MADE IN PA #4: Lerro Decorated Eggs

Lerro decorated eggs are beautiful and delicious!

Founded by Giovanni Lerro in 1900, Lerro's Candies is another Philadelphia confectionery landmark. This family owned and operated company began manufacturing chocolate-covered fruit and nuts in their South Philadelphia rowhouse, living on the third floor, making candy on the second, and operating a retail store on the first. Pasquale Lerro, who died at age 93 in 2008, learned the business alongside his father after serving in the Navy in WWII.

The family opened a chocolate factory in Darby, PA, in 1950, where they began making decorated Easter eggs and boxed chocolates for Valentine's day. Pasquale never retired, working at the business he loved every day until his death. His children carry on this third generation candy company still in Darby, PA.

Lerro Candies make lovely hand-decorated Easter eggs in traditional flavors that are difficult to find. Georgie Lou's carries their four ounce eggs in buttercream, coconut, and peanut butter and in the harder to find flavors of strawberry and old fashioned fruit and nut. Each egg retails for $2.50 each

MADE IN PA #3: Zitner's Eggs

Zitner Eggs are a customer favorite at Georgie Lou's!

The most delicious filled eggs I've ever had are made by Zitner Candy Corporation in North Philadelphia. Started in 1922, Zitner's produces filled eggs in traditional flavors of marshmallow, peanut butter, buttercream, cocoanut cream, and double coconut, but they are most known for their Butter Krak eggs, which are a unique blend of butter and toasted coconut that have loyal lovers of Zitner's anxiously awaiting their return each spring.

Most of Zitner's production is completed using the same methods, machinery, and recipes that have made Zitner's eggs a traditional Easter favorite for decades in the Philadelphia area. Most eggs have fillings that are mixed, cooked, and spread onto marble tables to cool. Once the fillings have solidified, egg-size portions are cut and then enrobed in chocolate. This process is time consuming and could be more efficient if additives were used to help the fillings cool faster, but Zitner's refuses to fiddle with the recipes that have been the backbone of their business for most of the company's 90 year history.

I never had Zitner eggs growing up here in South Central Pennsylvania, so when I saw their vibrant retro wrappers and boxes the first Easter Georgie Lou's was in business, I knew I had to have them for the store. Their flavor, texture, and richness of chocolate flavor cannot be beat  in my book. We currently have every flavor in stock except double cocoanut. Zitner's eggs retail for $1.25 each, but you can purchase five for $5 between now and Easter. Stock up on them to last into the summer, so your wait until next year is a bit shorter because once they're gone, they're gone until next spring!



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MADE IN PA #2: Aunt Bee's Hollow Bonita Bunnies

Bunnies, bunnies, bunnies everywhere!

This is the third year Georgie Lou's has carried Aunt Bee's Hollow Bonita Bunnies as our main chocolate for Easter baskets. Their vibrant colors and flavors--we've got them in blue, pink, tan (peanut butter), white, light brown (milk choc.) and dark brown (dark choc.)--are what make them so special! Year after year when I was younger, the choices were only white or milk, so these shake Easter up a bit! We've also got small solid bunnies by Aunt Bee in milk, dark, and white, as well as hollow Milk Chocolate Turtles.

Aunt Bee's is based in East Berlin, Pennsylvania, and specializes in handmade chocolates, such as our bunnies, and sugar clear toy candy, which we also carry seasonally. They have a stand at the Hanover Market and operate year round.

From now until Easter, you can buy three small solid bunnies for $5.00 as compared to $2.00 each and the large Bonita bunnies will be three for $20.00 as compared to $8.00 each!

(Shop Local, Shop Small, Pennsylvania made, candy, carlisle, pa, candy store)



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MADE IN PA #1: Forever Sweet Candy Kabobs

Forever Sweet Gummy Kabobs (rear) and Clear Toy Lollipops,
another Made in PA candy, will brighten up baskets.

Forever Sweet is a small chocolatier in Lancaster county. In business for 15 years, Forever Sweet specializes mostly in making fine chocolates but has recently branched out into hand-making gummy kabobs. Gummy kabobs are skewers of gummy candies topped with a hand-decorated gummy. For Easter, these decorative gummies are adorable little bunnies and chicks. The thing that makes these gummy kabobs special is that they are made right here in Pennsylvania while most found in chain stores are massed produced in China.


Each Forever Sweet Candy Kabob includes 9-10 assorted gummy candies, decorative gummy topper, and is wrapped in cello and tied up with a tulle bow. These are priced at $3.00 each, but as our Made in PA candy of the day, they will be 2/$5.00 from now until Easter!



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Shop Local, Shop Small for Easter at Georgie Lou's!

Growing numbers of consumers are looking to support small, locally-owned businesses. Small Business Saturday, created by American Express in 2010, estimates that its second annual event in 2011 drew 103 million people into locally-owned businesses on the Saturday after Black Friday, which are numbers that exceeded their estimates. Locally in Carlisle, the Downtown Carlisle Association is ramping up its efforts in 2012 to invite local consumers to discover their downtown by expanding its First Friday events and by coordinating with Carlisle Events to create “Block Parties” during car shows throughout the summer. But local residents need not wait until summer to start supporting local businesses. They can fill their Easter baskets with plenty of Pennsylvania-made goodies while strengthening the local economy by shopping in downtown Carlisle right now.


Georgie Lou’s Retro Candy & Gifts in Carlisle has specifically sought out locally-made Easter candy this year. In fact, nearly 95% of our Easter specialty candy is Pennsylvania made. From Zitner Eggs made in Philadelphia to molded chocolate bunnies and Clear Toy Candy made by Aunt Bee’s in Hanover, shoppers will find plenty of delicious choices that will keep money in Pennsylvania’s economy at Georgie Lou’s. We’re lucky in Pennsylvania to have a strong confectionary tradition, so we’ve been able to pull together many hand-crafted Easter candies made within a 100 mile radius of Carlisle this year. Many items, such as chocolate-dipped Peeps and Oreos and Gummi Kabobs, are made by small start-up companies in the Lebanon/Lancaster area. By buying our candy from small companies, we’re able to offer our customers unique products they won’t find in big box stores while supporting family-owned and operated businesses like ourselves. In addition, Georgie Lou’s other Easter candy is overwhelmingly made in the United States. Even though many companies are moving their production overseas, we always choose to support companies who continue to produce candy in the United States whenever we can.


In such tough economic times, why has the shop local movement gained traction? To put it simply—mathematics. Numerous studies show that consumer dollars spent at locally-owned businesses stay in the community at much higher rates than those spent at big box stores. According to the Small Business Saturday website, $68 of every $100 spent at small businesses go right back into the local economy while only $43 of every $100 spent at chain retailers go directly into the surrounding community. Even worse for the local economy are out-of-state internet retailers, with nary a cent going back into the local or state economies. More money put back into the local and state economies means more money for local schools and roads, more jobs and wages for other members of the community, and more money for local charities and non-profits.


But it’s about more than money. Small businesses enrich the community by establishing personal, friendly relationships with their customers and providing customer service unparalleled by chain stores. Local business owners are integral parts of the community and respect and value each one of their customers because they are their neighbors and not simply transaction totals. We’ve built close relationships with many of our customers. We know what’s going on in their families, and they know what’s going on in ours. We know many by name and look forward to catching up with them and asking about their kids when they visit our store. And since I'm a local girl, I've been able to find many inter-generational ties with my customers, who may have grown up with my parents or known my grandparents. You don’t build the type of ties we have with our customers with clerks at big box stores. Our entire business philosophy is based on different things. For us, it’s not all about dollars and cents like national chains. We want to become a Carlisle tradition—the neighborhood candy store that parents bring their children and eventually grandchildren to for treats. We want to become a place that people look back upon and speak of fondly as so many of our customers do about their childhood penny candy stores. Creating new and strengthening already established community ties like these may be the most important reason behind the growth in the shop local movement.


So start building community ties and keeping more money in the local economy by shopping small this Easter at businesses like Georgie Lou’s in downtown Carlisle. Your purchases will do double duty by putting smiles on faces Easter morning while giving back to your local community as well.


Georgie Lou's Retro Candy & Gifts is open Tuesday through Thursday from 12-6 and Friday and Saturday from 12-7 and will be open extended hours Easter week. Georgie Lou’s is active on facebook (facebook.com/georgielous), twitter (@GeorgieLous), and can be found on the web at GeorgieLous.com.