DOVER-FOXCROFT — It was his mother’s fudge that lead a Dover-Foxcroft man on a cooking venture that has since altered his lifestyle.

The story behind Phil’s Fudge is one of happy memories, the sweet and smooth taste of peanut butter fudge and a desire to be independent.

Phil Harmon of Dover-Foxcroft and his eight brothers and sisters eagerly looked forward to holidays when their mother, Sandra Harmon, would fill the kitchen with the smell of homemade peanut butter fudge. The pan of fudge would be gone before it cooled off, according to Harmon.

For years, Harmon told his friends that he could market his mother’s fudge — it was that tasty. It wasn’t until years later through, when he tried a piece of packaged fudge on display near a checkout counter, that he decided to follow through with his boast.

During a week off from his circulation job at the Bangor Daily News, Harmon worked steadily with his mother using her recipe to make the sweet confectionery. After learning the cooking techniques, Harmon convinced store owners to try his product and sell it for him. “I’m a good salesman,” he said.

That was seven years ago. Today Harmon makes an average of 60 pans of fudge a week and 35 pans of chocolates to stock about 100 Maine stores from Caribou to Lewiston.

“It’s a small operation in some sense, but for one guy, putting out $1,000 to $2,000 worth of products in a week isn’t too bad,” Harmon said. “I do everything by hand, one pot at a time.” Usually, there’s eight pots of candy on the stove cooking at a time.

Three days a week, the father of five children works feverishly making fudge and chocolates in a small kitchen attached to his home and spends the remaining two weekdays on the road distributing the product.

“It’s not a 9-to-5 job. Sometimes I’m wrapping (candy) until midnight and get up at 4 in the morning to finish it,” Harmon said.

His success has astounded Harmon, who credited his brother Tim for giving him the extra push and help during the initial start up of the business.

Today, Harmon thinks of expanding his business. “I think I’m going to branch out in a few different flavors, probably in the spring,” he said. He has toyed with some ideas and even purchased a cookbook to help him in his venture.

Harmon has found by trial and error that chocolates and fudge don’t sell well around the Christmas holiday, because many people make their own. In addition, he doesn’t make chocolates during the summer months, because they melt too easily. He also tried expanding the business by baking breads, sweet cakes and hard candy, but each have had their own drawbacks, he said.

Occasionally, Harmon makes a batch of fudge that is either too soft or too hard. Out of 60 pans of candy, he might have one or two that are overcooked, which generally means an instant loss. Because quality is important to him, he also replaces any candy that isn’t sold in the stores with freshly made candy.

“It’s nice being independent. It would be hard for me to work for someone else, I’ve done this so long,” Harmon said. The 32-year-old candy maker said, “Anybody can learn to do a small business if they’re willing to put in quite a bit of effort. You can’t give up,” he said.

And, Harmon believes he’s providing a good service.

“There’s people out there depending on my fudge,” he said.