Happily Made
IN A HAPPY PLACE
High Country, NC is Home...
If you have never spent time in the Blue Ridge Mountains, come visit. Our small family farm is right along the famous Parkway that stretches across the ridge between Boone and Blowing Rock, North Carolina.
Here we grow everything from our own berries (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries), grapes, and all the expected fare, including tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, potatoes, beans in many colors, as well as flowers to brighten up the NC certified home kitchen where Mystic Pasta happens.
Our family works together during the warm months to tend and harvest whatever we can, in addition to our busy tech jobs (don't ask, we don't know how we do it either) and two girls, a teenager and a toddler.
But pasta comes first, especially with big farmer's market expectations. Exciting times.
Blame the Chickens
OR A LACK OF TIME FOR ACTUAL ARTSY STUFF
It’s hard to tell where the pasta obsession started. One could say it’s a chicken and egg scenario. Literally.
What started as a few feathered friends next to the garden to a small flock, all colorful layers with eggs that often felt too pretty to eat. Those chickens were prolific, we found ourselves giving eggs away to friends and neighbors and of course, making one heck of a lot of quiche and grade-A breakfasts.
During this peak egg time, I started making pasta with my new Kitchen Aid mixer. My husband bought me some pasta attachments and I was hooked with my first batches of marigold-colored, rich, chewy fettuccini Finally, a way to use some of the beautiful eggs and, as time went on, also a way for me to leverage my inherent creativity.
With a busy tech job and during the warm months, an ambitious small garden, I didn’t have time for real art (painting and drawing).
But then came pasta—I could combine all the things I love about farm living, growing our own ingredients for pasta (I don’t have a flour mill, sadly. Bob’s Red Mill organics are the closest I can get) and finding cool ways to incorporate color, texture, and fun into my pasta.
And of course, there are other things...
There was another love that entered into the picture. Our oldest daughter, Chloe, is quite handy in the kitchen, and rather creative too. We worked together on new pastas and decided on a whim to take part in the Blowing Rock Farmer’s market three years ago. We had some produce, flowers, my pasta, and her baked delights. We did bang-up business, met a lot of new people in our community, and had something to do every Thursday that made us happy together as mom and daughter.
Since this time my husband has chipped in, being chief egg collector, cleaner, and master pasta drying rack creator (see my Instagram). He's also Chief Advil and IPA-getter when I've spent an entire day on my feet working through one day's pasta color (have to do it all at once so colors don't change too much during dough resting).
This year we found out we would be part of the big Watauga County Farmers Market in nearby Boone, NC. We are so excited to meet you and share our creations.
After Blowing Rock Farmer’s Market we had so much demand I figured it was time to set up a website so folks can order ahead, see what the weekly specialty pasta will be, and even order online and have these homemade delicacies shipped from our North Carolina Dept. of Agriculture-approved certified kitchen.
Thanks for following...
Feel free to contact me with any questions, custom or large order requests, or anything else you’d like to know.
Thanks so much for visiting. Come see us in person at Watauga Farmer’s Market in Boone, NC every Saturday 8 a.m.-1 p.m. beginning in May all the way through November.
Nicole and family (Tim, Chloe (14), and Mia (3)
