The best pancake I’ve ever had

Last weekend, Rob and I drove to Virginia to get some cherries from the Levering Orchard, which I learned is the largest cherry orchard in the South.

The orchard is just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, about an hour from us, and is a great outing spring, summer or fall. (We got loads of apples there last year.) The drive to the orchard is beautiful. I swear, the scenery here never gets old.

We didn’t actually pick our cherries since we were a little late in the season, but it’s still fun to buy them and know they had been picked in the last few days, if not that very same day. Fresh is best!

We got four pounds of cherries. Mmmm…. any idea what kind of cherries these are? I didn’t think to ask.

After we got our cherries, we drove up the Blue Ridge Parkway a little further to the Mabry Mill. It’s actually still a working mill and they have a restaurant there that is known for their pancakes, particularly their buckwheat pancakes since they mill the buckwheat in that old mill you see below.  (Fun fact: this is the most photographed place on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Now you know. )

Because I can never make up my mind, the combo pancake plate was perfect for me. One sweet potato pancake, one cornmeal pancake, and one buckwheat pancake. They were HUGE. (Don’t mind my messy hair. A boy took this photo. Any girl would fix that, right?)

The server informed me that the sweet potato pancakes don’t have any sweeteners added to them, but seriously, it tasted like a spice donut. It was amazing.

The cornmeal pancake was interesting…tasted like a thin, stiff piece of cornbread. It was really good with their fresh cherry jam.

And the buckwheat pancake was definitely unique. The server warned me that it had a unique taste and that it was supposed to taste like that. They used a special kind of yeast that gave it a very pungent flavor. It was pretty good…I think it’s something that would grow on me. Rob loved it though, which is crazy since he rarely likes whole grain things. He’s a white bread, white rice, white pasta kind of guy.

Pancakes are no match for a food blogger.

And of course, I ate some of Rob’s food too. His spiced apples that came with his biscuit sandwich were delish!We walked around the mill grounds and found an old whiskey still. The diagram is below in case any of you are interested in brewing.          

I did some work on the farm. 

Then, I went in the mill and made friends with the old men working there. I love that they were grinding and bagging the buckwheat right there! Of course I bought a bag.

After touring the sites, Maizey and I took in the view together.

And then we drove home. Apparently it was a rough morning.

ROUGH, I tell ya.

Does anyone have a killer sweet potato pancake recipe? I need to recreate those ASAP!

Tagged as: the boxer dog, the husband, travelling