There’s a reason gas stations sell flowers and greeting cards: we’ve all needed a last-minute offering to celebrate an important milestone at least once or twice. For Eder Valle ’09, the occasion was Mother’s Day in 2016, and he opted for a stop at an Edible Arrangements rather than a Kwik Trip for a quick gift. At $54 for a dozen chocolate-covered strawberries, it was a costly purchase at the time. But the stop ultimately bore great fruit, inspiring Valle to establish his own edible gift business. His side gig, Artesan Fruit, now gives the full-time chemist a creative outlet and, fittingly, quality time with his mother, who’s on the payroll.
In the early stages of his entrepreneurial exploit, Valle was filling downtime at his job in a chemistry lab. “Sometimes, we have reactions that take hours,” he says. “So, I was just thinking there has to be something more to life than waiting for the reaction to happen.”
After his experience with Edible Arrangements, Valle started toying with a business idea during his free time in the lab, realizing that the profit margins could be quite high for chocolate-covered strawberries. He also involved his dad, who used to carve swans out of apples when Valle was a child.

With a demonstration from his dad, and after going down a rabbit hole of YouTube tutorials featuring cantaloupes and watermelons, Valle honed his fruit-carving skills over a period of six months. But he still wasn’t sure how to turn the hobby into a business.
“Who cares if you have this intricate thing if you can’t tie it to the client or to the person who’s buying it?” Valle asked himself. So, he and his father, who worked at the Edgewater Hotel at the time, tested out a new, complimentary design for a UW Game Day event at the hotel: two melons facing off, one featuring a Wisconsin helmet, and the other an Ohio State helmet. The owner of the Edgewater loved it.

Valle perfected his Badger carvings and began leaning into designs that incorporate names, logos, and special greetings. He also brought his mother on to make the chocolate-covered strawberries that inspired Artesan Fruit. Together, they make chocolate rose bouquets and edible centerpieces commemorating special occasions and corporate events, including concerts at Breese Stevens Field. Valle has now carved for the likes of Alice Cooper, Train, Disturbed, and Hozier, and he even carved the likeness of Willie Nelson into a melon.

A true chemist, Valle underwent plenty of trial and error before he started getting the right reaction from potential customers. Scientist or not, he recommends that other aspiring entrepreneurs apply the same basic principles of patience and persistence. “Find a niche market and become the best at it,” Valle says. “If the market doesn’t exist, then it’s your job to create the market.”
