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 A small sign stands on the west side of East River Road
as it winds its way from Glen Morris to Paris. The sign advertises toffee, all natural and hand-made.
The rural roads of Brant County advertise produce and meat, eggs and plants.
All sorts of fruit, especially apples can be picked or bought at the farms which
produce them. Toffee, however, is a surprise.
The sign and the business belong to Janet and John Jewitt. With their son they live and work
in an idyllic rural setting. A small, cheerful black lab and a large bull terrier with
attitude keep them busy and make them toe the line. They used to farm on Blue Lake
Road, and manage properties here and there. Before that they lived at the north end of Kitchener-Waterloo and
John drove trucks. Janet says she has always kept the books for others or for their own projects.
And for most of her married life, she's been home to look after their son who is now 15.
The toffee was an idea that came along when their son no longer needed full time care and it was clear
that Janet and John needed some entrepreneurial activity to occupy the days. They could have
moved into town and had town water and sewer as well as high speed Internet but they were not ready to
leave the country life. So they sold the farm and moved to the smaller property along the river. Then they
began to think about products.
Janet could have used her knitting skills. Just inside the door of the kitchen hangs a
row of brightly coloured fish. Over the years, like most dedicated knitters, she has collected a large
stash of wool but now finds that everyone she knows has enough sweaters. She began to use up the stash
by knitting hats for chemo patients. Then she added fish, felted and stuffed to her repertoire. Money
paid for the fish goes to cancer research. The knitting, she felt was better used as charity. The market
was not large enough. She also liked cooking and people always need food.
Being self-employed is nothing new to either Janet or John.
"My family have always been self-employed," says Janet and she suggests that they enjoy
both the freedom that comes with that territory. But it's not always an easy way to live. "When
you start a new business no one helps you," says Janet Jewitt. "You have to reinvent the wheel."
Searching for suppliers is a long and tedious activity. For example, it took Janet a year to
find a Canadian source for sweetened condensed milk. However, she says that the Net is a wonderful
tool for finding information.
The idea of starting a business from scratch intrigued Janet. She wanted to create
something that tasted like the McIntosh toffee she remembered from childhood. Toffee
seemed like a nostalgic product, creative and pleasurable enough to find a niche in boutiques.
Janet's first idea was to create a toffee on a stick but the problems of molding and
packaging a product on a stick were stumbling blocks. It's clear though that the whole family,
as well as their friends, have had fun trying out the product and working to make it better.
While determined to enjoy their business, Janet and John also take it very seriously. Janet took the
food safety handling course offered by the Brant County Health Unit. The building
in which they make their toffee was designed and built to be efficient and easy to clean. The entire
inside of the building can be wiped down with disinfectant and when the two of them
go to work in the morning they are dressed as if they were going to deal with hazardous waste,
from the nets on their hair to the safety glasses, long gloves and coverall aprons.
Making a batch of toffee, about sixteen pounds, begins at about 10 o'clock in the morning. By that time both Janet and
John have had breakfast and have exercised for an hour. Then they cross their driveway, open
the door of the kitchen and go to work. The butter and brown sugar are measured and the four-burner
stove begins its work. "John's job is to stir the pot," Janet says grinning, "in every
situation." When the critical temperature is reached the toffee is poured into specially made
bite-sized plastic molds. When the candy is cool it is popped out and wrapped. Six hours later they have a new batch ready to sell.
Each candy is wrapped by hand and the wrapping takes the bulk of the time after lunch. One person
can wrap perhaps six or seven candies a minute. The Jewitts have considered using a machine
to wrap the toffee because it could wrap 60 a minute and significantly reduce the
time they have to work. Unfortunately, the cost of a used machine would be as
much as $15,000 US. A new machine would be 10 times that much.
"If we had a machine to do the wrapping we could cook both morning and afternoon, but
we'd need to have a much larger market." Maybe at some future date they will be doing
just that.
They expect to be in the toffee business for a long time. They began in January, 2005, and the
business has experienced a steady growth. "So much of the food we buy has chemicals and
preservatives," Janet explains, "but we provide a healthy alternative with only natural
ingredients and no preservatives."
For more information call 442-5363, drop by 375 East River Rd. or visit
www.allnaturaltoffee.com
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