PORT TOWNSEND—Shortly after the Dec. 6 downtown Christmas tree lighting ceremony, a small sweet shop appeared up the street, offering its confections to the public, which included a plethora of free, exotic wares.
On Christmas Eve, the Port Townsend Fudge Co. will disappear, the “Brigadoon” of the candy world.
The shop distributed several hundred sample boxes at the tree lighting, which drew people into the small shop in the intervening weeks.
“We weren’t planning to open up until May but the reaction was so enthusiastic we decided to open for a few weeks,” said Tim Moyer, who owns and operates the store along with his wife, Harline Moyer.
The store at 922 Washington St. will be open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. today and Wednesday, then close for the winter, to reopen in late April and May.
“This is a seasonal business,” Tim Moyer said.
“We will be open all through the summer and probably close after the Port Townsend Film Festival in September.
Visitors may not notice, but the locals who have seen businesses come and go throughout the years may be surprised by the “Established 1956” sign out front.
Moyer said the 1956 date is where the seeds of the business began, as it is the year of his birth.
Fudge figures in because it was that year when his grandparents baby-sat his older brothers and sisters and whipped together a “magic” fudge blend that contained Italian wine and Irish butter from their respective heritages,
When Moyer’s parents came home, they polished off the fudge and the result was a euphoric state and Moyer’s conception, he said.
How much of this is really true?
“Everything I say is true, but I’m Irish,” he said.
“You take a bite of that fudge and tell me if it’s magic or not.”
The “magic” fudge, a concoction of butter, chocolate, wine and ingredients that must not be named is available at the shop, along with a mixture of about 20 varieties at a time.
What’s available is controlled by whim and imagination, and there are very few food items that would not work in fudge, Moyer said.
The store plans a beer fudge created from local brews, to be available this spring.
How about kale or cucumber?
“Cucumber fudge would taste great,” he said.
“The sky’s the limit. The only kind of fudge we won’t make is bad fudge.”
Harline does the fudge preparation while Tim does promotion and management.
The couple travels throughout the year, spending the winter months in Hawaii where they run a farm that teaches sustainable practices and another fudge shop in Whittier, Alaska.
The couple isn’t forthcoming about how they met, got together or their age gap: Tim is 58 and Harline is 30.”
“When two souls been together throughout eternity, they just keep coming back together,” Tim said
How long have they been together in reality?
“Seems like forever,” he said.
The Moyers own the building where the shop is located and live upstairs,
During the closure, the shop may be rented to friends in order to display artwork, Tim Moyer said.
“This is the friendliest place. There are a lot of beautiful, eclectic, smart people,” Moyer said of Port Townsend.
“We’ve been here a few weeks and have gotten 500 friends on Facebook; in Alaska we have 300 and we’ve been there 10 years.”
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Jefferson County Editor can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
