Julie Caffey carries on her grandmother’s Christmas candy tradition
PHILLIPSBURG, MO. – Julie Caffey is a very busy woman in that like a lot of Ozark cooks, she still works full-time, outside the home while planning for her special holiday dishes.
“Pies are my favorites,” she said of her holiday baking. “I make chocolate, coconut cream, peach cobbler, apple, pecan, and strawberry pies. And of course, in addition to that is the peanut brittle, pecan turtles, peanut butter balls, peanut clusters and English toffee. Most of my recipes come from my dad’s side, his mother, Maxine McMillan of Phillipsburg.”
Julie lives on her family’s Century Farm in Phillipsburg, Mo., with her husband, Gary.
“My grandmother’s grandparents, John and Emily Prosser had the original farm where we live now,” she added.
She went to high school in Conway and graduated from Missouri State University with a degree in animal science. She and Gary, who works for Missouri Tooling and Automation, have a cow/calf operation with about 50 commercial cows, using registered Simmental bulls.
Julie worked for many years for the Missouri Department of Conservation in the Forestry Office in Lebanon. She was the assistant trout hatchery manager at Bennett Spring for several years before that, the first woman in the department’s history to hold a hatchery management position. Today, she is a program technician for the Farm Service Agency in Bolivar, a part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
She characterizes cooking as her hobby. Julie remembers her grandma always made candy for Christmas. Julie, too, has become quite the proficient candy maker. In past years, she helped a niece and nephew in their fund-raising efforts with her homemade candies.
“We raised money for a school trip to Washington D.C. and a band trip by making and selling candies,” she recalled. “We made and sold all of them to raise money for their trips.”
Now, of course, Julie has former “customers” who have not forgotten the delicious treats and still look for them each Christmas season.
