Sugar high
Today we went on my favorite kind of field trip. A factory. I LOVE factories. When Mr. Rogers used to put in his "picture picture", the kids and I always would gather around our TV and watch crayons being made, or candles, chocolates and even porcelain toilets! SO fascinating. But today was even better because we got to go, "live and in person", to a candy factory!
This was the Judson-Atkinson candy factory in San Antonio. It was recently featured on the Food Network's "Unwrapped" show because of it's famous giant red-hot- chili jelly bean. You can find out more here.
We had to leave really early to go to the "big city". Yeah, my stress level rose with each passing semitruck and each progressively narrower lane. I-10 has been under construction for years and it seems to get worse, never better. Today I had to dodge a hay bale on the highway, for goodness sake. (Well, this is Texas, after all). Rowdy son has just been promoted to "shotgun" status, and I got to hear a running commentary of, "Watch out" and "Oh no" as I tried to keep in my lane. I think God has given me that boy to humble me for clutching the passenger strap and sucking in deep breaths every time my sweet hubby drives. Or, maybe it just is way scarier in the shotgun seat...after all, I had the smallest car out there today. It's time to get a Suburban, a truck or a conversion van--just to even the odds.
Rowdy son also likes to read the billboards out loud. Which reminds me, I'm going to have to give a few of them a phone call. They are PG-13 in a G world of moms and kids and minivans.
Anyway, we got there in good time, even crossing the railroad crossing (as rowdy son screamed "A TRAIN!" because one was parked down the line from us--got me jumping that time) safely. The tour was fantastic...the real deal--we had to wear hair nets, we needed ear plugs, we saw ingredients mixed, formed, colored, catagorized and boxed. I know my dad sent me to college NOT to work in a factory, per se, but really, it all looked like a great way to make a living. The smell of sugar was tantalizing. The kids got freebies from every conveyor belt (my favorite was the cherry sour...but what I thought was mildly sour as a kid seems lip-puckering now...I guess I've either gotten old or eaten way too much chocolate. Or both.).
On the way home, as the kids sucked on lollipops and clutched their bags of red-hot-chili jelly beans, we agreed it was the best field trip ever.
Until I figure out how to tour the bakery.
This was the Judson-Atkinson candy factory in San Antonio. It was recently featured on the Food Network's "Unwrapped" show because of it's famous giant red-hot- chili jelly bean. You can find out more here.
We had to leave really early to go to the "big city". Yeah, my stress level rose with each passing semitruck and each progressively narrower lane. I-10 has been under construction for years and it seems to get worse, never better. Today I had to dodge a hay bale on the highway, for goodness sake. (Well, this is Texas, after all). Rowdy son has just been promoted to "shotgun" status, and I got to hear a running commentary of, "Watch out" and "Oh no" as I tried to keep in my lane. I think God has given me that boy to humble me for clutching the passenger strap and sucking in deep breaths every time my sweet hubby drives. Or, maybe it just is way scarier in the shotgun seat...after all, I had the smallest car out there today. It's time to get a Suburban, a truck or a conversion van--just to even the odds.
Rowdy son also likes to read the billboards out loud. Which reminds me, I'm going to have to give a few of them a phone call. They are PG-13 in a G world of moms and kids and minivans.
Anyway, we got there in good time, even crossing the railroad crossing (as rowdy son screamed "A TRAIN!" because one was parked down the line from us--got me jumping that time) safely. The tour was fantastic...the real deal--we had to wear hair nets, we needed ear plugs, we saw ingredients mixed, formed, colored, catagorized and boxed. I know my dad sent me to college NOT to work in a factory, per se, but really, it all looked like a great way to make a living. The smell of sugar was tantalizing. The kids got freebies from every conveyor belt (my favorite was the cherry sour...but what I thought was mildly sour as a kid seems lip-puckering now...I guess I've either gotten old or eaten way too much chocolate. Or both.).
On the way home, as the kids sucked on lollipops and clutched their bags of red-hot-chili jelly beans, we agreed it was the best field trip ever.
Until I figure out how to tour the bakery.
posted by herewegoagain at
1:30 PM
2 Comments:
Bakery? Does that mean sugar, flower, and yeast? Yummm.... *misses it most desperately*
By
Anonymous, at 10:21 PM
Maybe we need to go to a tortilla factory for you!!!
By
herewegoagain, at 6:53 PM
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