Hammond's Candies Tour

Wednesday we did the Hammond's Candies tour.  It was much shorter than I thought it would be, but it was neat to see.  Cathie joined us along with her 3 kids and 1 daycare kiddo.  Her older 2 are the same ages as mine so they get along great when we see them!

First we watched a short video about the company and how they made the candies and chocolate.  They were so cute in their Hammond's hats!

Adam, Riley, Noelle, Kiera and that's baby Reid in the Snugli.

Next they took us to see how the hard candies are made.  We were able to watch most of the steps in the process, such as pouring the hot mixture onto a cooling table, mixing in scent and color, putting it on the machine to pull and aerate it.  I thought it was neat to watch it change colors to get lighter when on the puller machine.  Even though it seems like common sense I also learned that the white candy does not get anything added to it but becomes white all on its own when getting pulled.  We also saw a man cutting candy canes and a woman putting the curve in them, all by hand.  She was really good at it and the curve was perfect every time!!

Noelle, Adam, and Riley.  Not sure what's up with the hands at mouths, but they were pretty enthralled by what they were watching.

Next we went to the packaging area.  Everything is done by hand, including wrapping the candies and labeling them.  I'm not sure I would want the job of candy cane stuffer for 8 hours a day.  LOL 

After the tour everyone was allowed to choose a piece of candy from a big bowl.  I had figured we would get a small piece of broken candy.  NO!!  The candy was broken for the most part but was mostly full size candy canes!!  You can see how big they are in the kid's hands below.  Adam, being his odd self, chose a small ball of candy maybe the size of a peppermint.

When we came out of the building there was a rather big toad just sitting there on the railing/wall to go down to the parking lot.  The kids loved it and I am still amazed to have seen him in full sun at 11am, nowhere near water or grass.

Cole, Noelle, and Griff

After the tour we headed across town to a nice park with a gazebo and had lunch and let the kids play for a couple hours.  We stopped for a potty break before heading home and I allowed the kids to each get a Slurpee of their own.  It was the only money I spent for the whole outing!  We had a fun day and I am so happy I finally got to do the tour!!