By Jessica Isaacs
Summer fun is in full bloom this week at The Mustard Seed Market! After 24 years of success in the area, shop owners Robb and Danielle Stewart invite the community to celebrate an important milestone on Saturday with this thriving family owned and operated business.
Tucked right off of U.S. Highway 321 in Blowing Rock, The Mustard Seed’s convenient location makes it an easily accessible must-see stop for locals and visitors to the High Country. Park the car and step through the gates and you’ll find this wonderful destination garden center is a whimsical world of its own.
So what can you expect to find at The Mustard Seed?
“We are a unique business in that we are not a big box store. We are not just a generic shop,” Danielle said. “We encompass everything for the garden, from small annuals and herbs all the way up to natives, trees, shrubs and a great selection of Japanese maples. We keep fresh product coming in weekly throughout the entire season — we don’t stop after the spring.
“We have just a really neat collection of wonderful plants that bloom, things that are great for gardens, things for landscaping and container gardens, but we have a great selection of unique home accessories, vintage finds and quirky stuff for inside, as well.”
THE NEW GREENHOUSE
Now in their 24th year at The Mustard Seed, the Stewarts have plenty to celebrate, but it’s the grand opening of a brand new greenhouse that marks the festivities that will take place on Saturday. This recently completed facility will give the Stewarts and their team more space to grow and house their herbs, and will also allow them to stay open into the holiday season.
“We are replacing an old 18-year-old little plastic hoop house. It housed our herbs wonderfully for years and we have just outgrown that space and need to have something a little more permanent,” Danielle said. “We want to have it heated and we’re going to use it to extend our season.
“We hope to have a Christmas market and be open throughout November and in to December to do more with decorating and greenery. It will be the quality and selection that people have come to expect, just extended into the holidays. It will give us a warm space.”
By the time next spring rolls around, the new space will make it a lot easier for them to care for their plants in the unpredictable mountain weather.
“Our springs are challenging up here because of the weather, and we take care of our plants like nobody’s business. We literally, if a frost is coming, hand move everything inside or cover every single thing every time we have a frost or a freeze,” Danielle said. “We have done that up to 12 and 15 times in a spring. It’s about 40 man hours for us to dismantle our entire shop, and then we have to put it all back together the next morning so we can present it as retail-ready as spring can be. So, having another greenhouse that we can keep the frost out of the plants is going to be most helpful.”
The Stewarts invite you to celebrate this new addition all day on Saturday (open for business from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.) and enjoy food, specials, fun and live music from local band Bootstrap Slick.
Folks from The Mustard Seed’s gourmet sister store “Just in Thyme,” which is located at the end of the market’s parking lot and operated by Danielle’s sister, will be on hand for demonstrations.
“She has great edibles, wonderful jams and jellies, just fabulous finds. She’s opening up for the season and doing really well and everyone’s loving what they’re getting from her,” Danielle said. “She’s going to be demonstrating and a local beekeeper is coming with a hive to demonstrate because she sells the honey. A local cookbook author is coming to sign cookbooks. We’re going to have a really good time.”
BLOOMING BUCKS
Saturday is also an important day for The Mustard Seed’s already avid customers as it marks the first day of Blooming Bucks redemption — a month-long celebration of customer appreciation.
“We give out Blooming Bucks the entire month of May. For every $20 in purchases that someone makes we give them a $2 Blooming Buck,” Danielle said. “They get to save them up all spring, come back in for the entire month of August and redeem them for up to half of their entire purchase. It’s like giving away free cash and, just like a big sale, we have people that come in and hide special pots or plants they’ve been saving up for, so that starts this weekend.
“Something fun will happen all day. It’s just going to be exciting and we’re going to thank our customers for their loyalty — we couldn’t do it without them. We have a great team and we’re all excited about making this happen.”
Hard work has paid off for these dedicated small business owners and they hope to see you at the market on Saturday as they celebrate their accomplishments and what’s in store for the future at The Mustard Seed.
“We are really so thankful — very, very thankful. As we have grown, we have worked really, really hard,” Danielle said. “My husband Rob and I started this when our oldest son was five months old and he’s almost 24 now. My kids have grown up here and we just have had a tremendous appreciation for our local customers who support us and know that we’re just a small, family-owned business.
“We started from nothing and tried to make it, so it is kind of fun to feel like we’ve gotten some place. We’re thankful for the people that have helped us get there. It’s challenging at best sometimes, but we really do appreciate our customers.”
The Mustard Seed Market
5589 U.S. Highway 321 in Blowing Rock
828-295-4585
www.themustardseedmarketnc.com
Photos from The Mustard Seed Market by Ken Ketchie.
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