Hello, I’m Mountain Mama of Mountain Mama’s Organic Herbs.
I thought you might like to know a little bit about me and how this new adventure of mine got started.
First of all, my name is Sue Cobuluis. I was raised in Topeka, Kansas. My childhood memories are many, but the kitchen of my Grandma Banks was a very special place. It always had wonderful smells coming from it. She always had a large garden, and I remember what great talks we had while snapping beans and shucking the peas. Oh, how we would laugh. I guess because of this, I have always had a love for cooking, but the gardening part—well, let’s just say, I wasn’t given the green thumb in the family.
My husband and I met and married in 1969. In 1970 we moved to Florida and later this is where we started our family. Like all mothers, I found there just weren’t enough hours in a day to get it all done. Because of this, when it came to the grocery shopping, I too was looking for food that was a quick fix so I could try to get all that needed to be done in one day done. Then, one day the side of a brownie mix box caught my eye, and I noticed half of the ingredients listed I didn’t even know what they were. That really bothered me. SO….I started looking into making things ahead. What could I do to help make the process easier? What if I could make my spices ahead of time and store them -- yet what I was serving would still be freshly made? This worked really well for me while my sons were growing up.
Then, came the empty nest syndrome. With the boys all grown, all the hurrying and scurrying came to a halt and so did my make-ahead cooking. My husband and I now had time to get out a bit and see and do some things we always talked about. One of our dreams was to have a place in North Carolina. Two years ago we did just that. We love our place in Murphy, North Carolina. Right now, we still live in Florida, but as my husband is getting closer to retirement we dream of living there full time. We live in a great cabin community. We come together and have great meals. My favorite is Thanksgiving and that one is at our cabin.
Here at the cabin community is where I met Julie. We became friends quickly. Julie opened a natural and organic bakery called “Sticky Buns”. I was so happy for her. One day, I just asked her if she thought organic herb mixes and rubs would do well there; and she said, “Hey, let’s give a try.”
Wow, now the fun was beginning because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with this. About two months later, I had my product; and I wanted to have people taste it, so I brought it to work. I brought food for a week, and people from three departments came to try my food. They loved it, and I loved hearing people say they thought I really had something here and needed to move forward and put it on the market.
The next week was our trip to the cabin. I gave out samples to the families at the cabin community, and I took it to my friends’ bakery -- “Sticky Buns”. I had wonderful feedback from all. So here I am now -- putting a web page together with friends’ help. I’m so proud of my mixes and rubs, and I really think you’ll enjoy making them for your friends and family.