Liberty Orchards

Aplets & Cotlets are born...

The cannery, Mark & Armen's main business in the 1930's and 1940's, grew so rapidly that Mark's nephew, John Chakirian, was invited to join the company. During that same period, another use for surplus fruit occurred to Mark and Armen. Why not use apples to make Rahat Locoum, the popular near eastern candy they had loved as children? After much "research and development" on the kitchen stove, they perfected a delicious apple and walnut recipe. The candy was an immediate success, and soon Armen began traveling throughout the Pacific Northwest selling the "Confection of the Fairies," also known as Aplets®.

A few years later Cotlets®, made from apricots and walnuts , was introduced. Before long, people were sending Aplets & Cotlets to faraway friends and relatives as gifts from the Pacific Northwest. Gift recipients, unable to find the candy in local stores, began writing to Liberty Orchards to order more. A thriving Mail Order Department was born which continues to this day.

During World War II, sugar was a rationed commodity and Aplets & Cotlets became a "batch here, batch there" operation. But since food was a big part of the war effort, Mark and Armen concentrated on canning. When wartime hostilities ended in 1945, the cannery was sold so that Liberty Orchards could concentrate on the candy business. About the same time Ankin, Armen's oldest daughter, married Dick Odabashian, an airline flight captain, who also joined the firm. Dick logged countless flight hours promoting Aplets & Cotlets across the nation.