Hello, I’m Mountain Mama of Mountain Mama’s Organic Herbs/Spices
I thought you might like to know a little bit about me and how this new adventure of mine 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. Because of this, my herbs and spices come fresh from the fields, certified organic, dried, and then sent to me in bulk. Please note these herbs and spices are pure. There is zero gluten added and zero MSG added in these herbs and spices.
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 herbs/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. I also found I wasn’t so rushed having my herbs/spices mixed ahead for family gatherings and parties. That was one less thing I had to do and one less emergency run to the store due to not having a herb/spice I needed for one of my recipes. You will find these herbs and spices just “POP” with flavor. Your guests and friends will make comments on the wonderful flavors. My rubs, mixes and dips are outstanding and so easy for you to use. Now I’m coming out with my herbs/spices in bottles so you can add them to your own family recipes. The first time you use them, your taste buds will know such a difference in the flavors in your recipes.
Then, here 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. That dream came true in 2004. We love our place in Murphy, North Carolina. 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 it 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 friend’s 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, rubs, dips and I really think you’ll enjoy making them for your friends and family.
UPDATE:
In April of 2009, we retired. I’m happy to say we live full time here in Murphy, North Carolina. The bonus of living here full time is all of our “Grandchildren” live only 5 hours away and we can enjoy them so much more. They were all able to spend some time with us this past summer. Oh that’s not true, baby Noah who was born June 20, 2010 is a little too little to come and spend time with us yet but one day it will be his turn to come to stay at our little cabin in the woods. The grandkids love it here in the woods and we love having them.
Have you ever wondered how I came up with the name for my business? One evening when we were with our friends Clare and Hoot, yes Hoot, but that is a nick name. His real name is Gene. I like his nick name better, don’t you? Well, all evening all we were talking about was North Carolina. You see Clare and Hoot had just bought land in around Bryson City. That night Hoot started calling me Mountain Mama. The next day I was talking to my best friend, Sue and sharing what Hoot was calling me the night before. Sue said hey, that’s like the song by John Denver, Country Road. Sue started to sing it to me and I remembered the catchy tune. I liked the song and I thought the Mountain Mama would be fun for people to say. So now you know how the name for Mountain Mama came about.
October 2010, I started selling my bottles of herbs/spices to the public. It just made since that I had the herbs/spices why not share my wonderful herbs/spices to all of you. At this same time I came up with five different sea salts and two blends for all of you to use too. I’m really excited about this next step and so far it seems you really like them too. So let me have your fed back on my five sea salts mixture and my two blends. Let me know how you are using them.