Although he made and sold only 80 pounds of confections during his first year in production, Lillie Belle Farms’ venture into chocolate started out as an experiment in figuring out how to take the berries owner Jeff Shepherd was growing on what had been a moribund two-acre berry farm and sell them in product that would enable him to make a living.

For his home-based business, the question was, “How to make the berries profitable?” Jeff figured it would be more lucrative putting 1/4 ounce into a truffle than four ounces into a jar, and after purchasing a Chocovision Revolation 2 temperer started messing around in his kitchen and selling his efforts in the farmers’ markets in rural Jackson County in south-central Oregon’s Applegate Valley. As he remarks, “Even in rural Oregon, you can find the best the world has to offer online and put yours up for comparison.”

Jeff Shepherd, berry farmer and chocolatier.

Making chocolates and berry farming is not Jeff’s first career; Jeff has been working in the food business since he has been old enough to hold a job. Early on he was working as the sous chef in an upscale Italian restaurant in Santa Monica, CA where one of his duties was to create the dessert tray. The restaurant did not have a pastry chef, and enjoyed a clientele with a the-sky’s-the-limit attitude and the means to indulge it. Not satisfied with cooking, Jeff left to attend California Institute of the Arts in Valencia as a theater major, working nights in restaurants to support himself. Looking back on the experience he remarks that, “Cooking is just as much theater as theater is.”

Jeff showing off some of the berries on his farm, which he expects will re-earn its organic certification in 2005.

After finishing up at Cal Arts, Jeff knocked around California as a mercenary chef for a while, eventually moving to Hawaii to take up a position in a restaurant on Kauai. When the restaurant was literally blown off its foundations by hurricane Iniki in 1992, Jeff spent two years helping rebuild the island, eventually saving enough to purchase the oldest Buddhist temple on the island that he converted into a bed and breakfast while running a catering and private chef business on the side.

Tiring of the paradisiacal island life, Jeff’s wife was accepted into a college program that allowed them to move to rural Oregon. They took a five-week detour through Europe (it’s on the way from Hawaii to Oregon, right?) which is where the seeds of the chocolate business were planted.

And those seeds are certainly flourishing in the fertile ground they’ve been planted in. Production grew to 8,000 pounds in Lillie Belle’s second year, enough to finally move production out of the house and into a rented space in nearby Jacksonville and to hire and train two employees. Says Jeff, “One of the main motivations for doing what I do is the personal satisfaction of providing something that people enjoy. Knowing that something I created with my hands brings people pleasure is the payoff. After so many years, finally being able to nurture a product from seed to stomach is a truly rewarding experience. It’s a lot of really hard work, but it’s extremely satisfying on a spiritual level.”

Lillie Belle Farms products can be purchased directly from their web site, www.lilliebellefarms.com.