House Records · The Counter
Our Confectionery
Nine people, two kettles, one marble slab, and a cook book that has been kept in pencil since 1974. This is who stands behind the counter and how to reach them.
A Candy Works on the Valley Floor
Sorrel Hollow began in a rented church kitchen with one copper kettle and a recipe card inherited from a grandmother in the Ozarks. Fifty years on we occupy a low brick building on Sorrel Hollow Lane with a north-facing window that stays cool enough for slabs. We still cook nine kilos at a time because that is the largest batch two people can pull and cut before the sugar stiffens.
Our flavors come from the older American candy counter rather than the modern aisle: sassafras root bark, horehound leaf, anise and clove, orchard windfalls, wild huckleberry, violet and plum. We buy pears from two orchards inside the county, huckleberries from a picking co-op in the coast range, and botanicals from a herb farm that has supplied us since 1989.
How a Visitor Spends an Hour Here
The counter is open Tuesday through Saturday from ten until five. There is a tasting board with four families out at any time, a light table where you can watch a batch being inspected, and a bench by the window with the current cook book open to the day's entry. Groups of more than six are best arranged ahead so we can time the pour for your arrival.
The People at the Kettle
Marguerite Sowell took over the cook book from her mother in 1998 and still writes every entry by hand. Ellis Nakamura runs the second kettle and the huckleberry season. Dora Pike handles the slab and the cutting bench. The rest of the crew pack tins, answer the telephone, drive the Tuesday deliveries to the two Corvallis grocers, and taste every batch before it is signed off.
Reserving a Batch or a Tasting Box
Weddings, retirements, church suppers and company thank-yous are welcome, with three weeks notice for a full cook and one week for a tasting box. Tell us the occasion, the number of guests, and whether any household on the list has a restricted diet. We will tell you which families are pouring that month and whether the timing works before anything is promised.
Counter and correspondence
- Address 1140 Sorrel Hollow Lane, Corvallis, Oregon 97333
- Email sorrelhollowcandies@gmail.com
- Counter hours Tuesday to Saturday, ten in the morning until five in the afternoon
- Cook days Tuesday and Thursday mornings, starting at half past five
- Tastings Four families on the board, changed each Wednesday
- Group visits Reserve at least a week ahead for parties of seven or more
Email is the surest way to reach the shop mid-week, because the kettle takes both hands. We answer in the order messages arrive, usually within two business days.
What We Would Like You to Know
A hard drop is a slow pleasure and a small ceremony. It asks you to sit down, put a cup of something hot nearby, and pay attention for a minute. That is what the candy counter of the 1960s and 1970s actually offered, and it is what we are still trying to hand across the counter in Corvallis. Come by on a Thursday morning if you want to see the pour.
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