Candy-making in Carys Mills: A holiday tradition

By Karen Donato
Staff Writer
    Meet Helen Hagan and her daughter Mary. For the past 15 years, making candy for Christmas has become a yearly event at the Hagan home. The candy is made to give away as gifts to friends and relatives and to church fairs.
Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Karen Donato
TEAMWORK — It takes teamwork to make more than a dozen different candies and fill 35 trays to give as Christmas gifts. Helen Hagan left and her daughter Mary make good use of Houlton Farms Dairy milk to blend in with the melted caramels.
    Mary comes home from Mexico, Maine for Thanksgiving and then takes a week of vacation to stay with her mother to make candy. Even though they concentrate on making the bulk of the candy during this time, Mary often starts a few weeks before preparing some of the recipes so she can get a head start. Both she and her mother buy the ingredients during the year, so they will have all of the supplies on hand when the mixing and making begin.
    They started out with needhams, fudge, and peanut clusters when they began 15 years ago, but as the years have passed they have tried new recipes and added to their repertoire.
    Mary is the director of social services at the Rumford Community Home. She had always made fudge to give to her staff at work and to the church craft fairs and her mother would make pecan logs. They received very appreciative remarks about the candy and everyone began looking forward each year to the Hagan’s gift. So that is how the candy-making tradition grew.
    The high sugar content probably isn’t the best for the waistline, but once a year might be O.K. It takes 50 pounds of sugar, four pounds each of peanut bark, almond bark and peppermint bark, premium white chocolate, and milk chocolate. Additional ingredients include; nuts, colored sugar, pretzels, coconut, rice krispies, corn flakes, brown sugar and a few other ingredients.
Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Karen Donato
MOTHER-DAUGHTER — Helen Hagan left, and her daughter Mary display one of the trays of homemade peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate. Making candy has been a 15-year tradition at the Hagan home in Carys Mills.
    They fill 35, 12-inch trays with a variety of their candy. Each tray fits perfectly in a large pizza box that makes transporting easy. Through the years family members began requesting their favorite varieties, otherwise the trays are put together randomly with four pieces of each kind used to fill the tray. The varieties include; pecan logs, Oh Henry’s, Almond Joys, peanut clusters, peanut butter balls, peanut butter cups, chocolate, peanut butter, butterscotch, and double-decker fudge, peppermint patties, and pretzels dipped in white or chocolate and decorated with sprinkles, or colored sugar.
    The candy makers begin at 6 a.m. and sometimes work until 10 p.m. They play Christmas music and do lots of talking and laughing. Some candy requires a partnership; one dips into the chocolate the other rolls in peanuts, colored sugar or coconut.
    Until two years ago, there was a third partner, Helen’s husband and Mary’s father, Carl. He was the gopher and the taster. He often made several trips to town for more supplies. He referred to his house at this time of year as the sweet house.
    Before cell phones were a common accessory for everyone, Carl would often arrive home only to return to the grocery store for something else. One time showing up at Andy’s IGA for the second or third time for the day, Andy Marino asked him what was going on? When Carl told him that he had a major candy factory at his house, Marino gave him a discount on the supplies he was purchasing. Not sure if Marino felt sorry for him or was hoping he might be the recipient of a tray of homemade candy.
    Carl passed away in December of 2006 and that was the only year that Helen and Mary did not make the candy.
    Although there is a lot of work in this family affair, the mother-daughter duo has a lot of fun during the Christmas candy-making time. They take a day in the middle of the week to Christmas shop and another to decorate the tree and the house. By the end of the week they have their cooking done and the trays are full and boxed. On Saturday they attend the annual Houlton Wesleyan Church coffee and give a tray of their candy confections as a door prize.
    Holiday traditions are fun and come in a variety of activities. Some families serve certain meals on Christmas Eve or participate in a Yankee Swap or drawing names and exchanging homemade gifts.
    This is just one tradition, if your family celebrates in a certain way each year, let me know and maybe your tradition will be featured in another article.