Culinary Artist Profile: Roots Ice Cream

words: Jessica Dennis

They say that big things come in small packages, and in the case of the entrepreneurial duo that created the new local sensation, Roots Ice Cream, that package was a sweet pea. Always agriculturally inclined, Drew Harrison and Matt Frye worked as distributors at Our Local Foods CSA, an organic vegetable farm outside of Charleston. One day, Frye picked a sweet pea, took a bite, and thought to himself, “All this needs is cream and sugar.”

Imagine any edible you love – fruits, vegetables, even a drink – being carefully churned into gourmet ice cream. Well, Roots does just that. With Harrison’s strong background in business and Frye’s culinary forte, what started as a part-time endeavor turned into something much bigger than the two ever anticipated. (Frye even has accreditation from the same school attended by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry’s and Burt Baskin and Irv Robins of Baskin-Robbins!)

Using only local organic ingredients, the Roots guys have created a multitude of delectable and innovative seasonal ice cream flavors, including but not limited to: beet, sweet tea, champagne Kool-Aid sorbet, Earle Grey Tea, Benne Wafer, strawberry cilantro, chocolate pluff mud, cucumber melon, watermelon, loquat, and coffee. Roots Ice Cream is sold around Charleston at places like the downtown Marion and Mt. Pleasant Farmers’ Markets and Freshfields Village at Kiawah, but their biggest sales come from catering events, especially weddings. “We can take the bride and groom’s favorite flavors and create a personalized ice cream for them to serve on their big day,” says Harrison.

Why call it Roots Ice Cream? “The name is a play on the agricultural roots of the fruits and vegetables that we use, as well as our own local roots in Charleston. We also strictly use products that are locally and organically grown,” says Harrison. “The idea behind Roots Ice Cream is to support our community, and what better way to celebrate the community than with ice cream?”

The Art Mag girls say bring us seconds!

919.413.5485
Wherever You Want Them to Be!
www.rootsicecream.com

http://www.charlestonartmag.com/culinaryarts_current.aspx

Plot before planting

Field had been fallow for many years.  Have been battling weeds ever since.

Seeds!

Planted out 4 varieties of Beets, 4 varieties of Basil, 6 varieties of Peppers, 3 Varieties of Squash, 2 Beans, 2 Lettuces, 5 Radishes, Shiso, Lemongrass, Hibiscus, Borage, Fennel, Cilantro, Sage, Tarragon, and 3 types of mint.

Halfway there..

Spring/Summer Field Planted!

Next step, undersowing beets, shiso, lettuce and radishes with clover for a fall brassica planting and ordering more seeds.  Big shout out to Bo Collins for the mychorizzae, sunflowers, helping plan rotations, plant out, and helping maintain!

-Matt

Joan Miró - The Farm

A painting purchased by Ernest Hemingway from his friend Joan Miró.  Hemingway wrote that “It has in it all that you feel about Spain when you are there and all that you feel when you are away and cannot go there. No one else has been able to paint these two very opposing things.”

John's Island Honeysuckle

The flavor of the day was honeysuckle.  One lady commented that eating the ice cream was “an emotional moment”.  For many, including myself, honeysuckles are synonymous with childhood.  Plucked from the vine and removing the base of the flower to reveal a drop of “honey”.  Unfortunately,  it is a flavor few have the time to enjoy anymore.  Having seen multiple honeysuckle patches on John’s Island the ice cream was born.  In turn, it was the first flavor to sell out.  Many comments followed – all hearkening back to the same nostalgia for childhood and youth.  A reminder of care free summers spent roaming the neighborhood or exploring in the woods after school.  When was the last time you ate a honeysuckle?  If it has been a while go find some – they are just as good as they used to be.

-Matt

A link to our article: New Pint on the Block.

“Precious soil, I say to myself, by what singular custom of law is it that thou wast made to constitute the riches of the freeholder? What should we American farmers be without the distinct possession of that soil? It feeds, it clothes us, from it we draw even a great exuberancy, our best meat, our richest drink, the very honey of our bees comes from this priviliged spot. No wonder we should thus cherish its possession, no wonder that so many Europeans who have never been able to say that such portion of land was theirs, cross the Atlantic to realise that happiness. This formerly rude soil has been converted by my father into a pleasant farm, and in return it has established all our rights; on it is found our rank, our freedom, our power as citizens, our importance as inhabitants of such a district. These images I must confess I always behold with pleasure, and extend them as far as my imagination can reach: for this is what may be called the true and the only philosophy of an American farmer.” - J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur - Letters From an American Farmer

an old journal entry..dated 5-23-2010

The story becomes cheesier the more I tell it, but it was while I was working on Thornhill Farms the idea of ROOTS was born.  Maria takes very good care of her soil and in turn her produce is known for an incredible natural sweetness.  Her strawberries are the best strawberries you can get.  It was during the first harvest of spring sweet peas that the idea behind ROOTS was..well..rooted.

Thornhill Farms Peas

I had never tasted a sweet pea freshly picked and then eaten while standing in the middle of a farm. Having tasted the sweet pea I immediately thought it would taste great with a little cream and sugar.  It became the running joke on the farm – Sweet Pea Ice Cream –  how many other wacky flavors could we come up with?    Beets, Berries, Figs, Melons, Sweet Potatoes, Muscadines, Butternut Squash.  Our Farm Manager, Meg Moore, brought in Carrot-Ginger soup for lunch one day – it was added to the list of ongoing flavors.  Evolving further, what if the ice cream company had a functional farm where everything grown on the farm is used in the ice cream?

sales & marketing extraordinaire/business partner Drew Harrison & myself

And here we are 11 months later.  Our opening date set for April 9th 2011 at the Downtown Farmer’s Market.  11 months of brainstorming, entrepreneurship courses, a trip to Penn State for their Ice Cream Short Course, and of course, countless experiments in the kitchen – rarely successful, often humbling.  Over time our recipe was hammered out and crafted to what will be on display come the 9th.  We are hopeful it will be enjoyed just half as much as the time we have put into it.  Thanks to all who have supported us along the way (your “Official Taste Tester” shirts are next on the agenda) and especially Lowcountry Local First because without them we would not be where we are right now and I would not be writing this.  Thanks again – and we will see you April 9th!

- Matt

In the spring expect flavors such as Carrot, Cucumber-Mint, Honeysuckle, and Beet, moving into a summer of Sweet Corn & Cinnamon, Bourbon-Peach, and Blueberry-Fennel Flower, and finally to a fall of Sweet Potato, Coffee with Molasses Toffee, Bourbon Butterscotch, Shiso Flower-Ginger and more!  Our flavors depend on what is in our farmer’s fields and will vary accordingly!  Year round we will source from local businesses as well for our original Sweet Tea, Benne Wafer, Bourbon-Ginger, and our Chocolate “Pluff Mudd” flavor.

At Roots Ice Cream we strive to celebrate our time, place, and community.  A celebration of our revolving seasons, here in the Lowcountry, where we all choose to call home.

The BB&T Charleston Wine + Food Festival®, March 3-6, 2011, has been praised as one of the top five food and wine festivals in the U.S. The four-day event infuses home-grown flavor with the most celebrated chefs, culinary professionals and winemakers in the world.

event website