Jan 22, 2008

Success is sweet for fudge shop in ApalachinBy Bill WingellPressConnects.com

Candy Kelly of Owego owns a fudge factory. And, if that’s not appropriate enough, Kelly’s daughter, Collette Duddy, who started the business, named the shop Fuddy Duddy’s Fudge Factory.

Duddy, 43, of Spencer, launched her fudge-making venture in 1998 at the old Apalachin train station on Route 434. She took over and expanded a small fudge store from another owner.

Within two years, Duddy and her husband, Tom, bought a farm in Spencer, and Collette Duddy began a new full-time career of boarding horses and giving riding lessons. She asked her mother to take over the fudge shop.

Kelly, 63, had just retired from a long-time job as a baker in the cafeteria at the Lockheed Martin plant in Owego. She also ran her own shop, Cedar Court Collectibles. She resisted her daughter’s offer.

“I didn’t want to do it. Mark my words, I didn’t want to do it,” Kelly said. “I told my daughter I had had enough baking, and I was not interested in making fudge at my age.”

So what happened? “I guess the next day I wasn’t quite as tired,” said Kelly with a laugh. She agreed to take over the fudge business.

Kelly operated both her gift shop and the fudge-making operation at the Apalachin station until 2001, when, in need of more space, she moved the growing fudge enterprise to a store in Sweeney’s Plaza, a short distance away on Route 434.

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