A Mother's/Grandmother's Love

The Love and Devotion a mother can give is endless! My mother has been awesome, helping with behind the scenes with the children, as well as, every other task within the business for a number of years now! Your the Best!!

Lots of Love at the Market

This Saturday was filled with sunshine and beauty! Much Love to go around!
Love of our favorite Double Dutch Chocolate Brownies from some beautiful customers who are enjoying the new market lawn, while sharing the giant soft chocolate gooey love filled goodness!

Fun Filled First Week

My first week as a new intern has been a blast!

On Tuesday, Tracie helped me get aquatinted with the kitchen and the daily routine. Also, I was able to assist in making some delectable chocolate brownies. I highly recommend trying them as they will surely satiate your chocolate needs.

On Wednesday, Nissa showed me how the Blacksburg market works. She ran me through the set up routine and introduced me to some of the regulars. Throughout the afternoon, she also educated me about the ingredients in the baked goods and a few of the stories behind them. Seeing people enjoy our hard work is definitely going to be one of the most rewarding parts of the experience.

Thursday I was able to work with both Ashley and Nissa. One of my jobs was to assist Nissa with making oat power cookies. If you haven't tried them yet, you must! They're the perfect blend of chocolaty, sweet, crunchy, and nutty goodness. Ashley showed me how to finish off and package the cookies, while trying to stay one step ahead of Nissa's baking. They have a great system and everyone works harmoniously together.

On Friday, I worked closely with Nissa to make a variety of humus's and olive tapenade. We concluded the day by getting ready for Saturdays' markets.

So far I've learned that flexibility and creativity are going to make a great recipe for solving any challenge we may come across. Everyone is extremely inviting and I had a great time working with the girls this past week. I'm looking forward to the weeks to come!

~Erin~

Customer Love

The instant gratification of seeing people enjoy our goodies is unparalleled. Thank you for sharing our passion for quality baked goods, and for looking so darn cute while you do it!

Photo Credit: Peg Fisher

Our Friends: Merry Peas

For one dollar per stem, you can be the owner of a cheery, lush, fragrant peony bloom. If you play your cards right, and get one with lots of buds on it, they'll continue to bloom into a beautiful bouquet! All you have to do is visit Mary P. at her stand called Merry Peas! Between you and me, she accepts our olive tapenade as legal tender. :o)

~Nissa

From the Interns: Kazandibi Rolls

Tracie allows us to make a little something of our own each week, to sell at the market. This Wednesday, I'm making some cinnamon rolls, with a Mediterranean twist.

I was originally inspired by a blog entry written by an English woman who is living in France, and is on vacation in Marrakesh. She wrote about some lovely honey drenched pastries she was enjoying on her holiday. The mention of Mediterranean desserts sparked a memory a gorgeous dessert called Kazandibi, which I had a few years ago at a Turkish restaurant. It is a light milk custard similar to flan. It's dusted with cinnamon (not cinnamon and sugar...just cinnamon) and pistachio nuts.

I thought a good way to combine these elements of inspiration in an original way would be in a cinnamon roll. So this Wednesday I offer you the Kazandibi Roll: A milk dough roll filled with cinnamon and pistachios, and glazed (read: drenched) with honey.

~Nissa

Big Spring Mill 225 lbs of flour

The Harrah family took a morning trip to the flour mill to buy 225 pounds of flour. Spotted a duck on the bridge. Ty was super stoked to see the duck and also a train on our business trip today.

Our Tiny Intern

Our Tiny Intern, 5 Month Old Ryder, helps mommy prepare brownies for baking!

Our Little Intern

Our Little Intern 3 year old Tyson Harrah
Helps mommy roll dough to bake Whole Wheat Breads

Finally, a word from me The Founder of UTGU and a BIG THANKS!

Nissa has done a superb job with the blog. I asked Nissa to keep a journal when I hired her last year, but she came up with something better, A blog! Smart cookie!
Nissa and Ashley have been awesome! While I was pregnant all of last season and very pregnant the last half of the season, I couldn't have done it without them! Nissa, Ashley, my husband Kenny and my mom, really pulled alot of weight between them last year! Thanks to all of them for their hard work, love and support!!

Sneak Peak of "The Market Book"!

Kathryn Albright is the founder of organization called Friends of the Market. The volunteers for FotM can be seen selling Blacksburg Farmers' Market t-shirts and are the ones who set up and man our special events. One such event is coming up, a breakfast at the market (it's slated for Mid-July) . As a special project for the event, Kathryn is putting together a book telling the history and behind the scenes stories of each of the market vendors. It will include original photography from each of the vendors as well!

Of course, we are so busy with our work in the kitchen, it has taken us right to the deadline for our photos to be submitted for the book. At any rate, here is a small sampling of the photos we are going to submit, and thus a sneak peak of the book!

Canning jars are worth their weight in gold around our kitchen!

Ashley can make over 100 of our signature Oat Power Cookies out of a single batch of dough. AND she does it with a smile!

The secret ingredient in our Irish Scones? A gentle touch.


I'll end with a candid shot...so you don't think we spend all of our time standing around smiling. :o)

~Nissa

NEW AND IMPROVED!

Hello everyone! Captain Obvious here to say: It's been a while, and I'm so sorry! Last fall and winter were pretty crazy, and I had no time to blog... not even on my personal blog. So, to prevent such a long gap in communication I am learning how to delegate some of my blogging responsibilities. By that I mean, I have finally become computer savvy enough to have more than one author on this blog! From now on you won't only be hearing from me. You'll also be hearing from my fellow assistant, Ashley, the founder and owner of Under the Green Umbrella, Tracie and from a new assistant...or two!

There really is so much that goes on at Under the Green Umbrella besides what you all see at the market, and each of our experiences are so different! For instance, did any of you Blacksburg customers know that we also do business at the Grandin Farmers' Market? That's where Ashley is on Saturdays, and she always has such wonderful stories to share with us when she gets back. We plan to write about our entire experience at UtGU. That includes but is not limited to: kitchen chatter, our friends at the market, new products, recipes, even those moments when the line between work and home becomes a little hazy.

If you haven't already noticed, we are all about the chit-chat at UtGU, and this blog is no different! Please comment, subscribe, and if you have a blog of your own, leave us a link! :o) We really love to connect with our community and we want to know about you.

Cheers to new beginings!
Nissa