Sweet sorrow: A tight labor market hits Minnesota right in the caramel apple

It was a crisp autumn weekend at the Pine Tree Apple Orchard.

Happy families in sweaters and fleece waited in a line so long it stretched almost to the pumpkin patch, inching closer and closer to the warm donuts and cold cider inside. Fall wouldn't be fall in the north metro without a trip to the Jacobson family farm for fresh-baked pies and fresh-picked apples. This year was no different.

Except for the orchard worker walking up and down the line, apologizing into a bullhorn.

There are no caramel apples this year.

No caramel apples.

"That was our sad little thing this fall," said Jeanne Jacobson, whose family has been selling those coveted caramel apples at their White Bear Lake farm for the past 35 years. The six Jacobson siblings run the orchard their parents started in the 1950s.

People used to come in and scoop up their signature caramel apples by the dozen — tart Haralson apples, dipped in thick caramel by Abdallah Candies in Apple Valley.

People were so upset they weren't available this year that the Jacobsons started making the bullhorn announcements to stop people from yelling at the cashiers. (Please don't yell at the cashiers.)

"We would tell people, 'No one's more upset about it than we are. Trust us,'" Jacobson said with a chuckle. She remembers her father, Art Jacobson, driving a truck full of apples to Abdallah's to be dipped and returning with caramel apples for the customers and sweets from the shop for his own family. Two family businesses, in business for decades.

But this year, there wasn't enough caramel to go around. Abdallah Candies had to scale back. A few key workers had retired or left — and replacing good workers is no easy task for a Minnesota business these days.

The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development surveyed the tight labor market this year and found at least two job postings for every job seeker.

Abdallah's caramel apples were adored and in demand. But caramel apples are labor-intensive when you're hand-dipping apples into copper kettles. And labor is in short supply.

"It did take a lot of people," said CEO Steve Hegedus, whose company makes more than 200 types of sweets and treats — including recipes that date back to his great-grandfather, Albert Abdallah, who opened a candy shop at the corner of Lake and Hennepin in Minneapolis in 1909. "Two [of those caramel apple dippers] retired, other people moved on, labor shrank. We couldn't be all things to all people."

So the century-old candy factory cut back on some of its outside contracts. Rather than automate or skimp on quality, Hegedus said the company decided to "focus on small-batch, artisan chocolatier confections." That includes its caramel apples, which are still available at its shop and online.

Pine Tree Apple Orchard searched for a backup source of caramel, but none quite met their standards. So they focused on what they do best.

Jacobson is the bakery manager at the orchard, where caramel apple season is giving way to Thanksgiving pies.

"There's a lot of people who thought their grandma's pumpkin pie was the best," she said, "until they had ours."

They'll be taking orders and baking pies right up until Thanksgiving morning.

"We're open on Thanksgiving morning, 9 to noon. Two of my other sisters and I get here at 4:30 in the morning to get the pies going in the oven, so everyone will get their pies fresh that day," Jacobson said.

Thanksgiving is a day for family, and like so many small family businesses, they'll spend theirs together, working.

"We'll spend Thanksgiving together," she said, "with some of our best friends — our employees."