As the old adage goes, everything old becomes new again. Take chocolate for instance: on any given Wednesday Mark Mayers uses a 114-year-old recipe and takes eight hours to prepare more than 15 varieties of gourmet chocolate to sell the next day at the Westchase District Farmers Market.
“My great grandmother emigrated from Germany to New York and sold chocolates door-to-door,” Mayers said. “She then opened her own shop and made enough money selling chocolates to put her four children through college. I learned her six recipes from my grandmother and I’ve modified them to create more than 60 different flavors.”
Mayers, owner of Earth Friendly Designs, also takes old screen doors, aluminum cans and copper wiring from flood-damaged homes and pairs them with various precious gemstones to create fashionable jewelry. “I use silver plating on the aluminum cans and then cut them into bracelets,” he said. “My gemstones such as jasper, turquoise and amethyst come from New Mexico, Utah and even as far as from China. I’m all about turning life’s trash into treasures.”
A veteran of the telecommunications and hotel industries, Mayers decided to go into business for himself full-time when his previous company closed in 2015. “I had been making gourmet chocolate for about 10 years and making jewelry for about three,” he said. “I decided that both interests went well together, because when the chocolate is too melty to sell in the summertime, I can offer my customers the jewelry.”
You can have the best of both worlds yourself when you stop by Mayers’ booth at the Westchase Farmers Market every Thursday starting at 3 p.m. at the corner of Westheimer and Rogerdale. For more information about Earth Friendly Designs, visit facebook.com/earthfriendlydesigns or call Mayers at 713-297-1891.
