Behind the Scenes at the Creamery: Spring is coming!

This is an exciting time of year at the creamery. It may not seem like it, but there’s lots going on in the background to prepare for the big busy season ahead.

Even though our mornings in the make room are more laid back this time of year, we are starting to make some special flavors of ice cream in preparation for our March Madness Brackets! This year’s sweet(er) 16 bracket will be one to remember! Danie, Brian and Debbie are working hard, and hand scooping every bitty with care. This is definitely the sweetest spring tradition at the creamery. Sixteen of our handcrafted ice cream flavors are paired up in an epic bracket for you to determine which will be the ultimate winner. Soon we will be packaging these cute bracket kits up and the competition is on! And before you know it, it will be Easter! So we are dreaming up our Easter Ice Cream Pie flavors to share with you very soon.

If you can believe it, we are also in the early stages of planning our 3rd Annual Milk Run! Mark your calendars, the Milk Run will be on Saturday, June 6th. This 5k and 1 mile fun run benefits local food pantries by providing them with fresh dairy products which they desperately need, but seldom receive. Last year over 600 half gallons of milk were donated to HACAP and distributed to their partnering agencies made up of food pantries throughout the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Area. We will be sharing more details about this year’s Milk Run soon, there will be some fun additions this year!

Spring also means spring field trips and creamery tours, so the creamery is alive with the sound of curious minds asking questions and running feet (usually towards ice cream!). We love to share what we are doing here at the creamery with groups, and we still have some dates available this school year! If your group is interested in a tour of our creamery, we would love to hear from you.

We are also hard at work planning our next Larder Box! These thoughtfully curated local food bundles feature a variety of fresh, seasonal foods from Iowa farms and producers. These aren’t traditional CSAs or subscriptions, just one-time bundles offered from time to time as the seasons unfold. Our next box is perfect for early risers and breakfast lovers. More to come on this very soon!

And our retail store team usually grows this time of year too as we welcome new faces to the team before the busy season hits! That means I get to spend some time with our newest team members, training and getting them acclimated before the rush.

And that’s just at the creamery, the farm is just as busy with planning, calving, and more!