1/25/24
It’s red hat season! In Mount Horeb we celebrate winter with a festival on Super Bowl weekend. The red hat symbolizes the mythical wee- people of Scandinavian countries. They are called Nissa or Tomte, depending on the country. The tomte (in Sweden) shape shift to help with chores, protect animals and watch over children. They have also been known to help in other ways, if you have a really good relationship with them. Tomte appreciate if you put out a small bowl of porridge for them to eat and/or a small wooden structure for them to hang out in. In this way you show them that you welcome their presence and their help. In Mount Horeb, we also wear the red hat to encourage our wee-people to come out and celebrate the season. Who knows, when in Mount Horeb you might be standing next to a person wearing a red hat or you may be standing next to a mythical being who has been able to shape shift to hide in the crowd?
Over the years, I and a couple of other people have sewed thousands of the red hats. Red hat sales help to fund our winter festival. I sell them at Sjölinds for $10 a hat. They come in four sizes, from baby to big heads.
Scandihoovian Festival takes place this year from Febuary 9 thru the 11. To check for events go to trollway.com. We hope you come to celebrate with us.
Peace and good health, Tracy
1/13/24
Snowed in! Chris and I live just outside of Mount Horeb in the township of Springdale. Chris had us shoveled out at 2 A.M. this morning and we were all ready to start the baking and shoveling the store sidewalks. Now it’s nearly 9 A.M. and we still haven’t seen a snowplow. I guess the township doesn’t have a plow out the bakers first policy. We are sorry to have disappointed anyone who is able to make it out of their driveway today.
Hopefully we will all find a way to make this a cozy day.
Peace, good health and stay safe, Tracy.
12/22/23
We are taking a winter break! We will be open until 2pm everyday, including Christmas Eve day. When we close at 2pm Christmas Eve day we will remain closed until Tuesday, January 2. Happy Winter Everyone!
11/6/23
We are in the 18th year of Sjolinds. When Chris and I started this business we had a son that had just turned 21, two teenage daughters and a toddler son. The youngest son will be graduating from college this spring and Chris and I a feeling the need to make some changes.
When we first started Sjolinds we focused our efforts on bakery, hot chocolates, coffee and a few chocolate treats. The chocolate treats part of our business grew faster than we ever thought possible and we found ourselves needing a separate place for our production. That is when we had the 150 Lillehammer Lane building built.
We now realize that to continue to serve our very special treats, bakery and drinks we need to once again reorganize to improve the business and maintain our joy. We will be building a bakery out at the 150 Lillehammer store and selling the 219 E. Main Street location. Until then we will be operating as normal.
Before Sjolinds, Chris and I had never owned our own business. We never knew that there are so many evolutionary steps to growing a business. This has been a wild ride. Thank you for all the kindness and support you have shown us and our family. We look forward to continuing to share this journey with you.
Peace and good health, Tracy
10/18/23
For various reasons, we feel the need to reorganize Sjölinds. Unfortunately, we have to temporarily close the factory space to do so. We were hoping to ease into this over the coming weeks, but circumstances wouldn’t allow it.
We apologize if this causes a disruption in your day and hope you can understand we’re trying our best to regain pre-pandemic consistency.
The downtown location hours will not change, aside from possibly adding Mondays.
Thank you for you patience, Tracy and Chris
10/16/23
If you are looking for a Swedish cultural event, this weekend at Folklore Village they are having a Fall Swedish Music and Dance Weekend. If you go to https://folklorevillage.org/fall-swedish-weekend/ there will be all the information you need to participate. It is a beautiful location, especially in the fall and they aways do such a beautiful job with all of their events.
Peace, good health and good fun, Tracy
10/4/23
I was hoping I could announce that we are starting up our on-line store again. Unfortunately, we can’t reopen the on-line store at this time. We just don’t have enough staff to run the on-line store and since it has been shut down for a couple of years it is a whole big thing to rebuild the structure again. I am so sorry to all of the people who have asked me about it. I will stay hopeful that we can reopen that part of our business at some point in the future.
As my friend Jean Lind would say, “You really don’t have any control.” So this is me making an effort to pay attention to what is open to me and letting go of the rest.
Peace and good health, Tracy
9/25/23
I am often asked how to pronounce the name of our business, Sjölinds (shoe-linds). It is a family name that comes from Åland, a group of 6,700ish islands that sit between Sweden and Finland that divide the Baltic Sea from the Gulf of Bothnia. The islands are owned by Finland, but speak Swedish. It is a demilitarized, autonomous nation with about 35,000 people. My grandpa called us Swedefinns.
Naming my little chocolate house (like a coffee house, but focusing on chocolate) was rather easy given Mount Horeb’s and my Scandinavian heritage. The most recent family last names I had to choose from were Hanson and Sjölind. Hanson is so much easier to say but Sjölinds has just a bit more sparkle (and easier to find when googling).
To celebrate my Åland heritage I’ve introduced the Åland pancake. It is a pancake that is baked in the oven and served with strawberry jam and whipped cream. That pancake and a good strong cup of black coffee you can almost smell the sea air and hear the waves hitting the rocky shores. You can find the Åland pancake at our downtown Mount Horeb store.
This coming weekend in Mount Horeb is our annual Fall Festival. There will be music, handmade crafts and of course food. Come visit Sjölinds while you’re here.
Peace and good health to you and yours, Tracy
9/18/23
I hope everyone is getting off to a great start to the new school year. I think the Jewish calendar has it more correct than the Christian Gregorian calendar that we use. This last Saturday was Rosh Hashanah or Jewish New Year. To me, fall always feels like the season of new opportunities and a great time to assess our harvest of the last year; a time to let go and start again. A hopeful season of resetting.
To celebrate the season, I made chocolate apples; chocolate apples filled with treats. I just put the last of them out. So if you have a teacher that you want to give a special treat to, they will be available for about the next week. Then next week we start putting out all of the Halloween treats.
Peace, good health and blessings for the new year, Tracy
And happy birthday to our Milly!
8/14/23
When you have a small business you are always solving problems. Some problems are mechanical, this week the coffee brewer and last week the air conditioner. Some problems are supply chain related; if they don’t have cocoa where else can I get cocoa. Some problems are emotional, so emotional. Well, this is true for all of life.
A couple of years ago I was reminded of one my early hero problem solvers, Dr. Dudley E. Flood. He started out as a middle school teacher (in my opinion all middle school teachers deserve hero status) in North Carolina in the 1960’s. He then moved on to help racially integrate schools and improve the quality of education for everyone.
Dr. Flood says all problem can be solved by asking three questions: What?, So what?, Now what?
I think this formula is absolutely brilliant. Just thought I would pass it on in this problem filled era.
Peace and good health, Tracy.
8/7/23
We are still open at both locations and it looks like we will be able to stay open this fall at the Factory. We were worried that with Erin and Brie headed off to college and Lorenz, Olivia and Lucas heading back to college we were going to be too shorthanded to stay open. However, Mary and Quinn will be working more hours and we have been able to hire another person. Yea!!!
Our location hours are: Downtown, 209 E. Main Street, Tuesday thru Sunday, 7:00A.M. until 2:00 P.M.
Factory, 150 Lillehammer Lane, Monday thru Friday, 6:30 A.M. until Noon
We are so happy to be able to keep offering both locations. Thank you to the wonderful people we work with and thank you to everyone for your interest in and support of Sjölinds.
Peace and good health, Tracy
7/28/23
Today, something I hold on to when I am a bit overwhelmed: When things are at the worst, they are sure to mend. from an English proverb.
Peace and good health, Tracy
7/21/23
Another summer time treat we are serving at Sjölinds is the Danish Dog. All over Denmark you can find food carts that serve a wide variety of hot dogs dressed up fancy. I held a tasting party for my family with a wide variety options. The winner of the favorite hot dog is the one we are now serving at Sjölinds: our own fresh bun, an all beef dog, remoulade sauce, cucumber fridge pickles with fresh dill and crispy onions. Who knows? If these dogs catch on maybe I can eventually serve combinations that were deemed “too ethnic” by some members of the family; the shrimp salad dog comes to mind.
I hope you are finding time to enjoy what summer has to offer.
Peace and good health, Tracy
7/17/23
It has come to my attention that we use plenty of words here at Sjölinds that are not common place. One of these words is a Swedish word for a summer beverage, Saft.
Today’s vocabulary word Saft, a summer beverage, like lemonade, that comes in a variety of flavors. Served over ice.
Here at Sjölinds some of the flavors you may find are: strawberry, elderflower, lingonberry, rhubarb and black currant. So refreshing, so delicious.
Peace an good health, Tracy
7/5/23
A belated Happy 4th to everyone! Now it feels like summer; too hot to do much, full of bbq and fresh fruit and a cold drink with a good book. Aaah!
Then in the evening I got to work. I got started sewing the red hats for Scandihoovian Fest in February. By the end of my efforts I’ll have hundreds of hats, now I have 10. As I said in an earlier post, I craft all the time. I guess it must be in my Scandihoovian blood, something to do with the long northern nights. Then during the Covid era I started crafting every evening as a stress relief. Like Mr. March says in the novel “Little Women”, “While we wait we work so these hard times will not be wasted.” I like that.
The hats won’t be available until November but know that I’m working on them.
Peace and good health, Tracy
6/19/23
Midsummer tomorrow! It is the biggest holiday of the year for Scandinavian people. Sunshine nearly around the clock, crayfish or herring or any other fish and new potatoes for supper and of course a strawberry dessert. Followed by several weeks with nearly every free moment spent outdoors. At Sjöinds we are celebrating with summer treats; marshmallow cones, marzipan frogs, truffle bunnies, fudge pops…and many more unique treats. We hope you get the chance to celebrate nature this summer. Enjoy!
Peace and good health, Tracy
6/13/23
These last few years have been very difficult for all the reasons that everyone else has been experiencing. Grief, frustration and tension make up a good part of my day; again nothing other people haven’t been experiencing. Not even my small business owner pathological optimism fends off these feelings. Since I see more ads and public service announcements about mental health than I ever have I leapt to the conclusion that all sorts of people are a bit overwhelmed right now.
I don’t know if what works for me will work for you, but I wanted to share, just in case it might help.
I craft most of the day. Fortunately, my job requires it: working with food, bakery and chocolate. But, even at the end of my work day I enjoy going home and spending a bit of time every day on some craft: knitting socks and coffee cozies, making paper flowers and sewing projects.
Then, because I spend a good deal of time alone, I listen to podcasts and classic literature. I collect bits of inspiration and tape them to the wall across from my work station. I’m also lucky enough to know some very interesting people and collect bits of wisdom from them. I’m going to use this space, from time to time, to share some the things I have learned.
One of the first things I collected was a sticker on one of the sacks of cocoa beans that came into the factory. The sticker said,”Do Not Double Stack.” This works for the 150 to 180 pound sacks of cocoa beans so they don’t burst open. Not Double Stacking also works for me; don’t take on more that one problem at a time. I might need to deal with more than one problem in a day, but now I make every effort to take on one problem at a time.
Peace and good health, Tracy
6/7/23
We are open again at the Factory!!! Our new hours at the Factory are Monday thru Friday, 6:30AM until noon. The downtown hours are still Tuesday thru Sunday, 7AM until 2PM. Yea!!!
We are able to re-open the factory space because the college students are back and the high schooler and recent graduates of Mount Horeb High School (congratulations Erin and Breanna!) need more hours. We will be able to stay open if we find people for the fall. So if you know anyone who wants to work with us…we would love to remain open year round.
Peace and good health, Tracy
6/2/23
Mount Horeb Area Arts Association is having it’s annual Spring Art Tour this weekend. It is a pretty cool concept; you get the art tour map and you can drive around and visit the artists’ studios. All types of artists are particapating: jewlery, photography, watercolor, fiber arts…Many of the artists will be doing demonstrations. It is also a wonderful time of the year to get out for a drive in this beautiful Wisconsin countryside.
Every year when the Art Tour is going on we have people ask about the art that is hanging at Sjölinds. Right inside the front door on the left hand side is a collection of art that has been inspired by Sjölinds. Thank you to all of those talented artists. The rest of the art in our store is made by my husband, Chris Thompson. He has kept our walls full since we opened in 2006.
Chris’ first attempt at art was at the age of 11. He entered a Archway cookie drawing contest sponsoring a Rodeo at the Dane County Coliseum. He came in second place and won a package of Archway cookies of his own (a big deal if you are from a family of 5 kids) and two tickets to the Rodeo that went unused (again, a family of 5 children) Since then he has been making and studying art. He draws, cartoons, sculpts and paints. He uses a lot of pastels. He also has some canvases that are a combination of painting and sculpture. His love of art shows in his work.
May you have happy and healthy travels this summer, Tracy
5/19/23
People have often asked us when we are re-opening our factory space and drive-thru. Well, we are getting much closer. With college students coming home for the summer and our high school students looking for more hours over the summer we finally have enough staff to open. Over the next couple of weeks you will see us cleaning and refreshing the space and by the end of May or the very beginning of June we will be back open. Initially the hours will be Monday-Friday, 6:30 to noon. If you know someone who would like to work will us in the fall have them give us a call.
Peace and good health to you and yours, Tracy
5/8/23
Mother’s Day is this coming Sunday and we have plenty of treats for mothers: pansy bars, LOVE bars, truffle filled figs as well as boxes filled with sweet treats. We also have a great variety of bean to bar chocolate bars: Wisconsin Butter, Berry and Rose, Lillehammer, regional bars and very dark chocolate bars. In other words, we have lots of ways to show your love this Mother’s Day.
Peace, good health and joyous celebrating, Tracy
4/20/23
May Day is coming! I know it’s an old fashioned celebration that means different things to different people. To people in the north it is a spring celebration; get out your May poles and flower crowns. Around the world it is International Workers Day; a good time to lay flowers at the grave of any Wobblies you know. But to me as a child it was all about the May Day baskets. We would make little paper cone baskets and put in a sweet treat, or a poem, or a joke, or a tulip, or a bunch of violets, or a couple of each. Then very early on May 1st we would hang these baskets on the front doors of our neighbors. We would also bring a basket to our teachers. Very fun and a nice thing to do.
I know right now it is more popular to be angry or frustrated. It is more popular to find differences and faults with each other. I’m not a fan. I would like to celebrate niceness and kindness. Enjoy your May Day!
Peace and good health, Tracy.
P.S. We will be posting some pics on Facebook and Instagram. Hopefully even a basket demo on Tik Tok. As well as having a few empty Scando style felt baskets for the non-makers at the store.
4/12/23
Happy Easter! Early spring flowers are starting to pop up everywhere. We went from heavy wet snow to 80 degrees nearly overnight. But I hear more spring like weather is coming in a couple of days. Yeah!
We have served Rusty Dog Coffee for the last several years. We love their coffee and them. Now they have gone and made us their most recent Top Dog coffee house. Wow and golly-gee. Thank you for the honor and thank you for the best espresso I’ve ever tasted.
This is a great opportunity to tell you about their coffees. Their espresso is so good you can drink it straight, really! For our dark roast we carry their Beignet coffee, which is a wonderful blend of a dark roast and chicory. I chose this blend because it is delicious and goes so well with bakery made with butter; as well as it being a Scandinavian in America tradition. The medium roast and the decaf were also chosen because they go really well with all butter bakery. As a person who regularly drinks decaf, I can tell you that this decaf is not an after thought; it is really good coffee.
Once again we are honored to be featured by Madisons Best Roaster, Rusty Dog Coffee. And only a bit fretful, being brought up with the Scandinavian saying, “The tallest nail gets the hammer.” Hopefully you will see me as being more grateful than bragging.
Peace and good health, Tracy
3/25/23
This morning we are having a heavy late winter snow storm. It feels closer to Christmas than Easter. But Easter is only two weeks away. We have: truffle bunnies, marshmallow duckies, buttercream eggs, Easter eggs filled with treats and many more items. You might want to wait until tomorrow to come shopping, the roads are terrible.
This would be a better morning to stay home, stay cozy and check out what Brennen has been doing on our Tik Tok page. The last couple of weeks he is featuring desserts that are very Sjölinds, the Princess cake, almond tart and chocolate tart. The Princess cake is a traditional Swedish birthday cake. It looks a bit wild with it’s bright green marzipan covering and bright pink almond cream layer but combined with the sponge cake and vanilla whipped cream it’s so delicious. The almond tart is also a Scando speacial dessert. It is a shortbread crust filled with moist almond cake filling, elegant and wonderful. And then there is the chocolate tart, ooh la la, enough said.
I had a friend that moved to the west coast many years ago and she said that what she missed most about the midwest were the stormy days. She said, “The west coast has the tyranny of good weather. You always feel like you should be doing something.” So grab a good book, find a fun movie or make a really long phone call and snuggle in. It’s a cozy day.
Peace, good health and stay safe, Tracy.
3/7/23
As I mentioned last Update, Helene and I are working madly at getting Easter products ready to go on the shelves; some will be appearing at the end of this week at the store downtown. In the evenings I have been making paper flowers for the Easter feather tree. I finally finished the feather tree yesterday and will be bringing it downtown this week.
Feather branches are a Swedish custom at Easter time. Why? I don’t know anymore than I know why a Christmas tree. Like most customs given to us from our ancestors, I imagine the customs started from someplace simple. A desire to dress up our homes for a holiday with something that we had on hand or something we could easily get or make. Branches from the winter tree and bush trimming and feathers from either fowl hunting or the coop; die the feathers (yellow most popular) and tie (or hot glue) the feathers to branches and put them in vases. I get my feathers from a craft store, make paper flowers, add a few little chicks from my craft stash, hang some bells to ring in Easter attach it all to a wire tree I got from a friend of mine and tah-dah, my version of an Easter tradition.
If I can figure out how to load a photo on to this site I’ll show you what the feather tree looks like. Otherwise you’ll need to come and visit us in Mount Horeb.
Peace and Good Health, Tracy.
3/1/23
I find myself working alone most of the time. What started out as social distancing for COVID reasons has turned out to be what works best for my chocolate making cohort, Helene, and I. I am an early morning person and Helene is more of an afternoon person. This is working for making chocolate and sweets, both take up a great deal of space, but not so great for socializing. To beat back the loneliness I’ve been listening to more music and of course podcasts. One of my favorite podcasts is “Phoebe Reads a Mystery”. Phoebe not only reads mysteries but a good deal of classic literature. This winter one of the books I listened to was “Little Women”. It’s so cozy to be crafting and have someone reading you a story.
I am looking forward to having more people around when we have the drive-thru in this factory space open again; until then it’s like Mr. March from “Little Women” says, “We work while we wait, to make good use of hard times.” I’m working on Easter candies right now. They will be on the shelves shortly.
Peace and Good Health, Tracy.
2/18/23
Semlor Saturday is here!
Semlor is a cardamon bun filled with grated almond marzipan and vanilla creme. So delicious! In my Scando-centric opinion, much better than a cream puff. I know these might be fighting words in Wisconsin where at the State Fair the cream puff is king; but given that we are a small shop serving so few I hope you will forgive me.
We will be serving semlor today thru this coming Tuesday. This coming Tuesday is called Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday depending on which tradition you come from. We will bring semlor back during the six weeks of the Easter season, maybe more if there is the demand.
Semlor is a symbol of where my worlds collide. My mother’s parents were born to Scandinavian immigrant parents hence the semlor and my dad’s parents were Episcopalian, hence religious traditions. Semlor is my attempt to combine celebrating Shrove Tuesday (what Episcopalians call Mardi Gras) and the tradition having something wonderfully decadent before the lenten season starts, Ash Wednesday. Enjoy!
Peace and decadent fun for the next few days,
Tracy
1/19/23
Sooo…it’s been a while since I’ve given an update. I don’t know about you, but after thinking COVID was going to last weeks and then turned into years I grew very weary of giving updates when I didn’t really know what was happening. Well I’m ready to start updating again. Not a lot has changed in the last year, COVID-wise, however we are finally ready to start thinking about the future here at Sjölinds.
Many have asked when we will be reopening the Factory. We would love to but because of the uncertainty of the labor market and supply chain issues that are still relevant we are going to wait on that a bit. (and Chris and I have really loved having one day a week off)
We are going to start the on-line store again. We will keep you updated when we get closer to getting it up and running.
We will also be starting to post on our website and a few social media sites, thanks to our new social media mastermind, Brennan!
As always,
Peace and good health to you all,
Tracy
8/11/21
Well, the beginning of summer was great; no masks, people everywhere in a more positive spirit and a sense that everything was about change. Unfortunately, it hasn’t changed in the direction we had hoped. We are back in masks again and plans to open downtown have been delayed, again. Just a few weeks ago I was so sure that we would be able to reopen downtown that I had my family helping me dust, vacuum and rearrange the tables and chairs. (I’m starting to wonder if I’m cursed. I seems every time I get downtown ready for people to come back in the Covid numbers go in the wrong direction. What am I supposed to do?)
So now we are busy getting ready for school to start, making treats for fall and finding all the chocolate molds for Christmas. Maybe…by…Christmas…
Peace and Good health to you all, Tracy.
6/10/21
First Day of Summer in Mount Horeb! School is out, another sunny 90 degree day and outdoor dining is in full swing. Here at the Sjölinds Factory we are celebrating with plenty of outdoor dining and a bit of indoor dining, ice cream sandwiches and tall cold glasses of safts. Melissa has also come up with delicious summer drink specials; the Dalgona and the Lemon Sugar Latte are especially wonderful.
As to the Covid-19 update, we are cautiously tiptoeing towards optimism. The Factory is now open to the public. Our staff has been vaccinated months ago. We are hiring and training more people to help us. We hope to have enough staff to open our downtown location, even if it is just a few days a week, by the end of summer.
As to masks, you may see some of our staff wearing masks and some of our staff not wearing masks. The the mask mandate in Dane County has been lifted, but not everyone feels comfortable to go without a mask yet. I have asked my staff to do whatever makes them feel comfortable. This of course also applies to the public, unless you have not yet been vaccinated. If you have not been vaccinated please continue to wear a mask because we have young children here who are not allowed to be vaccinated… yet.
This has all been such a long, slow slog. Thank you to everyone who has hung in there with us. We are so very grateful to still be here.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you and love and peace to you and yours, Tracy.
5/7/21
Happy Mother’s Day! I hope enough of you have been vaccinated so you can have a better celebration this year than last year. The current weather report here in Mount Horeb for Sunday is around 60 degrees and a bit cloudy. So if you can’t celebrate indoors, outdoors will be nice enough.
So, many of you have been asking when we will be reopening downtown. Here are our current reopening plans; open the doors at the factory to ordering for outdoor dining, then allow limited indoor dining at the factory, while we train the staff that will be needed when we reopen downtown, then expand indoor dining at the factory, THEN open for limited hours and limited dining downtown. And this is IF (that’s a big if) everything goes well with Covid-19 not spreading more and no new mutation development.
Then there is the matter of me being completely honest. In the last couple of years several businesses similar to ours have opened up in downtown Mount Horeb. I am wondering if we are even needed downtown or if it makes financial sense for us to reopen. We are only a town of 7000.
So as we work towards determining our best future, please get the shot, keep your distance and wear a mask,
Tracy
3/23/21
Easter is just under two weeks away and we still have a few treats available. Check out the Surprise Eggs, Everything but the Basket box and a sweet basket with four four piece boxes of our fan favorites (truffles, caramel butterflies, arraks and marzipans). We also have chocolate bunnies and roosters (a nod to our Scandinavian heritage) ready to go. If you would like to get a look at the full chocolate menu you can pick-up your own personal copy when you get your morning coffee or bakery at the factory.
We are still day-dreaming about what downtown will look like when we reopen. In that day-dream we realize the we are not in charge of the Covid-19 numbers, so we can not say when we will re-open. So, everyone, encourage your friends and family to get that vaccine. The sooner this country reaches herd immunity, the sooner we can reopen. See you on the other side of this Covid-19 mess.
May good health and the joy of the season be with you and yours, Tracy.
2/23/21
We are already past St.Valentine Day and speeding towards Easter. Covid-19 has us keeping our staff as small as possible so I am getting to make more of the sweets than before (BC19 as a new time reference?). Melissa had worked on the recipe for marshmallows for quite a while, all those years ago. She would have me tasting all the time, but it never really dawned on me what good marshmallows should be, until I started making them. Preserved soft meringue! Such a wonderful confection. We started making them to go with our hot chocolate but the are also great eaten alone. I just started making the spring/summer flavors, some of them should be ready next week.
Quite a few people, just recently, have been asking us when we will be reopening downtown. I think what people are really asking is, “When is this terrible mess going to be over? and When can we go back to normal? I’m with you. Every 6 weeks I think we will be reopening in 6 weeks. Good news is the number of Covid-19 cases are decreasing, but we are not even at the level we were at last summer. Business is just numbers and we are waiting for the numbers to be right. Believe me, when we are going to reopen, you will be hearing about it!
Peace and good health to you and yours, Tracy.
Happy New Year!
We took a whole week for a winter break this year. This year was so stressful and quite frankly I have definitely aged over the last 15 years. I thought I was going to get so much done at home and all I did was read and nap. Winter break was lovely! All of us really appreciated the break. Now we are back at it. We are looking forward to seeing you and soon we will be releasing our Valentine gifts.
May this year be the calm after so many storms, Tracy.
12/17/20
My husband calls me Mrs. Clause now. For the last two months Iv’e (along with several others) have worked long hours to get ready for this holiday season. Thank goodness we did. This community has be so kind and generous to not forget us during these holidays. Thank you, thank you, thank you from all of us to all of you. We still have peppermint bark, almond bark, peanut brittle, toffees, fruit and nut boxes, marzipan, hot chocolates and of course truffles and caramels.
I hope that you are able to fine joy and peace in the season. Love, Tracy.
10/15/20
Well, a person has to hope, but we won’t be opening our downtown spot this evening. Or any evening for the foreseeable future. The Covid-19 numbers have never been worse, so it doesn’t make sense to open until things improve. Believe me we are not operating out of fear, as some have suggested, but out of love. So keep 6 feet apart, wash your hands, wear a mask and we will see you on the other side of this thing. Love, Tracy.
P.S. Melissa is asking me to remind you that we are happy to help you with your chocolate needs in the drive-thru or online
10/4/20
Opening downtown! But opening very differently and very different hours. On Thursday, October 15, we will be open 4-7pm. Our new hours will be Thursday thru Saturday from 4 to 7pm. We will not have indoor seating…yet. We are opening for shopping, a cup of something hot and a few small treats. We have created new displays, spread retail over more of the store so shoppers can be more spread out, hand sanitizer at the front door and as everywhere masks are required. We will be featuring our normal fall candies; caramel corn, Autumn bark and caramels and truffles inspired by the flavors of fall. We are excited to see the space being used again, but we completely understand if this still does not feel safe for you. We have also created a confection and chocolate menu that you can pick-up at the drive-thru window at the factory. You can also call ahead or order some products online and we will bag your order up for you so that you can pick-up it up at the drive-thru window or make use of the contactless option. We hope these changes will allow everyone to have and little more sweetness in this difficult time. Peace and good health be with you, Tracy.
9/18/20
Whoa! I guess I let myself get a bit overwhelmed last update. All true, but still. The unifying personality trait of small business owners is relentless optimism. Now that we have regained a more positive outlook, we have embraced that we will most likely need to keep our doors closed through the winter. (We will still keep the drive-thru window open.) This has us looking to our Scandinavian roots and the love of spending more time outdoors in the cold months. We have bought an outdoor fire feature and are looking for benches to surround it. We will enjoy seeing people get something hot to drink, gather around the fire and take a break from this “new normal”. We are also in the process of putting more of our chocolate store on-line, for now and for all the upcoming holidays. Check out our chocolate celebration of fall under the SHOP header of this website and stay tuned for our chocolate-spell-casting box for Halloween. Peace to you all, Tracy.
8/29/20
We are getting very tired people. You may find us closed a bit early once and awhile. We won’t be closed early very often, but there will be those days until all this Covid-19 business ends. We are tired of the name calling, being flipped off and told we are not right with God if we think we will get Covid. All of this when we simply tell people that our space can’t be open to the public right now. We are tired of people not protecting us by wearing masks in the drive-thru when we do so much to protect everyone. We would hire more people to relive some of the pressure but we really can’t afford to expand our Covid circle. So if you see us closed when you didn’t expect it, know that we are practicing some self care and we will be back at it tomorrow. And please remember, “The highest form of wisdom is kindness,” from the Talmud. Love and kindness to all, Tracy.
8/16/20
When I got into this business it was for the hospitality. I love creating spaces for people to linger and socialize. I believe that most of the worlds problems are solved by talking them out and learning of other people’s opinions and finding the middle ground where ever possible. If there is good food and drink involved, all the better. The Covid 19 virus is the opposite of all of this. Now we do manufacturing and service. Don’t get me wrong, both are still important. I do really love making things and getting to talk to people in the 2 to 3 minute exchanges. But I really do miss the hospitality end of things. Looking forward to all gathering again safely. Tracy
7/31/2020
End of July and no improvements with Covid-19, yet. We here at Sjölinds are all getting more comfortable wearing face masks; necessary but not easy. Seating is still at 25%, so we have kept our shops closed and our drive-thru open. The outside tables are getting used now that the weather isn’t quite so hot. One of my main projects right now is reworking the downtown retail space so we are ready when we can reopen.
I want to thank everyone that is wearing a face mask. Believe me, I know how uncomfortable they are. I recently heard that the 3 ply masks are only 42% effective, so if both people in an interaction are wearing masks it is 84% effective. So thank you for helping this all end a little sooner. Even if it is only a little sooner, every little bit helps. Tracy
7/12/2020
This is all going on so much longer than we thought it would. We thought 8, maybe 12 weeks and we will be back to normal. Surprise, surprise, surprise! As I write this we are heading into week 20 of this Covid-19 mess and moving into the mandatory face mask phase issued by Dane County Health. So as with each previous week we come up with another plan:
Open only at the Factory. Window service only. Everyone in face masks per the new county order. Downtown store will remain closed until 75% capacity, only because we can’t afford to operate with less. Sometime in the fall we hope to open downtown for just retail and coffee for limited hours. Stay tuned, every week seems to have a new twist. -Tracy