What The Fudge?: Jess Merritt’s Sweetest New Business

““Cooking runs more in my grandmother's side of the family, and passes more through the women.  I love cooking to express myself, and I think I love making fudge so much because I can incorporate my love of art into it. “” 

---

​Jess Merritt is serving up something sweet. She’s not your typical chick selling boxes of Girl Scout cookies. Forget that! She doesn’t have a catalog of chocolates to sell either.
 
Jess Merritt is taking on the art of homemade fudge and she’s throwing her own twist on it. How many teens do you know that can whip up a batch of fudge?

The Sweet Taste of Sustainability 

​Miss Merritt is 18 years old and finishing up her Senior year of high school. She resides on the south shore and finds herself passionate about art and animal care. Combining her love for food and animals, she aspires to own her own farm and use her own organic produce and ingredients from her farm in her future meals.
 
Hearing from Jess, it was so invigorating to see someone who wants to live a life of self-sustainability through farming, agriculture, and cooking.

Image: @local_fudge_girl on Instagram
"​Batch of chocolate and cookies and cream fudge ready to be put in either the little boxes or a big fudge box. Also a half batch of smores done that's going to chill for the night"

​A Yummy Year 

​Jess first heard the fudge calling this summer. She began working at a fudge stand at the Marshfield fair. Curiosity called and she began her first batch at home. She found cooking it to be calming and therapeutic.
 
Since then, she found her favorite type of fudge to make is mint chocolate because it comes out a shade of green that reminds her of Christmas. She also enjoys the process of swirling in the chocolate on top.  Her favorite fudge to eat is the cookies and cream flavor because it’s her favorite flavor for any sweet treat!

Image: @local_fudge_girl on Instagram
​"​The fudge is packed up and ready to go"

The Fudge Process: 
​How Do You Start When Fudge is in Your Heart?

​After Jess realized she was interested in making fudge, she spent days online looking at recipes that could be used to make different flavors. After experimenting and trial and error, she finally found one that fit really well and she’s been doing variations of it since. 
 
Her process for making fudge all starts with the size of the batch that she’s making. The largest size she does is a full pan of 16 pieces, then a smaller pan of 8, and half of that pan for 4.
 
She then melts a bowl of chocolate chips because most of the fudge has a chocolate bottom layer. She mixes that in with the base and add it to the pan, and from there it depends on what type of fudge she’s making. But the flavors (whether it be peanut butter or more chocolate chips) are melted down with the base and then added into the pan.
 
She lets them set over a few hours or through the night and then cuts and boxes them in the morning. 

Image: @local_fudge_girl on Instagram
​"A LOT of fudge was made today"

Order Up!

​Support local woman in business – support Jess Merritt’s sweet new business! It is inspiring to see Jess start out her own fudge business and I am so excited to see where this journey will take her! I wish her all my luck and I give her all my support.

Support Jess's Business!

Order her fudge today!
 
Contact info:
Email her at jessmerritt12@gmail.com
Instagram: local_fudge_girl

Jess is currently setting up Venmo and other sites to make ordering and payments easier. 

Image: @local_fudge_girl on Instagram
"Bringing in a new red velvet swirl flavor today"