École Secondaire Publique Le Sommet student Kevin Lindenmann has opened up an ice cream business at the Vankleek Hill Farmers’ market, and his treat is the perfect homemade summer refreshment.
He has been selling ice cream at the market since June 4. Last weekend, he said he sold 60 containers of ice cream. For every container sold, 25 cents goes to the Vankleek Hill Food Bank.
“People are really enjoying it, they really like the ice cream, and they’re really fond of the 25 cents per container donation to the Food Bank,” Kevin said.
Since Kevin is part of the IB program at Le Sommet, part of the program includes a personal project to be completed in tenth grade. It is a big project produced over an extended period of time. The idea of the project is the student’s initiative, and they are usually mentored by a teacher one-on-one throughout the process.
Kevin was stumped, and didn’t know what he wanted to do for his project. With the help of some mini courses on business and entrepreneurship at Ottawa University that were organized by the school, Kevin got inspired.
“It was really fun, I learned some stuff, and when I came back, I was interested in [business]. I said why not mix [business], with the personal project, and something I love, which is ice cream.” He wanted to get started on the business right away, even though the personal project doesn’t begin until September.
Although he was a huge fan of the frozen dessert, Kevin had never made ice cream before. It took a lot of researching and a few cookbooks to pin down the right recipe, but only a few tries before getting the formula just right.
The base ingredients of the ice cream are milk, cream, eggs and sugar. Then he will add the ingredient necessary to add the flavour, such as strawberries or peaches. Ingredients are listed underneath the ice cream containers. Kevin said he tries to buy from local producers as much as possible.
He has a multitude of flavours: banana, strawberry, vanilla, mango, peach, chocolate, raspberry, lemon, and coffee. He just recently introduced a lactose-free ice cream, which uses almond milk, and contains berries and banana.
“The banana is not something you can normally get in the store but it has an interesting, nice taste to it,” he said.
The mango flavour came to be by accident. “We bought the wrong fruit. But I did the same recipe as peach but with mango, and it worked out,” Kevin said. It is also one of his favourites, along with the raspberry flavour.
“The best part is when you’re done making it and you’ve filled all of the cups and you still have leftovers,” Kevin joked. “I usually eat before I make it so I’m not so hungry.”
The challenge with making ice cream? It takes a lot of time. Kevin said he can make roughly eight small containers of ice cream or two big containers in about 40 minutes, using his ice cream machine.
“We’re going to need another freezer,” his mother, Marianne, said.
Although his IB personal project doesn’t officially start until school starts up again, getting the business started early can help him get exposure and a customer base beforehand, Marianne explained.
“He’s hoping that during the summer people will buy and come September when his project really kicks in, people will still buy, even though it’s going to be a bit cooler outside,” she said.
“I see myself continuing after the project is over because it’s also like a summer job for me,” Kevin said.
The small sized container of ice cream is $3 and the regular pint is $10. Kevin will be at the Vankleek Hill Farmers’ Market on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. all summer. His parents, Hans and Marianne of Trillium Meadows Red Deer & Wild Boar Farm, are also at the market.
