By Heather Backman

I didn’t realize at first that my children and I had created a vacuum—a deep, shared desire to find a way to make money that was actually fun. We let that desire work on us until one day we landed on an idea we all loved and enjoyed. So, we went for it! We started making freeze-dried candy!

We had an absolute blast freeze-drying Skittles and Taffy. Watching the candy blow up was like a science experiment—the taffy nearly quadrupled in size! We couldn’t get enough of it. Then we tried gummy worms, Jolly Ranchers, Hi-Chews, Bit-O-Honey, and Milk Duds. The Milk Duds? They exploded into giant, fluffy balls of goodness. We didn’t even realize we needed to cut them into fourths and separate them before freeze-drying!

It was so much fun experimenting with what happened to each kind of candy when freeze-dried. We even tried ICE CREAM! It totally worked. We cut ice cream sandwiches into bite-sized pieces, froze whole sandwiches on trays, and even put Cookies and Cream ice cream into square molds before freeze-drying. It was so cool—like astronaut food! And delicious too!

While having so much fun, we decided to pursue this as a little family business. But after looking into all the laws and restrictions, we weren’t sure we wanted to move forward. Still, we were willing to try to fulfill our desire to make money doing something fun together.

I called around to local farmers markets and other events but couldn’t find a single one that would allow us to sell under the Homemade Food Act. I wasn’t sure what to do. We knew we could figure out a way to sell our candy, but we weren’t sure how yet.

Little did I know, by making, packaging, and even creating a logo and labels for our freeze-dried candy, we had created a vacuum—a hole that needed to be filled. As they say, “nature abhors a vacuum.” That hole was a place to sell our candy! So we stayed open-minded, knowing the solution would show up eventually.

Then one day, the idea came—and it got me and my family so excited! I thought, “If we can’t go to any markets, then we’ll create our own market—a Children’s Market!” Right then and there, I began creating a plan. I decided to call it the “Neighborhood Children’s Market.” I reached out to parents to see if their kids would be interested in participating, and many were eager to give their children a chance at an entrepreneurial experience. The market filled up quickly with excited kids wanting to sell!

Market day came, and it was even more successful than I expected! Many kids sold out of certain items—including us! It was incredible to see how well these little vendors did. At the end of the day, the kids eagerly counted their earnings—and we were amazed to find they had made just under $200. I felt so much gratitude!

Had we not created the vacuum by putting our idea into action, the Neighborhood Children’s Market wouldn’t exist, and we wouldn’t have made any money selling our freeze-dried candy. It was faith in our desire, combined with action, that created the vacuum, which created the need for a selling place, which then allowed the idea to come, which created the market—and ultimately, our desire was made manifest!

The kids walked away happy, excited, and feeling financially successful. And that was just the beginning—we’ll be holding many more markets in the months to come, letting that desire grow even more!

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