Several years ago, I made a couple loaves of carrot raisin bread similar to those that I loved from Mimi's restaurant. I found the recipe on one of those copycat recipe sites. I had an extra half loaf, so I dropped it by my Dad's house while his wife was out running errands. A few days later, my husband and I dropped by to visit and I asked my Dad and Mary how they liked the loaf. His wife looked at me and said: "What loaf of homemade carrot raisin bread?" Well, all eyes turned to my Dad who displayed the look of someone caught with his hand in the cookie jar. If you are a parent, you know that look.
Turns out, Daddy had eaten the whole half loaf in one setting before Mary returned home, so he never mentioned it to her. At this point, we all had a good laugh as Daddy explained that the taste of the carrot raisin bread had reminded him of the flavor of something that his mother, my Grandma Lela, made when he was a child. He claimed he was trying to figure out what that flavor was as he continued to eat, and pretty soon, the whole thing was gone! I confirmed he was right when I told him it was molasses. Daddy grinned and said, "Mom used molasses all the time." You could tell that the bread - and the molasses - brought back fond memories, and took him back to a happy childhood filled with lots of homemade goods.
That's the thing about flavors, they are interwoven with the memories and experiences of our lives. At Holly's Homemade, our flavors often take people back to a special place in their memory, usually a simpler time in their lives. Many of our customers - primarily the men - often tell us as they sample our Lela's Apple Butter, that it is "just like Mom" made.
They are right of course, but they don't usually know why. So, I'll let you in on a little secret - we use old-fashioned spices in a lot of our products. Spices like cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and cloves. You will find them in our Spiced Pear Jam, the Holiday Blueberry Jam, and of course, Lela's Apple Butter.
Those spices help that homemade flavor come through. And like it says on our label, we add a little love (from Texas) to make it "Simply Yummy!" Just like Mom.