- April 26, 2024
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Mayor Ed Kelley was branded to make his grandmother's fudge — literally.
When he was 4-years-old, she was cooking a batch in her cast-iron pot. He reached up to help her and the whole things came down on his arm. And he still has the scar to prove it.
"That's the first memory I have of experiencing the fudge," Kelley said as he stood over his own stove, preparing a bath. "My sister and I would go down to the neighbors, get walnuts, take them home and dad would run them over to get the green part off. Then we would shred a coconut, and we have black walnut and coconut fudge."
The fudge-making tradition has been passed on since 1947 from his grandmother to his mother, and now to Kelley. When he had kids, they started calling it "My Daddy's Famous Fudge." It stayed in the family for awhile, until Kelley made the mistake of sharing it with one of his kids' teachers.
"One year I gave a batch to a teacher at Tomoka Elementary School," he said. "She just raved over it. I mean, it is good, but she told everybody. It just mushroomed from there and we started giving it to neighbors and friends."
Eventually, it turned into a tradition nearly an entire community enjoyed. Though it's shrunken in size since, Mayor Kelley's exclusive fudge list used to be a long as 30 people. And with each batch taking two to three hours to make, the demand got to be too much.
"It's fun, but it came a point where I was spending all my time making fudge," he said. "I was making 25 to 30 batches every Christmas. There was one year I had carpal tunnel, so almost no one got fudge."
Pam Wilson, who has been on the list for over 25 years, said she remembers that year very well.
"One year he was having problems with his wrist and wasn't able to make as much, but he still brought us a batch," she said. "It meant a lot. Usually he bring us the rejects or the test batches when he tries something different. My children are all grown and live out of town, but when they come home, they always come looking for Mr. Kelley's fudge. And my husband always hides some for himself. It really is a family tradition for us."
Though Kelley is pretty adamant on when he makes the fudge and who gets it, he's broken tradition on a few special occasions. Like during the year of carpal tunnel, when a friend felt left out for not receiving any fudge.
"He called me and said 'What did I do?'" Kelley laughed. "So I broke tradition and made him fudge after the first of the year. It's just a way of sharing something with people."
Peggie Hart said she doesn't remember a time when she didn't get fudge from Mayor Kelley.
"We're honored to get it," she said. "When I got it this year, I sent a picture to my daughters and one wrote back and said 'Freeze it and bring it up here.'"
Despite the time and effort it takes, Kelley said it's something he enjoys doing for his friends and family.
"I like doing things where you can instantly see that you're accomplishing something," he said. "Instant gratification. I don't like to use those words because people can take it the wrong way, but it's the instant satisfaction of knowing you accomplished something."
And it sounds like the Kelley Fudge Tradition will be carried on by one of his well-known children, Brian Kelley of Florida Georgia Line. "Brian was here for Thanksgiving, and he wanted the fudge then," he said. "I told him 'No, that breaks tradition.' He told me that he and his wife, Britt, were coming back for Christmas, and that he wanted me to teach her how to make it so she can carry on the tradition. That was cool."
