicy Peanuts.

Send Mom a charming keepsake Blooming Violets Tin, new from The Peanut Shop of Williamsburg. It's filled with chocolate Virginia peanuts, yogurt coated pretzels and chocolate blueberries. A perfect gift for Mother's Day!

How about a cake. Rowena's Rose Shaped Almond Cake combines the sentiment of roses with her signature flavor. Let Mom know she is a star and send her Rowena's Almond Star-Shaped Cake. If Mom is watching her sugar, Rowena's sugar free Almond, Lemon or Chocolate cakes are just as tasty as her originals.

Since Mom's so sweet, send her some sweets to enjoy with her Mother's Day breakfast. We have Graves Mountain Apple Butter, Orange Marmalade and several Preserves as well as six flavors of Monastery Creamed Honey. They are available in assortments, in gable gift boxes and in gift baskets. We have gift baskets of all preserves, all creamed honeys and a mixture of preserves and creamed honey. We also have gift baskets that include mixes to accompany the preserves and honey. Our Fabulous Fruit Basket includes three Byrd Mill Mixes, Graves Mountain Seedless Red Raspberry Preserves and Seedless Blackberry Preserves and Cherry Preserves and Monastery Creamed Lemon and Natural Honey.

So give Mom or send Mom some Love from Virginia.

Mom's Love Virginia Food

Mother's Day is Sunday, May 9, 2010. Yes, Mom loves chocolate and flowers. Looking for something special, send Mom food she loves from Virginia. At the Virginia Marketplace we have classic favorites such as Virginia hams and Virginia peanuts as well as innovative and unusual tastes from the finest Virginia gourmet companies. In this blog I'm going to highlight our unique gift baskets.

For the Mom who love's Virginia foods there's our Gourmet Treasures of Virginia! gift basket filled with Jefferson Monticello Sparkling Apple Cider, La Provencale Cellars Apple Grilling Glaze, Byrd Mill Raspberry Pancake and Waffle Mix and Byrd Mill Lemon Blueberry Scone Mix, Puffenbarger's Sugar Orchard Virginia Maple Syrup, The Peanut Shop of Williamsburg Hand Cooked Salted Virginia Peanuts, Graves Mountain Apple Butter, Blue Crab Bay She Crab Soup, and Blue Crab Bay Clam Dip Kit.

For the chocoholic Mom there's the Chocolate Lover's Basket from The Peanut Shop of Williamsburg, a market basket chock full of all their favorite goodies: The Peanut Shop's double dipped Chocolate Covered Peanuts, Milk Chocolate Covered Peanut Brittle, Milk Chocolate Covered Almonds and Milk Chocolate Peanut Clusters. They've also tuckled in a bag of of yummy Chocoalte Covered Pecans and Paula Deen Collection Mississippi Marsh Mud Cookies.

Send Mom the gift basket From the Heart! filled with Byrd Mill Breakfast Mixes and an assortment of sweets to go with them: Monastery Lemon Creamed Honey, Graves Mountain Apple Butter and Orange Marmalade and Puffenbarger's Virginia Maple Syrup.

Mom is sure to stir up some great breakfasts if you send her our new Stir it Up batter bowl gift set. A bright red melamine batter bowl with Byrd Mill mixes to "stir up" are accompanied by Virginia maple syrup, Monastery Lemon Creamed Honey, Graves Mountain Seedless Red Raspberry Preserves to njoy with them. Mom will remember you remember every time she uses her bowl!!

For the beach loving Mom we have an ocean themed basket Celebration at the Ocean! It's filled with Virginia treats: Jefferson Monticello Sparkling Apple Cider, Byrd Mill Raspberry Pancake and Waffle Mix, Graves Mountain Seedless Red Raspberry Preserves, Southern Shores Specialties Crab Town Peanuts, Chincoteague She Crab Soup, Blue Crab Bay Shrimp Dip Kit, and Ashman's Mango Keylime Seafood Marinade and Sauce.

Check out our other Virginia Marketplace gift baskets and gift baskets from Smithfield and The Peanut Shop of Willliamsburg. We'll be writing another blog soon about other Virginia foods Mom might like.

Maple Tappin" At Wintergreen, Virginia

When you think of maple syrup, you usually think of Canada and Vermont. We recently did a blog about the Highland Maple Festival in Monterey, Virginia. A lot of people don't know we have Sugar Maples this far south.

The high elevation at Wintergreen in Nelson County gave some folks at the Wintergreen Nature Foundation the idea to tap the maples and make maple syrup there. The Wintergreen Nature Foundation tapped the maples from Feb. 25 for 13 days until March 10. They got 30 gallons of sap out of 6 taps which they boiled down for 8 hours into about a pint of syrup. It turned out thinner than store bought, but tasty.

The Wintergreen Nature Foundation took a group to see the taps while the sap boiled down. Everyone got to enjoy the syrup on a pancake meal. They hope to do the maple syrup making again next year.

The Wintergreen Nature Foundation isn't selling their syrup, but we sell Puffenbarger's Maple Syrup from Monterey, Virginia in our Virginia Gourmet Gift Baskets and soon in Virginia Gourmet Gift Boxes.

April 2 is Peanut Butter and Jelly Day

Peanut Butter was first created by blending together ground shelled peanuts, vegetable oil and salt. Peanut Butter is the leading use of peanuts in the USA. Americans eat 3 lbs. of peanut butter per person every year. It takes about 540 peanuts to make a 12-ounce jar of peanut butter. The peanuts are first shelled, then roasted and the skins removed. Then they are ground into a smooth butter spread. Peanut butter must be at least 90 percent peanuts with no artificial sweeteners, colors or preservatives to officially be labeled peanut butter. It is sold as either "crunchy" or "smooth"/"creamy". It is used as a key ingredient in the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. For more information about peanut butter, check out our blog about Peanut Butter.

The peanut butter and jelly sandwich, (PB&J) also known as a peanut butter and jam sandwich in the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, is a sandwich which includes a layer of peanut butter and either jam or jelly on bread, commonlly between two slices, but sometimes eated open-faced, that is, with peanut butter and jam or jelly on each of two slices, eaten without putting the two slices together and without folding each slices of bread. the sandwich has the advantage that it does not contain any perishable ingredients, so it does not require refrigeration in hot weather, making it suitable for lunch bags. The peanut butter and jelly sandwich is very popular with both adults and children in the US and Canada. A 2002 survey showed the average American will have eaten 1500 of the sandwiches before graduating from high school. It's the classic salty-meets-sweet pairing that's found in many cuisines. Think of Chinese dishes like sweet and sour pork or American snacks Cracker Jacks.

The Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich is a high energy food, peanut butter being high in calories and fat, and jelly in sugar. Americans eat enough peanut butter in a year to make more than 10 billion peanut butter in a year to make more than 10 billion peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

The Virginia Marketplace is proud to sell all natural Virginia peanut butter from The Peanut Shop of Williamsburg. Their peanut butter is just that- peanuts, and maybe a pinch of salt. No added sugars. It can be purchased in several varieties: smooth, crunchy, salt free smooth or a try a sampler of all three.

We also offer a wide variety of preserves from Graves Mountain. Graves Mountain Lodge is nestled deep in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains near Syria, Virginia. Graves Mountain Lodge established its cannery in 1980. They use family recipes to make theri 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 is as good as "Grandma used to make." Most famous for the apple butter they make delicious preserves and jelly as well. We offer Strawberry, Peach, Seedless Blackberry, Seedless Red Raspberry, Cherry and Peach Brandy Preserves as well as Apple Butter and Green Pepper Jelly. They are available in groups of three, in samplers, in gift boxes and in gift baskets and as part of are other gourmet Virgina Marketplace Gift Baskets.