FIRE IN THE BELLY

As the owner of Old Coal, Jolene Kolk knows the stresses associated with running a business. As a chocolatier, she knows that pressure creates diamonds.

when it comes to inventing fresh flavours for her homemade chocolates, Jolene Kolk turns to her memories of growing up on the family farm. The tart taste of rhubarb in spring. Blackcurrants in summer. And in the fall, pumpkins and sweet-sour crabapples. Kolk lives in Calgary now, but every summer and fall, she picks and preserves local fruit—some from the farm where she grew up—to use throughout the rest of the year. “It’s a fun way to keep it seasonal,” she says, and it’s a way of tying her childhood roots to her adult life in Calgary. “Picking crabapples was something we did as kids, and now I’m doing it as part of the business.” Kolk is the chocolate-maker at Old Coal, a Calgary-based company that she founded in early 2016. The name pays homage to the coal found in Southern Alberta, where Kolk grew up, as well as her maternal grandfather, a blacksmith who used a coal-fired forge for his work. “It’s my roots and a bit of my family history,” she says. “It’s about craftsmanship and creativity, and it’s a reminder of where I’m coming from and where I’m going.” Indeed, craftsmanship and creativity are key to Kolk’s success. Hard work, too. You’ll find her chocolates online and she has plans for several pop-up shops before Christmas, including a weekend at Market Collective. She will also have a kiosk for the next few weeks at Southcentre where she will showcase her Christmas collection, which includes a trio of hot chocolate flavours: original dark; spiced Mayan, with cinnamon and chili; and a salted-caramel milk chocolate. Several new bonbons (her hand-painted confections) have also been released, including crabapple cider, rosemary-hazelnut praline, and mulled wine. Then there are the perennial favourites: chocolate-covered coffee beans, as well as monthly subscriptions to the Chocolate Miners’ Club, which guarantees a fresh chocolate delivery once a month. Born in Lethbridge, Kolk grew up on Kayben Farms, her parents’ farm near Okotoks. Kayben has a U-Pick fruit operation and cafe; as kids, Kolk and her sisters were expected to pitch in and help at every opportunity. But they loved it, she says. Her family still cooks together at every opportunity, and Kolk’s sister, Stephanie Parker, is a chef and cookbook author.

Kolk, however, chose to focus on the sweet side of things. She graduated from SAIT’s pastry program a few years ago and realized her culinary passion was chocolate. “There’s just so much you can do with it,” she says.

Now she turns her family’s blackcurrants into syrup for cassis-filled chocolate bonbons. The farm’s pumpkins go into the pumpkin spice. She’s worked with Village Brewery to make beer-caramel chocolate. She’s even used Park Distillery’s espresso vodka and bird’s-eye-chili vodka to create spicy sweet treats for the Banff distillery’s shop and restaurant. “Obviously you can’t get chocolate locally,” she says. “But I like to use local inspiration and ingredients as much as possible.”