Birthday Week - Day 1

For my birthday this year I once again picked Canada as our destination.  

We took a couple of extra days off work giving ourselves a 6-day trip.  After crossing the border in New Brunswick we headed to our first stop.

Right after crossing the border in St. Stephens is the Ganong Chocolate Museum

This is more of a museum than a factory tour but it was still very interesting. 

The young lady giving our tour was new and had to read her script but she was very generous with the samples!  The museum opened in 1999.

In addition to very nice displays, we watched several videos.  Chocolate samples were handed out often.

This hand dipping technique takes years to perfect and is very labor intense.  Most of the candy today is made using machinery although they do still offer a box of hand dipped chocolates.

The Ganong Brothers family have been candy makers in St. Stephen since 1873.

Open stoves were used to heat and melt the raw ingredients so fire was an ever-present danger in the factory.  Although the company always took serious precautions, it suffered three fires during its history.  Round-bottomed pails hung through the factory. The bottoms were round to keep workers from using them to carry ingredients or turning them upside-down and sitting on them.

Fire doors used weights at the end of a rope to hold the door open.  The rope line included a lead link which would melt in a fire.  When the line gave way, the door closed automatically by rolling down the sloping track, and contained the fire.

With wartime sugar restrictions in place in 1918, the factory had difficulty producing enough candy to create a profit.  The problem was solved by developing fancier boxes which allowed fewer chocolates to be sold at a higher price.

After our fun tour we headed to the gift shop.

Of course we bought a little something!

This is a magnet worthy tour.

Our next stop was the Olivier Soapery in the small village of Ste-Anne-de-Kent.

They have a beautiful building with nice displays and a large gift shop.

We arrived in time for a soap making demonstration.

Olive oil, bees wax, and coco butter are mixed together.

Lye is added to create the chemical reaction.

The mixture is stirred for several minutes before being poured into molds.

The liquid is pored into molds where it will harden for 7 days.  The soaps are then released from the mold where they will hardened for an additional 28 days before being sold.

Of course we bought a couple of things!

Our first night was spent in the Amsterdam Inn & Suites in Moncton, NB.

Next time: Day 2 - More birthday fun.