Guest Speaker: Tye Reeder

My friend Tye, who I haven't talked to since high school but occasionally see on instagram, has a chocolate subscription business and also does a bunch of other interesting things like community farm-to-table dinners. I contacted her to see if she would be willing to teach a little workshop for us about chocolate and just about starting a business in general! It's a topic Daisy is very interested in. Tye was amazing and invited us to her beautiful house up in Huntsville. I love the drive up the canyon to Morgan (where my dad grew up) but have never made the turn into Huntsville, so I was happy to have a reason to drive that way!

Tye was so awesome. She had raw cacao beans and let us roast them and crush them to get the nibs out. It was cool to try for ourselves this process we'd watched in videos and seen in books!

She also has her own melanger. It's just like a little mixer but it has a stone wheel in there that grinds and grinds the chocolate until it is smooth and not grainy. It takes a long time with heat and friction working on the cocoa mass—something like three days!

She let us try some chocolate right out of the melanger. We dipped a bunch of things in it and it was so good!

Her little display of chocolates she sells in her shop

She also did a chocolate tasting session with us, progressing from lighter to darker and separating each type with a palate-cleansing pretzel. So much fun!

We had a great time talking and just catching up. This interaction the children get to have with other adults, learning what they specialize in and seeing the interesting career paths and talents they've developed, is one of the best parts of homeschooling, I think. Hearing about some of the things Tye has learned starting her own business was so fascinating!

And everyone loved her dogs.

My girls hit it off right away with her cute daughter (also homeschooled) too!