Okay so I'm biased but look as this will ya...
That's called a Funky Monkey Pie. My Dad, who has the worst sweet tooth I've ever seen (he used to put ice cream on his cereal instead of milk, no lie) said that this was the best pie he'd ever eaten. High praise! It's a homemade deep dish crust with bananas on the bottom, chocolate peanut butter mix layer, then a vanilla pudding layer, whipped cream, chopped peanuts and chocolate shavings.
Our Bakery At the Bluffs is fairly young. We decided to start small with items we knew were good, family recipes handed down over the years. I love to make desserts - it runs in my blood. So I'm more than happy to come in from pulling weeds or hauling logs to bake some pies.
We all combined our talents in the kitchen at our bakery to provide breads (yeast rolls made from scratch above), pies and specialty desserts such as peanut butter balls and chocolate covered caramels from scratch.
Its been interesting so far. We have a lot to learn but if we ever mess up than its more than easy to eat whatever we messed up on:)
If you're ever in the area, stop by for a slice!
So not only did Brooke and Pat let us work an herb garden but they also allowed us to share a huge outdoor veggie plot with them and Debra. In theory this was great, we'd all pitch in and have tons of food and learn how to can it and on and on....but reality has been a lot of learning from us Floridians. We lost some crops to the infamous potato beetle, I've almost been stuck overnight in the Tennessee clay and learning on the fly with a garden this size has been interesting...
But overall its been a blast - we'll put up some pictures of everything about halfway through the season if we can muster up the courage to show you all our weeds too.
Michelle and I were real intersted in learning a lot about gardening from veggies to herbs to flowers. The owners here mentioned that farming was part of our work. But early spring they sprung upon us an unbelievable opportunity - complete design and control of the herb/flower garden near the main store! The picture above shows this wonderful spot - those are 5' X 5' squares and there are 12 of them. That's pretty huge for begginers like us. Those big piles on the left are just SOME of the weeds we cleared out. The forefront shows off some of the herbs coming back from last year - oregano and a fennel plant which you'll see later becomes huge.
There are a few traditional veggie plants like tomato and green pepper in this garden but overall we wanted it to be unique. We also wanted everything in the garden to be edible - flowers and herbs. Most plants come from seed straight to the ground while some others were donated by some master gardeners. We'll keep you updated!
Michelle the weed queen
This view was a far cry from our flatland upbringings! Our family arrived to Nolichuckey Bluffs in April after meeting the owners briefly and exhanging a few emails. This view helped ease our nerves for such a big move. We started out thinking we'd be part of an organic farm and possibly clean some cabins. We have learned and experienced so much more since our arrival. Thanks for reading.....Sumner, Michelle, Amaya and Phoenix
