AMITY, Ore. — Short cuts are meant to get you where you're going a whole lot faster, but there are some Oregon backroads where you want to put on the brakes, catch your breath and savor a sweet treat.
This week, take a break at a place that is centered on peace and serenity, and one of the most successfully sweet businesses in Oregon. Travel a trail toward a place where “heavenly chocolates” are produced for eager customers at the Brigittine Monastery Gourmet Confections.
Winter has arrived across Oregon’s Willamette Valley, with a firm hold on the landscape that feels cold and lasting near the small burg of Amity.
But indoors at the Brigittine Monastery, the “sweet” life has reached the boiling point inside a huge copper kettle, as milk, sugar and butter combine to make a thick syrup slurry at 245 degrees.
“This will be chocolate fudge with nuts, and right now, it‘s boiling hot,” noted the Monastery’s spokesman, Brother Steven. “We’ll add two types of chocolate next, and doesn’t it smell good in here?”
It always smells great in the kitchens of the Brigittine Monastery Gourmet Confectionary. It’s where half a dozen monks rely on time-tested recipes to make daily batches of seven flavors of fudge.
Since 1986, the monks have lived outside the community of Amity on a 45-acre farm that they work. They make chocolate candy as a way to become truly self-supporting.
Special equipment provides a one-pound pour (there are approximately 150 pounds per batch of fudge) into lined boxes. Brother Bernerd then applies the monastery’s signature swirl across the top of each.
“That’s our trademark,” added Brother Steven. “Each pound of candy is swirled — in fact, everything we do is hand-swirled.”
Photos: Oregon's Heavenly Chocolates
The Brigittines are the only monastic community in Oregon that makes candy, and it is delicious — and it isn't just fudge. A one-of-a-kind, hand-cranked truffle press pushes out creamy chocolate that becomes the hand-rolled centers for truffles. The monastery produces a dozen different truffle flavors.
Business is booming at this busiest time of the year, too. The Brigittine chocolates are shipped across the country and as far away as Europe and South America.
Brother Steven was quick to point out that the sweet treats provide the monastery and its varied charities a self-supporting business, but it is not their most important business.
“We are in the business of praising God," said Brother Steven. “We are monks, and our life is centered on the praising of God. We believe that we cannot change each other with war and violence — we do it with the grace of God and by prayer.”
The monastery’s chapel, their candy store and the grounds are open to the public seven days a week.
The Brigittine Monastery’s chocolate production is determined month to month based upon demand, but this time of year the fudge is poured and the truffles are rolled as a daily event. In fact, the monks produce up to four batches of fudge a day in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
So now is a good time to stop in and sample some of their sweet heavenly chocolate candy where they like to say: “Good addictions start small!”
“You smell this wonderful aroma?” offered Brother Steven. “That’s what I like about the candy; you can be centered on God still and do your work.”
Be sure to watch the weekly half-hour program of Grant’s Getaways. The show airs each Saturday and Sunday at 4 p.m. on KGW.
For something different, you can follow my Oregon adventures via the Grant’s Getaways Podcast. Each segment is a story-telling session where I relate behind the scenes stories from four decades of travel and television reporting.
You can also learn more about many of my favorite Oregon travels and adventures in the Grant’s Getaways book series, including:
- "Grants Getaways I," Photography by Steve Terrill
- "Grant's Getaways II," Photography by Steve Terrill
- “Grant’s Getaways: 101 Oregon Adventures,” Photography by Jeff Kastner
- “Grant’s Getaways: Guide to Wildlife Watching in Oregon,” Photography by Jeff Kastner
- “Grant’s Getaways: Oregon Adventures with the Kids,” Photography by Jeff Kastner
The book collection offers hundreds of outdoor activities across Oregon and promises to engage a kid of any age.
You can reach me: Gmcomie@kgw.com