Handmade Candy Cane Making at Logan's Candy

Logan's Candy is a small candy shop that has been in Ontario for over 70 years. It's currently owned by Jerry Rowley, who with a little help, skillfully pulls, twists, cuts and hooks more than 75,000 candy canes by hand every holiday season. In fact, between November and December, there are even candy cane making demonstrations to the public or by group appointment.

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I was actually able to attend one of these demonstrations, so take a look below to see Jerry and his staff hard at work. First, a sugar and corn syrup mixture is heated to a temperature of 340 degrees in a copper kettle. One batch will make about 400 standard-sized canes that are 10-12 inches long.

Once properly heated, the contents from the kettle is poured onto a marble board. Initially, Jerry uses a spatula to "knead" the sugar mixture together.

After a period of time, the sugar mixture was halved into two sections and individually kneaded further by hand.

A few drops of blue food coloring was added to one of the sections since for our demonstration, blue and white candy canes were being made for a special order

More kneading occurred until the blue sugar mixture was set aside next to a gas heating element to keep it warm and soft.

To the remaining sugar mixture, peppermint oil is added. Still more kneading until the sugar mixture is stretched and hung on a hook.

Once on the hook, a lot of pulling, tugging, twisting happened similar to the pulling of taffy. It's the manipulation that helps the color turn to the recognizable white.

The ensuing all white, peppermint flavored candy block is covered with a wide strip of blue candy on one side and a blue and white stripe patterned candy section on the other.

Then it's all twisted and pulled out to make all sorts of goodies via an assembly line.

Traditionally shaped candy canes,

candy cane hearts,

and even broken into pieces via candy machine breaker

Earlier, Jerry and his crew were also making red and white candy canes.

Don't think that candy canes are the only thing you'll find at Logan's. You can also find vintage candies, gummy candies, licorice and more.

Also keep a lookout for taffy, gumballs, hand-dipped chocolates and other hand-dipped items like chocolate covered oreos and potato chips as well as caramel-dipped apples.

They also make their own of ribbon candy in assorted flavors like Sweet Abby Pie (a personal favorite), Pink Lemonade, Root Beer, Sugar Plum, Green Apple with 13 other assorted flavors.

In an age where everything is manufactured by machines, I think it's cool that Logan's Candy still takes the time to make their candy canes by hand. Given how intensive the whole process is, it truly must be a labor of love and for that, I hope Logan's Candy will be around for another 70+ years and beyond.

Logan's Candy
125 W. "B" Street
Ontario CA 91762
(909) 984-5410

Click here to see all the photos of Logan's Candy!

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#LA2BAY: Food Crawl at the Ferry Building

As part of my #LA2BAY trip, a stay in San Francisco would not be a stay without visiting the Ferry Building and even the pouring rain didn't stop us from experiencing all of its delicious offerings. Eating our way through was definitely on the agenda.

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Before satisfying our palate though at the first stop of our crawl, we definitely took in some of the sights.

Once outside, we headed straight to 4505 Meats where we heard that their Pork Croquette Breakfast Sandwich was out of this world.  While we were waiting for that to be prepared, we had a sample of their Chicarrones. OMG! I'm not really an OMG kind of girl, but OMG, those chicarrones were amazing.  They were both crispy yet still  literally melted in your mouth plus there was this awesome combo of sweet-salty flavors with a little bit of heat that put it over the top. I brought home 3 bags. 2 survived the trip, but were quickly eaten within a few hours.  If only I could order them online.

It wasn't long until our Pork Sandwich arrived and this is one sandwich I would have waited hours for and deemed it worth it.  Simply, it's one of the best sandwiches I've ever had.  Along with the pork patty, other ingredients included a fried egg, peppercress and coriander aioli.  The pork was tender and had lots of flavor while the peppercress added both peppery and sweet notes and the yolky egg made this sandwich even more perfect.  As for the bread, it was a wonderful vehicle for all this porky goodness.

Also on the to-eat list was the Bacon Studded Hot Dog made Zilla Style with 4505 Chicarrones, Namu Kimchi and Scallions. We actually ended up picking at the Chicarraones first before sharing the hot dog between the four of us.

From 4505 Meats, we strolled over to Roli Roti, but not before someone in our group picked up a Fried Chicken Ramen from Hapa Ramen.  That soup looked pretty tasty, too, but I didn't want to get filled up on that when a Porcetta sandwich was soon coming our way.

Roli Roti is basically Rolling Rotisserie truck where the menu primarily revolves around their Rotisserie chicken.  However, what they're also known for is their Porcetta sandwich, which is basically a pork loin wrapped around pork belly, stuffed with herbs and also cooked rotisserie-style.

Once you order the Porcetta sandwich, there's quite an efficient assembly line that gets your sandwich to you,  from the one who slices the meat to the one who gets the meat on the bread to the one who finishes your sandwich off with the addition of the toppings and condiments.

They were even kind enough to cut the sandwich in fourths for us.  Along with the pork itself, there were also pork skin bits, onion jam and arugula and all on a ciabatta bread.  Do you remember how I mentioned earlier that the Pork Croquette Sandwich I had at 4504 Meats was one of the best sandwiches I ever had?  Well, this Porcetta Sandwich is up there, too.  I don't even know what to say about it, except that it's just so, so good.

From someone who isn't that much into sandwiches, this was definitely a sandwich day because our next stop was at Cap'n Mike's Holy Smoke stand.  Known for their smoked salmon, tuna and sturgeon lox, they also have an adjoining stand that serves sandwiches made from their smoked fish.

We opted for the Cold Smoked Sturgeon Sandwich with a housemade cream cheese, pickled red onions, capers, thinly sliced lemons, sprinkled with Eat Well Farms Lavender Salt and all on Acme sourdough bread. By that time, it was pouring pretty hard and my hands were chilled.  A cold sandwich may not have been an optimal choice, but it was worth it. A little salty, a little vinegary, a little tart and surprisingly, even a little bit floral with the smoked fish worked when it came to this sandwich.

Needing to take a break from the cold, we went back into the Ferry Building and took a breather at the Imperial Tea Court where we warmed up with flowering teas.

Amazingly enough, we still had room for a Tea Snack Sampler which included homemade cookies, green tea pumpkin seeds, ginger roasted almonds and spicy raisins as well as a Dim Sum Sampler with sui mai, hargow, steamed pork buns and baked vegetable rolls.  The Tea Snack Sampler was okay, but I wouldn't go out of my way for their Dim Sum Sampler, especially when Chinatown isn't that far away.

After this respite, off we went to Boccalone, where it's all about the "Tasty Salted Pig Parts."  Boccalone is a maker of sausages and all types of salumi, that you can purchase online as well as at their Ferry Building storefront.

Also at their storefront, customers can choose from a variety of sandwiches or simply get a Meat Cone, which is just what it sounds like.  It's a cone filled with slices of various types of salumi. We went for the cone and if I wasn't already getting full, I would have gotten a cone just for myself.  After all, who can resist "Tasty Salted Pig Parts"?

While there, we even ran into San Francisco Celebrity Chef Chris Constantino and he was kind enough to pose for photos.

The last stop of our Ferry Building Food Crawl was the Cowgirl Creamery's food stand called Sidekick. There we first shared a Cheese Puff filled with Herb Fromage Blanc.

However, the real star was the Cowgirl Cottage Cheese Dumplings in Grana Padana Cheese Broth with Green Beans and Toasted Acme Bread. The dumplings were light and fluffy and the broth was rich and flavorful.  The bread started off as crouton-like, but then I loved how it softened as it absorbed the soup.  This is definitely a soup I'd have as often as I could if I lived in the Bay Area.

On our way out, we stopped at the Miette Patisserie where the cakes and cupcakes looked really tempting, but I decided to pick up some chocolate and lavender shortbreads to go instead.

Just before we walked out the door, I took a picture of this sign in front of a Gelato Shop, but for me, the sign should have said "The Weather Might Be Dreary, But Eating at the Ferry Building Makes You Cheery".  Even with the rain and cold weather, visiting and eating our way through the Ferry Building definitely warmed me from the inside out and I would definitely go back.

Ferry Building
Website

4505 Meats
Website

Roli Roti
Website

Cap'n Mike's Holy Smoke
Website

Imperial Tea Court
Website

Boccalone
Website

Cowgirl Creamery Sidekick
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