product update
ice cream Top sellers…
The fruit’s the thing
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MICK WHITWORTH meets the woman behind the fruit-packed Alder Tree ‘cream ice’ brand
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Stephany Hardingham with her newly launched 125ml impulse pots
What’s the difference between ‘ice cream’ and ‘cream ice’? That’s a question Stephany Hardingham has got used to answering in the eight years since launching her Alder Tree cream ice brand at the family fruit farm in Suffolk. “We generally describe it as a cross between an ice cream and a sorbet,” says the 30-something former environmental consultant, who runs Alder Tree with partner Graham Sayell. “Our fruit content is over one-third, which is far more than you’d generally see in ice cream. It’s not normally more than 15%.” In fact, it would be illegal for Hardingham to call her products “ice cream”. All her core flavours – like blackcurrant, damson, raspberry and tayberry – contain just three ingredients: fruit, cream and sugar. “Because we’re using so much fruit, use cream and not milk and refuse to put in skimmed milk powder, it doesn’t contain enough milk to be called ice cream,” she says. The business is built around surplus produce from Alder Carr Farm, near Needham Market, and is based in the timber-clad barns
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April 2012 · Vol.13 Issue 3
that also house the family’s farm shop and café. Hardingham’s parents, Nick and Joan, bought the then-derelict site in 1981. It now includes a pick-your-own operation and produces vegetables and rarebreed meat as well as fruit “We’re not buying any pre-processed purées,” says Hardingham. “One year, when the damson crop was poor, we tried using damson purée and it was awful.” The cream ices were originally made by Nick Hardingham to his mother Audrey’s recipes, but it was daughter Stephany – who has a Masters degree in business and the environment – who developed this into a standalone business. Food writer Rose Prince now features Alder Tree in her Good Food Producers Guide. TV chefs Thomasina Miers and Valentine Warner are also fans, and last autumn Alder Tree was visited by chef and restaurateur Richard Corrigan after reaching the finals of the BBC Radio 4 Food & Farming Awards. The brand’s heartland is in East Anglia, where it supplies direct and through Taste of Anglia Table,
but it also stretches into Scotland, Wales and the South-West via Stratford Fine Foods. “We’ve been approached by most of the supermarkets now,” says Hardingham, “but it’s not a route we want to go down. We’re talking about the John Lewis Food Hall in Oxford Street, but we have our own farm shop so we’re always about supporting the independents.” Although pure fruit flavours remains her core products, Hardingham, added a vanilla & pear option soon after taking over the operation – pear has a “lovely mellow flavour, but with that bit of graininess”, she says. A creamy, plain vanilla was launched two years ago, and a chocolate cream ice was being launched as FFD went to press. “Most outlets will stock more than one brand,” she says. “But we did find some places – mostly theatres and cinemas – that really wanted a vanilla and a chocolate and didn’t want to deal with more than one producer.” After introducing new branding and eco-friendly 500ml pots last year, Alder Tree has just relaunched its former 100ml impulse version in a market-standard 125ml pot, all in the new livery. “It gives us more room on-pack to include some of the lovely customers’ comments we’ve had over the last few years,” says Hardingham. www.alder-tree.co.uk
Two new limited edition 500ml tubs (RRP £3.95) will be available from Dorset’s Purbeck Ice Cream throughout summer and autumn. The flavours are chocolate brownie – featuring brownies made by Weymouthbased Lizzie & Bekki – and fig & honey made with local Purbeck honey and Turkish figs. The flavours are also available in 2 litre retail tubs (RRP £13.50) and 4 litre catering tubs (trade price £17.75 plus VAT). www.purbeckicecream.co.uk
Yorvale has developed a fusion range of ice cream for discerning over-50s Saga travellers. The ‘super premium’ range includes lemon, honey & ginger; papaya, kiwi & mint; garden mint sorbet; and mango & lime. These flavours will be served in the East-West restaurant on board the Saga Sapphire cruise ship and will also be available to delis and farm shops from Easter in 500ml tubs. www.yorvale.co.uk