Erin's Blog

With the Christmas holiday season wrapping up, Valentine's Day is just around the corner with Easter not too far behind.  Given the chocolatey nature of these holidays I've decided to dedicate my time over the next little while to Canadian chocolate makers.  Having lived for many years in Calgary, my two favourite chocolate destinations are Choklat located in Inglewood on 9th Avenue SE and Epiphanie Chocolate located on 11th Street SW in the Beltline.  Choklat, by far, has the best chocolate I have ever had.  Their truffles are to die for and according to their website, they are the only chocolatier in the...

New to Erin's Made in Canada is 559 Toys.  559 Toys if the brain-child of Jennifer Wilde, a child studies professional.  Jennifer is passionate about the tiny people in her life and is the primary designer and manufacturer (with a little help from family) of her product line. Toys range from infant rattles and teethers to toddler shape toys and kid furniture play sets.  Wooden toys can be purchased with either an organic, non-toxic acrylic paint and hemp oil finish or a natural, non-toxic milk paint and hemp oil finish.  Crochet and fabric infant toys are also available in a range of...

New to Erin's Made in Canada is Haskapa, a small independent farm and processor manufacturing a range of specialty foods from locally grown haskap berries.  The haskap berry also known as honeyberry, blue-berried honeysuckle or sweetberry honeysuckle is a small blue coloured berry found in the cool temperate regions of the northern hemisphere.  The word "haskap" is Japanese meaning "little present at the end of the branch".   Haskapa has been growing the haskap berry in Nova Scotia since 2011 and produces a wide range of products from haskap jam to haskap juice and also produces chocolates, syrup and gin with industry partners.  A...

New to Erin's Made in Canada is Jill's Chocolates.  Jill's Chocolates is the creation of Jill Franklin who has been in the chocolate making business for over 10 years and is currently located in Iona Nova Scotia.  An assortment of chocolate is available from dark chocolate mint medallions to peanut butter truffles including a selection of sugar-free chocolate and a must try Glen Breton caramel.  There is also a little chocolate (perfect for Easter) bunny named "Izaak".   I've recently had the dark mint medallions and found them quite tasty and not overly sweet.  I would recommend the dark chocolates to...

  Better late than never, here are my finds from the Etsy: Made in Canada pop-up market held on Sept. 26th.  I attended the market in Halifax Nova Scotia with my sister-in-law Kathy and we had a very busy morning!  We spent over two hours strolling through vendors and taking everything in. The majority of the handmade items were housed under a tent with funky newspaper string decorations while the vintage and food booths were outside.  We also got a beautiful east coast September day, sun included! The variety of vendors didn't disappoint and the quality of the products was outstanding....