The 10000 kilometer caramel machine

The ten thousand kilometer caramel machine

What's new on the farm:

This past week, I went to the caramel kitchen to restock some of our flavors.

While wrapping a batch of caramels, I thought about how much has changed in the last year for our honey caramel production.

Let's rewind to two years ago. Sometime at the end of May 2022, I was standing in a warehouse, staring at four pallets of newly-purchased antique candy machines.

The problem, I could immediately see, is that each of these machines was completely broken.

My mind raced as I thought about the money and time I poured into acquiring these machines.

I'm not a big risk taker, and pulling the trigger on this purchase was a big deal for our little business. 

And now we were the owner of two caramel wrapping machines, a batch roller machine, and a taffy puller, each literally in pieces on the floor before me.

The second heartbreak I felt was the loss of history these machines represented.

They stopped making these decades ago, and now they were rendered useless by the shipping company that drove them 5500 km from Alaska to Saskatoon.

"I'm about to throw up after seeing those photos" the seller wrote to me when I shared the news with him. His family had used the machines for over 30 years in their candy shop before they decided to let them go. 

So what was I going to do with four broken pieces of candy equipment?

First, I reached out to another candy maker in Boston who owned the same type of machine I just purchased, the Model K Kiss. 

Explaining my situation, I asked him if he had any contacts that could salvage my equipment.

It turns out, there are only two or three people in North America who could repair these machines.

One of whom repairs the antique machines at Disneyland!

After many conversations, I decided sending the equipment 2750 km away to a confectionary machine shop in Columbus, Ohio would be best.

So we built new crates, secured the busted machines as best we could, and sent them off to Columbus, hoping that they wouldn't be further damaged by the time they arrived.

About a month later, I received an email. "[It's] pretty bad. We are rebuilding the cracked and bent pieces."

Two months later, another message came in. The first machine was fixed, he just needed some caramel to test. The second one was getting painted. What color would I like?

Well...how about purple? 

Another month later, I received a photo. "Machines are done."

My jaw dropped at the photo. I couldn't believe how good it looked compared to what we sent to them!

Over the next year, the journey of getting these machines into operation continued.

I flew to Columbus to learn how to operate and maintain the equipment.

I was able to see all sorts of antique machines that they were working on and appreciate how they were preserving history and enabling small-scale makers like us to exist.

We tested our honey caramel with the machine but because we don't use any refined sugar in our caramel, we couldn't use the same technique to shape the caramel to go into the machine, because honey and sugar behave differently.

So, we had to test different ways to shape the caramel without adding any sugar to the recipe.

Finally, in July 2023, after one long year and another 2750 km, the machines were shipped back to Saskatoon and installed into our candy kitchen.

Father's Day Gift Bundles

3-Ingredient Healthy Strawberry Sorbet

1. Blend all the ingredients until smooth!
2. Eat right away!