The J6 Journey: Day 355: Candy Canes! Wrapping Presents!

Today was all about wrapping presents and visiting a sweet (literally!) candy shop to see how candy canes are made! It was a bit of a drive, but well worth it. We went with our field trip loving homeschool group. I was assigned to gather the cash (it cost $5 to make a candy cane) and kind of be the liason between the group and the owners. The current owners have only had the shop for 12 years, but the shop itself has been around for 97 years. It has traded owners a few times. It also has changed locations a few times as well. They have tons of vintage signs and use a lot of the original equipment. I love, love, LOVE small businesses like this that carry on the traditions and recipes and know how's from years ago. Martinsville is a very cute town and reminded me of Charlottetown. Sigh. The kids even went to the park which was full of lights as well! It was a great evening out!

Jared and Abishai stayed home, as well as Benaiah, because Abishai is still sick. No fever today, but still a very runny nose and he didn't eat much. He even went to bed very early. Justin also now has that wicked cough and it sounded a bit worse today. I gave him some cough medicine and lots of cough drops. But he still had a great day with the cousins and said, "You make me laugh and cough because I'm having so much fun and I love you too much!" (or he said something like that). He loves spending time with the girls. I asked him if he was tired of the sparkly stuff today (they did some crafts at Grandma's house, too) and he said, no, it was fine. Awww....I'm glad he doesn't mind hanging out with a bunch of girls.

Well, now, look who's the big man of the house now!

Benaiah's wood stacking project!

He's so big! And he's using a power tool! Ah!

Wrapping presents while the middle kids were at Grandma and Grandpa's house helping Aaron, Shauna, Nora and Everly wrap gifts, too!

The Candy Kitchen in Martinsville, IN. It's been around for almost 100 years. They still use some of the original equipment and make all the chocolates and candy canes by hand.

We were a bit early, so we walked around the block. Martinsville is a lot like Charlottetown with little shops and a main government center in the middle of a town square. It's about 45 minute south of Indianapolis.

We saw some war memorials, and I thought this side of one was interesting because it included a name for someone who died in the "War on Terror." I haven't seen a monument to that "war" before.

Several local businesses and organizations decorated poles around town, 1 per business. Some had lots of stuff on it, and some had almost nothing. But this one, had lots of teddy bears! Some had Scriptures!

Goofy kids!

Downtown Martinsville building.

Some examples of what the Candy Kitchen makes throughout the year. Colts horseshoes, hearts for Valentine's Day, Easter baskets for Easter, Shamrocks for St. Patrick's Day, red and white and blue candy canes for Independence Day, etc. You have to order candy canes months in advance because of the high demand especially at Christmastime.

A tree in the form of a candy cane!

It takes 1 hr to heat up and blend together sugar, water, and corn syrup to start the candy canes.

Then it takes another 30-60 minutes to add flavor, roll out the "dough," and shape the candy canes. And another 30 minutes to proper cool and package them. Here they are adding the red dye to part of the "dough."

"Pulling" the candy to add in the color. The candy cools slightly, but also warms up from your hands. It takes 85 to 100 pulls to make this happen. And it's hard to pull!

The yellowish candy turns white as you pull it and air is mixed in. There's no food coloring in this part of the batch.

Adding the red to the white to make the "log" from which the candy canes are pulled.

They use this special machine as they get the twists right, and it cuts the littler logs into small bite size peppermints. We all got to try one and it was still warm and a bit soft! Freshest candy cane we've ever had!