Vintage Candy + Headbands
Meet the lovely Dannah of Sweet – Canada’s Sweet Shop! We first met at the Millarville Farmer’s Market and then ran into each other a couple of times at various markets all over Alberta until we ended up being booth neighbours at a wholesale show in Toronto. She bought a couple of my Rockabilly Headbands and I always admired her super vintage style. Instafriends! And she makes candy, I mean, CANDY – who doesn’t love candy? Not that that’s a criteria for becoming my friend but you know, a little candy does make friendship a whole lot more fun.
So last week I visited her in her kitchen in Strathmore, where all the magic happens. She showed me how to make coconut brittle, my all-time-favourite.
The first step to making super yummy gluten-free candy is mixing sugar and corn syrup. This all goes into a huge pot which reminded me a lot of a cauldron. It took a while for the sugar to melt and get hot, so we had time to chat a little. She started her business in the summer of 2012 but it all really began way back when she was a teenager helping her mom make peanut brittle which they were selling at that time. Working on those family recipes was always something that Dannah enjoyed and after graduating high school it didn’t take too long for her to decide that turning those heirloom recipes into a proper business was what she wanted to do with her life. Oh, quick, let’s add the fresh coconut!
I never realized that making candy could be so physically challenging but, oh my, things are heavy and get hot. You wouldn’t believe that a slender person like Dannah would be able to do it all on her own but she still does all the cooking herself. She hired a couple of local ladies to help her with the packaging as that’s a step that is quite time-consuming and she has lots of orders to fill every week. At the beginning she sold only at local farmer’s markets but the demand grew quickly and now she’s selling through gift stores all over Canada.
Oh and the fresh coconut brittle, I swear, I ate so much my belly started to ache. Dannah says her main motivation to start her candy business was so she could eat as much candy as she wanted every day. Now that’s what I call goals!
Thank you so much for letting me visit and learn how to make candy, Dannah. You are a sight for sore eyes in your vintage dresses and you absolutely rock my Rockabilly Headbands. If you want to look as stunning as Dannah, just click on the link to get your hands on one of my Rockabilly Headbands!
With love from the Maple And Oak Diaries,
❤ Leonie❤
