A candy-making business
Julie Bourque/Staff Reporter
Issue date: 4/14/06 Section: News
Not even through her first glass of wine, she said yes.
Saying yes meant leaving behind $36,000 a year plus benefits at Eastern Illinois University and becoming so far in debt "most people would wake up crying," but Devon Nau agreed in an instant to her sister's offer.
"I like to tell people she got me drunk and made me do it," Nau said with her illuminative sense of humor.
Nau, who taught in Eastern's English department for 16 years, and her sister, Ann Flesor-Beck, purchased the 30-year vacant building at 101 W. Sale St. in Tuscola to reopen their grandfather's business, Flesor's Candy Kitchen. A year and a half and $800,000 later, the building reopened and was renovated from the roof down to replicate the charming soda shop that last stood in the 1970s.
"I was a little teary when I had to leave Eastern," Nau said. "But, it was time for a career change. I wasn't being challenged anymore."
But she soon received challenges.
During her first two weeks in business, Nau pulled every muscle in her chest from stirring candy with a paddle in her copper kettle, which is the same kettle her grandfather used. With three children, ages 4, 6 and 15, Nau comes into the shop to start cooking candy before she takes the children to school, goes back home to drive the children to school and then comes back to the shop to work until about 5 p.m.
"Usually I have the kids here for a while and then we'll go home and eat dinner," Nau said. "Occasionally, I will take them home to their father and come back and work until 10 p.m. or midnight with my sister."
Making candy is traditionally the male role in the confectionary business since it requires strength to stir the candy in the kettle. However, Nau takes on the job proudly and, of course, with a little humor.
"Granted my biceps are huge now, I'm not a man," Nau said. "I'm the witch in the corner (of the kitchen) with her copper kettle. If I tried to roll the creams like Ann, they'd turn out like blobs, not nice little balls."
Saying yes meant leaving behind $36,000 a year plus benefits at Eastern Illinois University and becoming so far in debt "most people would wake up crying," but Devon Nau agreed in an instant to her sister's offer.
"I like to tell people she got me drunk and made me do it," Nau said with her illuminative sense of humor.
Nau, who taught in Eastern's English department for 16 years, and her sister, Ann Flesor-Beck, purchased the 30-year vacant building at 101 W. Sale St. in Tuscola to reopen their grandfather's business, Flesor's Candy Kitchen. A year and a half and $800,000 later, the building reopened and was renovated from the roof down to replicate the charming soda shop that last stood in the 1970s.
"I was a little teary when I had to leave Eastern," Nau said. "But, it was time for a career change. I wasn't being challenged anymore."
But she soon received challenges.
During her first two weeks in business, Nau pulled every muscle in her chest from stirring candy with a paddle in her copper kettle, which is the same kettle her grandfather used. With three children, ages 4, 6 and 15, Nau comes into the shop to start cooking candy before she takes the children to school, goes back home to drive the children to school and then comes back to the shop to work until about 5 p.m.
"Usually I have the kids here for a while and then we'll go home and eat dinner," Nau said. "Occasionally, I will take them home to their father and come back and work until 10 p.m. or midnight with my sister."
Making candy is traditionally the male role in the confectionary business since it requires strength to stir the candy in the kettle. However, Nau takes on the job proudly and, of course, with a little humor.
"Granted my biceps are huge now, I'm not a man," Nau said. "I'm the witch in the corner (of the kitchen) with her copper kettle. If I tried to roll the creams like Ann, they'd turn out like blobs, not nice little balls."
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