Loose Leaf Notes

-The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on December 10, 2020.

Jessie Benson had already accomplished a lot when she set out on a new path, freeing herself of achieving goals for the wrong reasons. In 2014, after years of being intensely focused on medical school, getting straight A grades and then working as a hospital anesthesiologist and ICU physician, Benson let go of her drive for approval. “That’s when my world opened up. Once I broke free from the need for approval and the fear of failure, then I could do anything,” she said.

Dr. Benson became a cellist, a professional artist (jessiebensonfineart.com), a yoga/mindfulness teacher and a certified life coach (jessiebenson.com), which has allowed her to draw on her physician’s experience of helping patients navigate the challenges of illness and loss. She wrote a book, Journey to You, which her webpage describes as “a 12-week self-discovery course that takes you on a fun adventure inward.” The book was recently featured in a class she taught to students at Floyd’s Springhouse Community School.

Benson, who has lived in Virginia since the 6th grade, pursued certification as a yoga teacher and life coach after practicing medicine for 10 years. Then, continuing on her path of personal truth, she and her cousin traveled the country in a 40-foot RV. After 8 months of traveling, they ended up in Floyd, which Benson knew as “a cool small town” from her time at Radford University, where she majored in biology before going on to study medicine at West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine and other schools. They weren’t in Floyd long before they purchased 13 ½ shared acres at the end of a long dirt road in Willis and with an up-close view of Buffalo Mountain.

She designed her home and helped build it with her cousin, Chris Ormsby of Utopian Homes, a building business that specializes in custom small homes. Talking about the design, which includes an artist studio and incorporates large panel windows that look out onto Buffalo Mountain, she quoted the building philosophy of her cousin: ‘Figure out your life and then design the house around the life, instead of design the house and then put your life in it.’ “We call it BMTV (Buffalo Mountain TV),” she said of watching the Buffalo from the rooms in her home.

More recently, Benson became the owner and head baker of Buffalo Mountain Bakery, a pop-up bakery serving made-to-order cakes, pies, croissants, kolache pastries and candy spiced pepita brittle. Just a few weeks ago, she posted on her Facebook page “baking for the holidays” with pictures of her fine baked creations. The response was overwhelmingly positive. She bakes out of her home (creating at her kitchen counter as she looks out onto the Buffalo). She makes weekly deliveries in Willis and Floyd and is a listed vendor at ShopFloyd (shopfloydva.com), which currently features a holiday promotion of $10 off a $30 purchase with the code LOVEFLOYD10.

“Everything has lots of flavor. You remember it,” she said as she pulled a batch of the bakery’s “favorite white chocolate raspberry cookies” from the oven.  She was planning a test batch of croissants filled with chocolate next and offered a slice of Santiago Almond cake, which exemplifies her baker’s tagline ‘I love to make gourmet goodies that are almost too pretty to eat and tastes so good you don’t want it to end.’ “It’s named that because it originated in Santiago, Spain (where the Camino pilgrimage route comes together),” Benson commented.

Benson’s interest in baking began with a basic cookbook that she owned when she attended Radford University, some 20 years ago.  She remembers making treats and surprising faculty members with them. Over the years, she continued to build on her joy of creating tasty delights for others and is now taking it to the next level with Buffalo Mountain Bakery.

Benson, who describes herself as a “maker,” is still accomplishing a lot and is doing that by following what she loves most. “The bakery has enthusiasm of its own. I just follow,” she said. “I love to make the most of life. I love to explore, and I love a new adventure.”  – Colleen Redman