Meet our Vintage Caramel Caravan – Lucille!

How many times have we said that we’re “currently renovating a vintage trailer?” It only took two years, but hey, who’s counting (well - we are :-))?! Now we can finally say, our little caramel caravan is ready - pop the champagne! She’s always going to be a work in progress, but we have a renovated trailer with signage. What was the reason behind a mobile caramel trailer, you might ask?

We always loved the idea of having our own space to be creative in (Celia’s dream since forever), and as a way of getting our products, notably our rich, creamy, caramels out to market (Courtney's dream since forever). While bootstrapping our company, our own storefront was out of the question due to the Bay Area’s astronomical rent prices. And we wanted to focus on our products first and foremost. So, we set our sights on something a little more interesting, less expensive, mobile and different. Courtney loved following a sweets bakeshop in the UK that sold out of a vintage Citroen van – Noisette Bakeshop (shout out to another woman-owned business - whoop whoop!) – and we started to consider vehicles and trailers. Vans were more expensive than trailers (due to having motors, and all), and Citroen vans were hard to find stateside. We didn’t want to take the easy route, but something called a “canned ham” caught our eye. This is a type of trailer from say the 1950’s, whose shape is similar to a ham in a can (does anyone still buy ham out of a can? Is this Spam? We’re still a little confused as well). We loved the idea of being able to literally "go" to our market.

Thus began the search on Craigslist for said canned ham. We came across trailers from the 1970’s and 80’s, but the shape didn’t resonate like that of an older model. We saw some pretty legit trailers and some pretty sad ones. We didn’t look for trailers with the fanciest interiors, as we knew we would need more of a hollow shell than a fully stocked kitchen.

Finally, we found one we liked – and ended up pulling it back from Chico! Shout out to Ron for selling this lovely to us, you're the man! It was a real piece of work, having spent a good amount of time, it seemed, in the Sierra Nevada mountains. What was cool was that it still had its interior intact – with a small sink, cabinets, closet, seating nook, curtains, and ice-box! Not so cool was the rot, rot, and more rot. Our little canned ham hadn’t been updated and was manufactured in 1957. It made our hearts sad to take out the original kitchen and furnishings, but we what we needed more space and more countertops - and the wood was damaged and rotted.

We thought about DIYing the trailer, but since we didn’t have the know-how or the time, we found a company in the Bay Area willing to do the renovation / rebuild (anyone looking for an amazing RV renovation company, check out Avalon RV in Benicia), squeezed our eyes closed at the costs (metaphorically, since we planned this out financially - well, mostly... assume project budgets will increase by 30%), and dropped the little gal off one fine day. Along the way we’ve also been researching and reviewing regulations – more on that to come.

Celia’s step-dad provided finishing touches with flooring and a countertop (go Dave!), and we had a local graphics company apply our simple decals. Let’s also not forget the help of our Instagram friends in naming our trailer! We chose Lucille - Lucy for short - as we liked the vintage feel of the name, and as a confections company, will always remember the ‘I Love Lucy’ episode of Lucy and Ethel getting a run for their money at a chocolate production line (never seen it? click here!). And we love our Lucy gal caravan!

black and white checked floor in trailer

courtney and farmgirl flowers in trailer

What we are still working on: cute-i-fying our trailer and getting our décor vibe down, which events to attend, what goodies we should or shouldn’t add to our caramel caravan collection (mini caravan caramel crispies, anyone?!), and so on. We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Where would you like to see us? What would you like to eat (caramel based - single serving items)? Would you like to hire us for a private event or rather attend a craft fair to see us - or maybe both?