Chocolate making is an incredible journey. For Grocer’s Daughter this journey starts in Ecuador. Near the small town of Calceta, in western Ecuador, sits the Fortaleza Del Valle cocoa cooperative. Nearly 900 small, family cacao farms rely on the cooperative to obtain expensive Fair Trade and Organic certifications, carefully process their beans and ensure that they will be sold for a fair, living wage.
The Glen Lake Library in Empire will host two special presentations to help celebrate National Library Week: the documentary film Nothing Like Chocolate on April 12 and well-known local author Jerry Dennis on April 14.
Join the staff of Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate to celebrate the company’s 10th birthday in Empire, between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Founder Mimi Wheeler will make a special appearance from 10 a.m. until noon to serve complimentary chocolate birthday cake while it lasts. Grocer’s Daughter will launch a brand new chocolate bar and will preview a soon-to-be-released Michigan-made wholesale packaging.
Folks around Leelanau County frequently ask what Mimi Wheeler has been up to since she sold Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate last spring to food conscious entrepreneurs Jody Dotson and Dc Hayden. The answer—she launched MimisChocolateBlog.com, where she writes about chocolate recipes, traveling the world (Mimi spent much of the recent grueling winter in Guatemala and Ecuador) and introducing her fine food to new friends, and grandkids.
Just a reminder to mark your calendar for Saturday, Feb. 15 for Winterfest in Empire. Word has it that the fine folks from Grocers Daughter Chocolate Shop will once again serve their fantastic hot chocolate to all who venture down to beach.
This month’s Empire Area Community Emergency Fund event, at 5 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 30, at the Empire Town Hall, is sponsored by Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate and will kick off with a potluck retirement party, honoring founder Mimi Wheeler.
As Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate celebrates 10 years in Leelanau County, it also fetes the new ownership of the business under Jody Dotson and D.c. Hayden of Traverse City, who acquired it from Mimi Wheeler on April 1. The ingredients of a successful business in Leelanau County would seem to include: a unique, high-quality product, community-minded entrepreneurial spirit, the ability to identify trends, a strong network of employees, like-minded business owners and customers, and a pinch of good luck.
What services are imperative for a small town like Glen Arbor? How about a grocery store, a hardware store, a gas station and an active Chamber of Commerce. Check three of four for Jeff and Georgia Gietzen, the Grand Rapids transplants who acquired Northwoods Hardware three years ago (and became sole owners in 2011), who have also become Chamber leaders, and this spring bought the gas station just north of town. Northwoods Filling Station now boasts vintage 1950s signage, sells gasoline and quick bites, and most importantly stays open 7 days a week, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. That’s a big improvement over having to drive to Empire or Maple City for petrol.
Beat the winter doldrums by joining Empire, Mich.-based Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate for a fun and educational tour to Ecuador. In March 2013 Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate founder Mimi Wheeler and experienced trip leader Jody Treter will lead a group of chocolate lovers to Ecuador for an 11-day tour focused on chocolate growing, fermenting, processing and exporting as well as indigenous entrepreneurship.
Sometime this month, the 1,364,835th visitor to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in 2012 will arrive at the Dune Climb, hike to Pyramid Point, or perhaps bike the Heritage Trail and enjoy its stunning autumnal beauty. In doing so, that visitor will officially make this the busiest year ever for the Glen Arbor region, the most profitable for local businesses, and perhaps the most hectic one too.