Where’s the Strawberry?
Yes, yes we do! Strawberry season is finally here!!
One of the flavors we get asked for the most often that we do not have year round is strawberry. It is an old-fashioned classic and one of the most popular nationwide, usually ranking just behind Chocolate and Vanilla. So, why is it that we don’t have it all the time? Do we just enjoy disappointing our beloved Guests? Are we strawberry haters or ice cream snobs? Well.. we might be the latter 😜
The answer lies in our love and adoration for our Tennessee farmers and growers. You see, strawberries are one of the prized crops we grow here in Tennessee (subjectively speaking, of course). Each spring is marked by strawberry celebrations, lines at Farmer’s Markets to buy berries, and red-stained fingers. Yours truly has even been a judge at the Franklin Farmers Market Strawberry Festival.
Judging strawberries in 2014 (second from left)
Early on, we decided that at Hattie Jane’s Creamery we would support local, Southern producers whenever and wherever we can. This resolution has solidified into our core values and reasons to be in business. This currently includes our dairy sources but also extends to many of our flavor components. Queen among these flavors is our Strawberries & Cream, which makes its debut annually sometime in early May along with our dairy-free and vegan Strawberry Jam coconut ice cream flavor.
Our strawberries mostly come from our friends and close partners at Green Door Gourmet Farms on the west side of Nashville, with the occasional supplementing from other local farms. The team at Green Door takes great care to grow the most delicious strawberries and pick them at peak ripeness before cleaning and processing them to be picked up directly from the farm by our delivery team. From there, they go straight to our kitchen and are used within a day or two of receiving them. This means that the strawberries in your ice cream were on the farm just a matter of days before your scoops hit the waffle cone (our favorite combination). We recently visited Green Door with our leadership team and learned about their regenerative agriculture practices, and even got to pick some of the strawberries going into our ice cream this week.
In addition to our strawberry flavors, spring is also marked by our Lavender & Wildflower Honey flavor. The wildflower honey has always been locally sourced from various beekeepers around Middle Tennessee, but for the first time this year, we’ve found a local producer for lavender at Galena Garlic (no, the lavender doesn’t taste like garlic!) to add to our flavor. We cannot wait to bring this one back to you new & improved this season.
How long do we have these amazing flavors? Well, until the farms run out. That’s the bittersweet beauty of working with seasonal produce. But hey, we have to make way for new ones like cult-favorite Sweet Corn & Blackberry Jam, don’t we?