In
1971 when my mother began making Barley Candy lollypops,
neither of us had any idea quite what we were getting into.
It began as a hobby. She was curious and set
out to recreate a childhood memory. Nothing less than the
real thing would do. She asked my father for a couple of
antique lollypop molds for her birthday, then began searching
for the recipe. She cooked and cooked until she had made
exactly the candy she remembered. She made a few and shared
them.
People wanted more. Then local stores started asking
for them. I was in College while my mother’'s “
hobby” was becoming a job. In the beginning I worked
with her in our family's kitchen, between my classes, helping
when she had a particularly big order. She finally had to
hire full time help and I went off to finish my degree and
begin teaching. Around the same time, our neighbors started
to complain that there were tractor trailers delivering
supplies to our residential neighborhood…. so my
parents decided that they should move the business to New
Hampshire and into what was once my Great-Grandparent's
inn.
They converted the upstairs bedroom where my mother
had been born into their personal kitchen. Then they converted
the room which had once been the town's post office into
the candy kitchen. The old dining room became the “filing”
room (where we file and wrap the lollypops) and the old
front parlor became our office and shipping room, (where
we have to be careful not to bump our heads on the pair
of antique kerosene chandeliers which grace the ceiling.)
In 1981 I moved my young family (my husband and two,
of what would later become, four boys) to Eaton Center and
began working once again making Barley Candy with my Mom.
Years before I had been an assistant, mainly processing
candies, sticking sticks and wrapping pops. This began a
real apprenticeship. Believe it or not it takes more than
a year just to learn the basics of how to cook and pour
syrup into all the different antique molds we use. Then
it's two or three years before you become truly proficient.
It looks simple. You mix up the recipe, boil the syrup add
the colors and flavors then pour into the mold, right? Wrong.
It's very precise. Two degrees undercooked and you have
a taffy while two degrees over and the candy is burnt. The
candy thickens and hardens as it cools, so if it's too cool
as you pour, it won’t fill in all the details of the
mold, and if the mold is too cold when you try to take the
candy out, then the candy is “frozen in” and
won't release from the mold. This says nothing about all
of the special items. Everything is done by hand, one lollypop
at a time.
Each mold is unique with its own idiosyncrasies.
We are now up to 14,000* different molds in the museum's
collection. I do not expect to ever pour them all, though
at this point, I expect I could pour any one. This is now
my twenty-fifth year and our thirty-fifth year in business.
We are practicing a lost art, crafting beautiful, unique,
intricate, delicate, and detailed creations… and
they taste pretty good too.
Sincerely,
Faith Timberlake-Alves
*Yes, my
Dad is still collecting.He has been working on making the
museum available on line. If you would like to view some
of his collection, it's now on line! Click on the museum
logo below.
Have
you read any of these articles about us?
Boston Globe
(March 10 1972 & Dec 15 1982)
Yankee Magazine (Nov. 1978)
New Hampshire Times (Nov. 22 1982)
New Hampshire Sunday News (Dec. 28 1986)
New England Living (March 1991)
Victoria Magazine (Dec. 1992)
American Country Collectables (Winter 1993)
Washington Post (Dec. 19 1993)
Country Victorian (March 1994)
Gourmet Magazine (Dec. 1994)
Romantic Homes (Nov. 1995)
Mary Englebright's Home Companion (March 1997)
McCall's (April 1997)
Food Finds (Dec. 2001)
Martha Stewart Weddings
(Spring 2002, Summer 2003, Summer
2004,
Fall 2004, Summer 2005, Collector's Edition 7/2007)
Country Home (April 2004)
Brides (March/April 2005
The Knot (Spring 2005)
