Blue Crab Bay Company is 30 Years Old

2015 marks 30 years since Blue Crab Bay founder Pamela Barefoot sat down at her rural kitchen table to create herb blends for clam and crab dip. Since that day, her company has navigated the perils facing small businesses on Virginia's isolated Eastern Shore. The internationally recognized specialty foods producer has come back from a fire, weathered recessions and successfully reached beyond their remote location to a larger market seeking their high-quality specialty foods and crab stoneware. Their location is the source and inspiration of many of their products, including award winning clam-juice infused Sting Ray Bloody Mary mix.

Sting Ray Bloody Mary Mixer was featured in July on the MSN Travel page as their pick for a souvenir from Virginia! Sting Ray Bloody Mary Mix is featured in many of our Seafood Gift Baskets. We also sell Blue Crab Bay Seafood Soups and Clam and Crab Dips,

Easy Summer Party Pleasers

These recipes will make you look like a gourmet chef. Keep plenty of Smithfield Ham Sausage, Ham Slices and Bacon on-hand for easy summer party pleasers!

Grilled Barbecue Shrimp: Soak large peeled raw shrimp in orange juice for 1 hour. Wrap each piece with half slice bacon and secure with pick. Brush with barbecue sauce and grill until bacon is done.

Honey Blues: Spread softened Blue Cheese on baguette slices, top with ham slices and drizzle with honey.

Crispy Ham Sausage and Cheese Wafers

Crispy Ham Sausage and Cheese Wafers Ingredients ·         6 ounce Ham Sausage ·         8 ounce Shredded Cheddar cheese ·         1/2 lb Butter, softened to room temperature (important) ·         2 cup Flour ·         1/2 teaspoon Salt ·         1/4 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper ·         1 1/2 cup Rice Krispies Cereal Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cook ham sausage according to package directions. Drain and cut into 1/4-inch pieces. Set aside. Combine cheese and butter. Add flour, salt and cayenne. Mix well until all dry ingredients are incorporated. Fold cooked ham sausage and cereal into flour mixture. Shape into 1-inch balls and place on baking pan 2-inches apart. Lightly flatten with fork. Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until lightly browned and set. Let cool 5 minutes on pan. Serve warm. Store in refrigerator or freezer. Makes: 4 1/2 dozen These are very similar to the Southern cheese straw, but are rich, delicate wafers with crunch from the cereal and great flavor from the addition of the ham sausage.

Virginia Gifts for Father's Day

Father's Day has been celebrated for over 100 years. The first Father's Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910 in Spokane, Washington. Sonora Smart Dodd, often referred to as the “Mother of Father’s Day,” was 16 years old when her mother died in 1898, leaving her father William Jackson Smart to raise Sonora and her five younger brothers on a remote farm in Eastern Washington. In 1909 when Sonora heard a Mother’s Day sermon at Central United Methodist Church in Spokane, she was inspired to propose that Father’s receive equal recognition. The Spokane YMCA, along with the Ministerial Alliance, endorsed Dodd’s idea and helped it spread by celebrating the first Father’s Day in 1910. In 1924 President Calvin Coolidge recognized Father’s Day and urged the states to do likewise. In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a proclamation calling for the third Sunday in June to be recognized as Father’s Day and requested that flags to be flown that day on all government buildings. President Richard M. Nixon signed a proclamation in 1972, permanently observing Father’s Day on the third Sunday in June.

This year Father's Day is celebrated on Sunday, June 21. We know something a dad is sure to love to get for his special day......food. Dad's love Virginia Peanuts. We have peanuts for the golfing dad, the baseball loving dad or a can that says Father's Day and reminds dad to take some time off today. Dads also love tasty BBQ Sauces such as Bone Doctor’s Original Tomato Based and Vinegar based Carolina BBQ sauces, James River Barbecue Sauce. Some Dad's love soup, others have a sweet tooth for preserves and honey. Some of our gift baskets are perfect for a Dad or Granddad. Check out Southern Gourmet Treasures, Barbecue Time, Bloody Mary Brunch, or Tasty Days. How about a Smithfield Sampler that is sure to please such as the Smoked Country Sampler or a Smithfield  or Peanut Shop of Williamsburg Gift Basket such as the Virginia Country Breakfast or Classic Peanut Sampler.

Summer Spiral Ham Glazes

Spiral Sliced Half Ham

Add a little spicy heat to your Summer Spiral Hams this year.  Try these fruity glazes with mild “hotness” for an awesome sweet-hot taste sensation perfect for the hot summer days ahead. ENJOY!

SRIRACHA PINEAPPLE GLAZE: ½ cup Pineapple Preserves; 2 tbsp. Sriracha Sauce, and 1 tsp. finely chopped fresh Rosemary. 

JALAPENO PEACH GLAZE: ½ cup Peach Preserves, 2 tbsp. finely chopped fresh Jalapeno Pepper (seeds removed), and ½ TSP finely chopped fresh Sage.

PEPPERY ORANGE GLAZE: ½ cup Honey, ¼ cup freshly squeezed Orange Juice, 1 tbsp. orange zest, and 1 tsp. Red Pepper Flakes.
Combine ingredients and generously brush over ham during final 30 minutes of cooking. 

Maple Syrup Season in Virginia is Over

The Highland Maple Syrup Festival is over for this year and on March 30 Puffenbarger's Sugar Orchard's Facebook page announced: " The 2015 maple season is officially DONE!! "

Some interesting things about maple syrup:
Warm sunny days (above 40 degrees F) and frosty nights are ideal for sap flow.

The Maple season may last four to six weeks, but sap flow is heaviest for 10 to 20 days.

The harvest season ends with the arrival of warm spring nights and early bud development in the trees.

A maple tree is usually at least 4 years old and 10 inches in diameter before it is tapped.

Tapping does no permanent damage to the tree and only about 10% of the sap is collected each year.

Each tap yields an average of 10 gallons of sap per season. That yields about one quart of syrup.

A gallon of pure Maple syrup weighs 11 pounds.

March is National Peanut Month

From The Peanut Shop of Charleston's Facebook Page:
In honor of National Peanut Month, here are 10 fun peanut facts that you may not know!

1. Peanuts flower above ground and then migrate underground to reach maturity
2.The world's largest reported peanut was four inches long. It was grown in North Carolina by Mr. Earl Adkins. 3. Ever wonder where the term "Peanut Gallery" comes from? The term became popular in the late 19th century and referred to the rear or uppermost seats in a theater, which were also the cheapest seats. People seated in such a gallery were able to throw peanuts, a common food at theaters, at those seated below them. It also applied to the first row of seats in a movie theater, for the occupants of those seats could throw peanuts at the stage, stating their displeasure with the performance.
4. Adrian Finch of Australia holds the Guinness World Record for peanut throwing, launching a peanut 111 feet and 10 inches in 1999 to claim the record.
5. Tom Miller pushed a peanut to the top of Pike's Peak (14,100 feet) using his nose in 4 days, 23 hours, 47 minutes and 3 seconds.
6. The first peanuts grown in the United States were grown in Virginia, hence the Virginia variety peanut, which is the largest peanut grown in the USA.
7. As early as 1500 B.C., the Incas of Peru used peanuts as sacrificial offerings and entombed them with their mummies to aid in the spirit life.
8. Peanuts have come a long way from their original use of feeding pigs to becoming counted for as two-thirds of all snack nuts consumed in the United States.
9. Americans eat 3 pounds of peanut butter per person every year. That's about 700 million pounds, or enough to coat the floor of the Grand Canyon!
10. Peanuts are members of the pea family!

Eat Healthy Virginia Peanuts.... Live Longer
TheVirginiaMarketplace.com 

Pour It On... Maple Syrup is Good For You

In two weeks, March 14-15 and the weekend after, March 21-22 is the 57th Annual Highland Maple Festival. Take a step back in time to Highland County, “Virginia’s Sweet Spot”. 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. The Highland Maple Festival was designated a “Local Legacy” by the Library of Congress in 1999.

 At The Virginia Marketplace we have chosen to use maple syrup from Puffenbarger’s Sugar Orchard, located on Route 637 (Maple Sugar Road), southwest of Blue Grass, Virginia in Highland County in our gift baskets and gift boxes.