Oh, fudge! NDG woman makes 220 kilograms of sweet treat for charity

Barbara Sidorowicz's childhood did not involve fudge.

It just wasn't in her Polish family's repertoire — but she managed to fall in love with the dessert later in life, finding recipes online and making a habit of cooking up a batch whenever she could.

Lying awake earlier this month, Sidorowicz was thinking of ways she could raise some money for charity, when the thought struck her: fudge. She could cook up a batch or two, sell it through the Facebook group she was the administrator of, and donate the money to charities that needed it.

The next morning, she got cooking. She thought she would sell ten, maybe 20 boxes worth.

It didn't work out that way.

"I never in my wildest dreams thought it would be this popular," Sidorowicz told CBC's Daybreak Friday. "But it just exploded."

In the past three weeks, Sidorowicz has made over 500 pounds of fudge (226 kilograms), raised over $5,000 for local charity — and managed to clear out local grocery stores in the process.

Sweetening the pot

Sidorowicz said it was popular from the start, but in a way that she could manage. People who were picking up the fudge were posting about how good it was on social media, leading to more orders.

Then two local contractors thought they'd shoot Sidorowicz a challenge: if she could make 100 pounds of fudge, or 45 kilograms, in one weekend, then they'd buy the whole thing, at her going rate of $10 a pound.

"That would be an extra thousand dollars in the donation pot," Sidorowicz said. "And I thought: 'OK, I'll give it a try!'"

The problem? Each batch only makes a pound and a half of fudge. Cooking in bulk could compromise the dessert's consistency.

"It was non-stop fudge making from like five in the morning," said Sidorowicz, who was making all the fudge solo out of her personal kitchen. "It takes a long time so it's being on your feet for a lot of hours."

"I have had people from the community bring me lunch, bring me gin, bring me wine," she said.

Sidorowicz wound up pushing past the 100-pound goal, making a total of 130 pounds (59 kilograms) of fudge in two days, adding $1,300 to the charity pot. 

Borough's butter bandit

But a lot of fudge means a lot of ingredients. Sidorowicz said she cleaned out not one, but two grocery stores of their stock while doing supply runs.

"Some people have gone into Metro and there's just no brown sugar. They've gone into Provigo and there's no butter left," she laughed, sheepish. "That was me!"

It got to the point where employees would recognize her when she came in.

"They just kind of laughed and asked: 'Oh, you're making more fudge?'" she said. "But I really — I never thought it would be this big!"

Sidorowicz said that after weeks of fudge making, she's exhausted and throwing in the towel for the year. 

As for this year's donations, Sidorowicz asked her Facebook group, NDG Living, where they should go. 

Users decided that the money should be divided between three organizations: Project Chance, for single mothers who want to go back to school; a local resident who makes care packages for the homeless; and to the NDG Food Depot, a local food bank.

And next year? Sidorowicz said she's open to trying it again — though she'd like a bit of a break from fudge, first.

"It's funny, because just last night on my Facebook feed, [a post] popped up from six years ago," she said.

In the picture, she was making fudge.