Holiday Girl Tribe Pop Up Spotlight: Iva Jean’s Fudge

WAXHAW, N.C. — This week, Your704 is highlighting several of the vendors you’ll see at the Holiday Girl Tribe Pop Up, one of the area’s biggest holiday shopping events that is set to take place at the Charlotte Convention Center on Saturday and Sunday.

Debbie Hanks, the owner of Iva Jean’s Fudge, has been making the sweet treat for as long as she can remember.

“Iva Jean is our mother, and she taught us how to make fudge when we were young girls,” said Hanks. “It’s one of my fondest memories.”

For the past seven years, Hanks has been making fudge in her kitchen in Waxhaw and selling it at markets, stores and online, after her job in the medical industry began downsizing.

The holidays are a special time of year for Hanks. Her sisters, Dana and Mary, come from out of state to help her make fudge in memory of their mother, whom they lost to breast cancer 27 years ago.

“She would be all about this for sure. She would be right in the middle of it and think it’s the neatest thing that we’re doing,” said Hanks. “I know she’s watching over us, helping us through the way.”

The family makes dozens of flavors of fudge — from brown sugar bourbon to lemon meringue, using local and organic ingredients whenever possible.

Hanks says they’ve been participating in the Girl Tribe Pop Up events for several years now and have become known fondly as “The Fudge Ladies.”

And yes, the Fudge Ladies will be at the event this weekend.

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