Vendor Spotlight: Clyde's Ices & Ice Cream Co.
It’s time for caramel apple pie, pumpkin spice and apple cider… but what happens when you combine your favorite fall flavors with a taste of summer? The result is Clyde’s Ices & Ice Cream truck. Dig your spoon into a creamy pumpkin ice cream, a made-with-real-apples apple pie ice cream, or get a fall float made with apple cider, a scoop of vanilla, whipped cream and caramel. You’ll wish it was autumn all year round.
It’s all about the taste
Clyde’s ices are made with real fruit. Their lemon ice, by far their most popular ice flavor, is their most cherished recipe, and is always made with fresh squeezed lemons. When it comes to their ice creams, it’s no different. The apple pie ice cream has real chopped apples, and the pumpkin flavor includes pumpkin puree. They’ll even source from their neighbors, such as the super-sweet cantaloupes from Hope Cress Farm that gave their melon ice an extra kick of flavor this summer.
Whether it’s cherry, blue raspberry, mango or melon, all of Clyde’s ices are made with real fruit and ingredients. On a hot summer day, Tim said they will easily go through twenty gallons of their biggest seller: lemon ice. Their chocolate and vanilla ices are water-based like the others, but add dairy for a unique creaminess.
Have you ever tried black licorice ice cream? Stop by the trailer this week and give it a go. You can’t get it anywhere else (that I’ve found anyway), and owner Tim Devens said it’s a bestseller with a nostalgic taste.
Something for everyone
Because everyone should be able to enjoy cool treats, Clyde’s has something for everyone, including dairy-free ices and an entirely nut-free truck (they do sell nut-based ice creams at the store). Tim makes sure that everything is as separate as possible to eliminate cross-contamination so more people can enjoy cool treats. They even offer sugar-free options sweetened with malitol (no aspartame!) that taste so good his diabetic customers stock up on their favorite flavors.
They have more than just cones and cups, too. The trailer sells pints and quarts to-go, and you can get half-gallons at the store in Garfield.
Expect a rotating list of approximately 100 different flavors. They won’t carry that many on the truck, but they do have about ten different varieties of ices and ten varieties of ice cream each week including favorites like ice cream in chocolate, mint chocolate chip and black licorice, and a rotating specialty flavors (expect fall favorites this time of year).
The longest running business in Garfield
This 100 year old business has been in Tim’s family for sixty years. He started working there under his uncle’s ownership when he was 13 years old. Although it was never his plan to continue the family business, by the time Tim was in his late teens, he knew he loved the atmosphere and the customers. He purchased the business from his uncle 38 years ago and has been running it with his wife ever since.
The Garfield storefront is the longest running business in the town, Tim said, and is recognized by locals and visitors alike. But about two decades ago, Tim decided to expand into the realm of farmers markets. He did well, and traveling to different locations gave the business a chance to be discovered by new eyes. Even so, customers who had left the Garfield area were glad to find them at markets closer to their new homes, Tim said.
Ice on wheels
Things really began to (literally) take off about six years ago when the Clyde’s trailer was born. Now, instead of having to pack and unpack everything from the tent to the freezers, the trailer keeps everything self-contained and makes it easier to travel to farmers markets like ours here in West Milford.
Return customers don’t just get a scoop or a cone each week, either, Tim said. They’re often returning for pints or quarts of their favorite flavors to enjoy at home.
Customers: The heart of Clyde’s Ice & Ice Cream Co.
Tim’s favorite part of the job is the customers, and he loves talking to and collecting stories from everyone he meets. One of his favorite stories is the day he met a 95 year old customer who turned out to be the grandson of the company’s original owner, Clyde. He had come in for a bit of nostalgia and a lemon ice he said tasted just like he remembered from his childhood.
Tim is as personable as they get, and is as ready to offer a helping hand in the flavor-choosing process as he is to help other vendors at the markets he attends.
“When you are out there with food truck business and markets, you become friends with everyone,” Tim said. “They are all friendly and we are all helping each other. It’s a good family thing out there and I really like doing it.”
Follow Clyde’s online to get updates on where they’ll be each week and what flavors are hot right now. Don’t forget to stop by every Wednesday at the Market to find him there, too.
