First and Foremost, Kerry merely affirmed what a truly amazing person she is this past weekend. She did an AMAZING job at organizing an outstanding weekend, there was a direct correlation to the amount of work and effort she put into the weekend and what people were able to take away.
Made it to Niagara-on-the-Lake late Thursday and spent some wonderful quality time over a cup of tea with Kerry in the lobby, discussing the upcoming events and had the opportunity to meet
Chocolot. I'm not sure what it is about Chocolate, but it just seemed like instantaneous friendships were going to be developed.
Friday, we headed back across the Border to Buffalo to meet Larry from Landies Candies. Some confusion occurred, but, what's life or a conference without a little confusion? (Note to self, when the owner tells you to park around the back in the parking lot, follow the advice and don't walk all around the dang building) We made it to Landies, met up with
Josh, Connie, Gene,
Plus One and
Chocoera and introduced ourselves to Larry, who proved to be a wonderful host and very willing to share his knowledge and experiences. Luckily I asked if we could take photographs, instead of just plowing ahead and starting to photograph everything in sight. We were nicely informed that no photography was allowed to occur in the factory and we all gladly kept our camera's pocketed.
Because May isn't their busy season, there was one line working, which Larry gave us a detailed tour of, a whole-nut cluster line that he designed and built/had built out of non-traditional methodologies, letting us all know that the answer to a confectionery problem may not rest in the hands of the "experts". The design and functionality of a system often depends on the inherent creativity of the person with the need. (Necessity is the Mother of Invention). And, creativity is not a sole function of the product, but sometimes the production of the product.
Larry showed us a video of a one-shot machine and his wrapping/packaging processes. We also toured the kitchen area where Landies produces some of the best Sponge Candy in the country. Large Savage Stoves and larger copper kettles filling huge "tubs" with the sponge to allow it to set and await cutting and packaging. Landies cuts their Sponge candy in a special room, devoted solely for that purpose. The room is equipped with a healthy faucet system that allows for easy clean-up of the sticky mess left over from the cutting process. Landies cut's their Sponge by hand - labor intensive? Increased time for production? Yes, but also a much better end product -
Thank you Larry for hosting us and allowing us the opportunity to share your business.
As you've read, the Anchor Bar was not open, so, after a few wrong turns and a phone call later, we all ended up at Duff's (see photo's above) for Wings, Beef on Weck, salads, fries and more.
Running late, we dashed off to Tomric to meet Brian and do some shopping. The folks at Tomric also proved to be fantastic hosts, welcoming us with open arms and the offer to purchase some stuff at a decent discount (Selmi's not included.)
Tomric and Brian allowed photo's, so out came the camera's, and the questions flew faster than the photographs were being taken.
Brian first did a panning demo using some everyday products (puff cereal)in the Selmi Comfit to show that literally, almost anything can be panned. We discussed raisins, nuts, and of course things like cereal. Requirements for cold air, keeping the product to be enrobed tumbling to allow for a proper coating of chocolate on the product itself. We were told that it would be noisy, but all in all, it wasn't that bad and discussions did occur throughout the demo.
The Selmi Comfit
Brian working his magic
Then, while Brian was putting the Selmi enrober together the lovely folks at Tomric put out some wine, cheese and deli meat platters - (which I failed to photograph)
I brought something I've been working on and Brian was gracious enough to use those pieces in the demo as well as provide his invaluable assistance in a few other production issues I had
after being enrobed
Brian was stupendous and more than willing to share his insights, knowledge, thoughts and skills. Now, if I can just get Santa to make an early delivery of a Selmi this year and arrange to have Brian over for a week or two to teach me how to use it....
My mind was sufficiently overwhelmed by this point and that point I forgot about the camera for the remainder of the night -
We dashed back to go to Casa Mia where we were treated to a wonderful meal (see above), excellent wines and topped off with the chocolates that we all made to bring and share with the other confectioners -
When I returned to the hotel for the evening, both mind and body over-filled I got a message from the Front Desk that there was a package for me. ????? Confusion reigned and much to my surprise
Lior sent us some lovely gifts to let us know she was thinking of us - how awesome, that because of a little thing like Chocolate, we have discovered friends from around the world who are SO kind that they do wonderfully amazing things like this?
I'm still trying to shake the cobwebs out of my mind from driving half the night last night and little to no sleep
I hope Friday made sense, I'll post my report on Saturday when I've had additional time to re-coup
