Even though we do a lot of seriously fun stuff in the other months, fall is our favorite time. We love fall so much, and we love that you visit us - either for the first time or as part of your yearly family tradition - but we don't always get the chance to thank you.
So we created our farm family to do just that. We're trying to pay back all of your support and all of the time you've spent here with a program that helps us show you how much we love you guys back. It's so simple. Sign up. Get exclusive coupons. Be entered to win fun fall giveaways. Be informed about things that are happening at the farm. And have it all come directly to your inbox. Join our farm family today!
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If it's your birthday, we can help you celebrate.
Each trip around the sun you take earns you a free pint. Just sign up for our farm family and we'll send you a coupon for a sweet birthday gift. Candles not included. :) Join our farm family today! We've been looking for ways to reward and thank our customers for a long time. The people we know - who come to the ice cream truck all summer and who make a trip to the farm for fall season every year - and the people we have yet to know - those of you who haven't visited us yet or only have been to see us a few times. We want to show our appreciation for you all.
Our farm family was designed with you in mind. We wanted to find a way to connect with you all and thank you for all your support, all the laughs we've had, and all the love you shown us over the years. If you don't do Facebook, if you don't like hunting for information, the farm family is for you. Sign up for our farm family today for coupons, giveaways, and anything that's happening at the farm delivered right to your email. Join our family today! I'm not exactly sure when we all fell in love with Hailey, but if I had to hazard a guess, it would be immediately upon meeting her. Like so many of our staff, Hailey started sugaring donuts for us in 2018, a very young and quiet high school student. But since she's been here, she's come a long way, both in her job duties - from making donuts and rolling silverware to working weddings and scooping ice cream - and in her confidence. This girl, she is seriously awesome. If she were any sweeter, she'd be ice cream. She says what is on her mind, but in the most hilarious and non-threatening way that ALWAYS makes us laugh. She's always up for the next adventure and although she'll give you that "you know this is crazy" look, she's always excited to learn and, what's better, has a lot of fun with every new idea we have. There is a category in our scheduling system that is a catch-all for all job tasks. It's called "Farm Work" and, according to Hailey, whenever she's scheduled under this category, she knows she's in for a treat. Whenever Hailey thinks she's seen everything and done everything, Farm Work teaches her something new. This year, she picked pumpkins and even learned how to drive our wagon train! Hailey's love of Farm Work is exactly why she fits so well into farm life. She loves working weddings. Helping with the ceremony is her favorite bit because she truly loves knowing she contributed to such a special day. She loves being in the ice cream truck because, well, "who wouldn't love having the option of being surrounded by ice cream all day long!" (SO TRUE.) And she enjoys so many other aspects of the farm - every day is different and Hailey is always up for whatever we throw at her. When Hailey isn't at the farm or at school, you'll find her spending time with friends and family, on the field for soccer or on the mats for gymnastics. She also enjoys going to the gym, but no matter how many curls she does, she still struggles to scoop ice cream in the summer - according to Kyle, this is because she needs more forearm work. (Hailey says maybe instead she'll just stick to the service window!) It's almost time for Hailey to move on to the next phase in her life, as a senior she'll be graduating this May. We hope to keep her around for at least one more summer so she can work on those forearms in the ice cream truck...
...and maybe convince her that she should stay and do Farm Work forever. Two summers ago, we hired an intern, Caitlin. She was a UW-Platteville student who grew up in a suburb of Chicago, where she was one of 25,000 people. She went to a school that had a student enrollment larger than Lancaster's total population. Small town life - and farm life - was...confusing for her. We joke all the time about how on this city girl's first day at the farm, she planted pumpkins. She laughs when Kyle goes out and recognizes everyone he meets. Hunting confuses her. And apparently, we all have an accent here? But even though she finds the pacing of our little life here a little perplexing, Caitlin loves it. During her internship, she learned a whole host of new skills, but you probably recognize her from ice cream. Throughout her summer internship, Caitlin traveled all around with our then-new sweet treat and gave out free scoops in many of our local communities. After a summer of scooping, Caitlin stayed through our fall season. She then she graduated, got a job, and moved on from the farm. It was good to see her go to the next phase of her life, but if Kyle and I were being honest, we were pretty bummed to see her leave. And then, of course, the pandemic happened. She lost her new job and had to move home. Her life plan changed completely. After a little employment reshuffling, Caitlin called up Kyle, asking for a reference. We maintain that it was the best call she's ever made, because it gave Kyle an idea. The pandemic left us with a pretty quiet farm. So in May 2020, we started up the ice cream dream and had an incredible first summer with the ice cream truck. Although we had a lot of fun, it was also clear that we needed a new team member focused on ice cream. And when Kyle talked to Caitlin, he realized something: Caitlin, more than anyone at the farm (maybe even Kyle) IS ice cream. And we needed her back. It took a little convincing, but the good memories brought her back to the farm and she started with us again right before our 2020 fall season. Since she's been back, the farm has been a different place. Sometimes - not often, but every once in a great while - a place can be transformed by a special person who can change everything. Caitlin, with her energy, her humor, her willingness to do everything from washing dishes to helping customers, breathed a lot of new life into our little team at the farm.
Caitlin fits perfectly into our team at the farm - as perfect as, they say, a scoop on top of a cone. She has a goofy humor that revives us even after a long day on our feet. She continues to amaze us with her absolutely perfect clumsiness - I personally believe she holds the world record for the most things broken in one day. Like everyone on our team - she loves to help families make memories, and everything she does is in service of this our most important value. And, of course, she LOVES ice cream. And the fall. Officially, Caitlin is back as the new Scoops Coordinator, and she'll manage our ice cream trucks and help with fall season, but unofficially, she's back as our friend, our advisor, our pep-in-our-step. We are super grateful that she returned to our little town - even though she finds it endlessly confusing - and came back to our little farm. Because now that she's here, we can't imagine our home without her. One of my favorite parts about working with Kyle is that every now and then he'll pop his head into the break room and say the weirdest things. This past month, he told us he had bought a second ice cream truck. At some random tiny used auto dealership off some random highway. In New Jersey. A 2007 model with only 40,000 miles on it, this was, in Kyle's words, "a beautiful truck." And so he booked a flight from Milwaukee by the way of Nashville to Philadelphia and secured an Uber to the New Jersey dealership. Then he asked Caitlin for a ride. I told him to take the video camera. Over the weekend, we tried to store over some cider. It did not go well. We're adding freezer cleaning to the "to do" list this week. Whoops.
The Monday after our first winter stop with the ice cream truck found us in the kitchen. On Saturday, we stopped in Lancaster for the Opening Day Sales. Thank you to everyone who stopped out! We had a great time AND we sold out three of our four holiday flavors. With seven more stops planned between now and December 19, we needed to restock. So we spent the morning running our ice cream machine and filling pints. Our newest flavor, sugar cookie, is many steps in the making. Kyle tested our kitchen (and math) knowledge by twelve timing the recipe, which was kinda stressful and kinda awesome and required a very big mixer paddle. And since he's the boss and that has its perks, Kyle got to lick the paddle clean. After the cookies cooled, we crushed them up and added them to vanilla ice cream flavored with almond extract and jazzed up with colorful holiday sprinkles. This is sugar cookie in a pint - or a cone - and it's absolutely delicious. Very hard not to sample, even on a Monday morning. We got a little fancy with blending next for our new candy cane ice cream, a creamy mixture of peppermint-flavored red-and-white ice cream with crushed candy canes mixed in throughout. This ice cream is fun and it smells delicious - just like the holidays. If you were at the farm this fall, you might recognize our last two holiday flavors: apple cider donut and apple pie. These two were favorites for so many of you, so we had to bring them back specially for the holidays. We didn't have enough time for baking donuts (don't worry - there is still some cider donut ice cream in the truck!), so the last flavor on our list to make was apple pie. For this delicious treat, we brought out our homemade apple pie filling and whipped it together with vanilla ice cream. This simple treat is amazing - just like the apple pie but without all the work - and perfect for after those holiday meals. In addition to our regular flavors, these four holiday flavors are available in the truck for the next month.
You can track the truck on Facebook or by visiting our website to see our stops. We hope to see you there! And if you want to treat yourself this holiday season, sign up for our Farm Family Rewards and you can get a free pint when you stop! To join, visit our subscription page! And we hope that you have a wonderful holiday season, filled with the best kind of Christmas cheer. We started September so unsure, but October and November were so much fun. In the barn and on the farm, we enjoyed the company of so many of you. We were so truly happy to see everyone, the weather was beautiful, and we had the best time with our farm guests. Behind the scenes, we were a mixed bag of caramel apple nuts. Throughout most of October, we struggled with weird supply chain issues caused by COVID. On one weekend, we were just an hour away from running out of donut mix and our chinny-chin-chins were saved by Kyle's quick thinking and negotiating. One donut disaster we weren't unable to avoid was running out of half-dozen containers, but we eeked through that mess with a combination of bags and people's willingness to splurge on double the donuts they originally planned for. If at one point you received your food on paper plates rather than our customary paper boats, that wasn't planned. It was a frantic trip down to Dubuque to buy up as many paper products as possible when we found out we were unable to get paper boats shipped in time for the weekend. And Kyle worked some kind of Internet miracle when he shipped in a huge shipload of caramel so we didn't run out before our local supplier was able to restock. For a few hours there, we were looking at some fall days without caramel apples, but Kyle's persistence saved us from that sad, sugarless fate. In addition to product problem solving, we constantly had to be on our feet for our employees. Being open during COVID was a heavy decision for us, and we are so glad we decided to go forward, but we didn't do it lightly. One of the most important things for us was to keep both our guests and our staff safe, so we established norms that we felt applied to us and adapted as the season went on. We also spent quite a bit of time with employee musical chairs, as sometimes staff couldn't make it or some of them had to go into quarantine for potential exposure. We switched a lot of people around, we ran short staffed many days, and we did our best to keep up with everything while keeping our employees' safety paramount. And truly, we have to say: We have such great staff. They worked hard, for us and for you, this fall. They adapted quickly to the changes that came at them, they accepted things out of our control, and - I know this always sounds so trite, but it's also so true - they did it all with a smile. We absolutely love fall, and although this fall was different from many of the ones prior, we loved it. And we love our employees. They are the cream of the crop, the best thing since sliced bread, the silver lining, the nail on the head, and although Elvis has left the building on our fall season, our employees remain the pick of the litter. And you heard that straight from the horse's mouth. :) Thank you for this fall season, everyone. It was wonderful.
We see you guys all the time. There's the sweet woman who loves maple nut. The guy who always brings a cooler, prepared to stock up his freezer. The vanilla kid, who charms us every time. The Neapolitan family - one scoop each chocolate, vanilla, strawberry. The couple who always sweeps the five pints, all in cookie dough. The kiddo who always squeals when she gets her cone, piled high with two scoops of cotton candy ice cream.
We don't know you, but we feel like we do. We don't always know your names, but we know your favorite ice cream flavors. We don't know what you do for a living, but we love your bright greetings when we see you at the truck. We don't know where you live, but we see your smiles in your town when we visit. Even though we don't know you, we know you. We are happy to see you, and grateful for you. We want to thank you, every one of you, for everything that you do for us. For the support. For the laughs. For the love you give us. For showing up - just once or every time - to our truck and showing us how this sweet little treat can really make a difference in someone's day. How even something as simple as ice cream can do so much good for a family, within a group of friends, in a community. So we created a farm family, a place where you can go to connect with us as much as you'd like. A way for us to thank you, even if it's in a small way, for everything. You have to sign up, and it's totally free to do so. And after you do, you'll get updates directly to your email on the truck's schedule, you'll get exclusive coupons and giveaways for ice cream and more, and you'll know right away about anything that's happening on the farm and in the truck. At the farm, we love our customers, and we designed our farm family with you in mind. We want the things we do to be meaningful to you, and so everything we do with our family is in effort to give you a better, more fulfilling, more fun experience. It's so simple. Sign up. Get more information. Get some awesome coupons. Get entered into some really great giveaways. And the best part is (at least for us)? We get to know you better. Click to sign up today! |
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