I grew up in Richland Mi on a 7 mile long spring feed lake with 4 siblings of which one was my identical twin. It was a wonderful place for a childhood as we could swim and water ski all summer long. We played hard but worked hard too, helping mom with chores and cooking. I learned early on not to take short cuts. Quality was key and she taught us by example. She was the best pie baker ever and with 5 mouths to feed, she would make extra money during the holidays selling her fruitcake and divinity fudge. I know I get my creative spirit from her. When I was 26 I started my own business, Gallery 344, a fine arts gallery and framing business that I loved and owned for more than 30 years, retiring about 6 years ago. My husband had just retired so I thought this was a good idea. Retirement didn’t last long. Maybe about 2 days and then I realized that I had a lot more to give and decided to do what I was truly passionate about and that was chocolate or as I call it Chocol’art. I started learning and reading anything I could get my hands on and taught myself amazing techniques and produced beautiful and delicious chocolates. Entered three bake off competitions and placed every time. Twice we won most creative and once we took third. We also make the best salted caramel that you have ever had. I had always made them for family but now we were expanding the original caramel to also include flavors such as Habanero, coffee lovers, Michigan Maple Pecan and many more. Oh, and by the way, my husband is no longer retired! He is in charge of all the caramel production. Not exactly what he had in mind but he loves it as much as I do. He loves how customers rave about them and he can take the credit. They are purchased and sent all over the world. Our daughter is also involved and left a good paying job to come to work for us and will one day take over. It’s nice to know that she has as much passion about chocolate as I do. She is currently in culinary school with a 4 point avg. and works for us full time. She has gotten her serve safe certification and that is really important for what we do and she is fantastic with customers. She pretty much grew up in an art gallery and can talk to anyone easily and is amazing with design and creativity. I am so proud of her. We have just recently opened a little shop in downtown Kalamazoo and people are really excited. We will out grow the kitchen at some point and will need an actual chocolate factory but for now we will be able to produce chocolate right in front of people and be able to engage them in The art of Chocolate!