Half Pint is a small, owner-operated homemade ice cream company based out of Seattle, Washington. Our ice creams are made fresh weekly with local dairy and eggs and other local ingredients when possible.

On Friday, April 20th (that’s tomorrow!) Half Pint will be participating in Arcade Lights, a food and beverage tasting event at Pike Place Market. Arcade Lights had it’s first go last October and it was so much fun! There were some really fabulous food and beverage vendors there. I only wish I had had more time to walk around, sample the food and talk with the other vendors. Half Pint scooped up dishes with a trio of ice cream flavors. It was a great time.

This year we’ll be offering several flavors to choose from so come by and visit! I’ll also mention that as far as tasting events go, this is a very affordable one. $25 in advance and $30 at the door gets you 10 tokens to use at various booths. Additional tokens are available for purchase once you use those up.

Here is a link to more information and how to buy tickets:

http://www.pikeplacemarket.org/news_events/arcadelights

Hope to see you there!

Love,
Half Pint

Last week I had the honor of being interviewed by a lovely 10 year-old named Grace. Grace is doing a project on ice cream as part of an Experts Fair for her Quest Program, which is an enrichment program for “highly capable” children in the Lake Washington School District.

For the Experts Fair, Grace has decided to learn everything there is to know about one of her favorite things (and mine too!): ice cream! She’s been interviewing various ice cream makers, learning the history of ice cream, and (hopefully) tasting some ice cream along the way.

We had a lot of fun talking about how I started Half Pint, how I choose flavors and come up with recipes, and my favorite things about owning an ice cream business. I was quite impressed with this 10 year-old 4th grader. Especially when she told me that she wants to start selling her handmade greeting cards so she can buy stock in Apple I think we have a future entrepreneur on our hands!

And here is the future business-owner herself:

How come I never got to do such fun projects when I was in school?

…is another person’s treasure! I serendipitously happened to be covering a shift at my old workplace on the same day a storage space there was being cleaned out. A co-worker came to me and said, “Cle, you might want to check out these things down in the storage space. They’re sort of like ice cream carts.” Wonder of wonders, they actually WERE ice cream carts! And pretty darn good ones to boot. But, they were in need of a little TLC. One had a busted wheel, and the outsides of both of them were pretty scratched and beaten-up in places.

So, I enlisted the help of my handy and artistic friends! My buddy Pat, who’s in construction, fixed up the broken wheel. And my friend Paul worked his painting magic, using a projector to paint the basic logo onto the cart and then skillfully shading and shaping to get it just right. His wife Lindsay helped with the stripes! I put in my time by painting the chalkboard squares on the front. It was truly a team effort and I have to say, they look beautiful!

They were debuted at the Wedgwood Art Festival last weekend and then made an appearance at FareStart’s Guest Chef On The Waterfront event last night. Everyone loved them! They will be used for other upcoming special events and festivals, so keep your eyes out for our new Half Pint Ice Cream Carts!

Here are some before, during and after photos:

On Saturday, June 4th from 10 am – 8 pm, Half Pint will be selling ice cream at the 2011 Punk Rock Flea Market! This twice yearly event boasts more than 50 booths selling all sorts of items from crafts to vintage goods to jewelry to bike parts. There will also be live music, food and drinks of the grown-up variety! Admission is super-cheap ($1) and all of the entrance fee money goes directly to benefit the hosts of the event, the Low Income Housing Institute. The LIHI is an amazing organization which “owns and operates housing for the benefit of low-income, homeless and formerly homeless people in Washington State; advocates for just housing policies at the local and national levels; and administers a range of supportive service programs to assist those we serve in maintaining stable housing and increasing their self-sufficiency.” Pretty awesome.

So, come on down to Belltown to the Underground Events Center on Saturday, June 4th for some fun, punk rock style!

Hi everyone!

So, the Half Pint blog has been on a bit of a hiatus (try a year!–oops). But, for the 2011 season I am vowing to become a better blogger and to use this space to keep my customers up-to-date on what’s happening in the world of Half Pint–starting now!

I am about to head out to Guatemala for two weeks with Habitat for Humanity on a Global Village trip. I’m extremely excited about this opportunity to check out a part of the world I’ve never seen while at the same time building homes for those in need. It will also be a good way to get away and have a break before the onset of the madness (GOOD madness!) of ice cream season. I’ll post some photos from my trip here when I return.

As far as Half Pint goes, last weekend we were very excited to receive our letter from the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance with our market assignments for this coming spring and summer. You will be able to find us weekly at the following farmers markets:

Wednesdays, starting April 27th: Columbia City
Thursdays, starting June 2nd: Lake City
Fridays, starting June 3rd: Phinney Ridge
Saturdays, starting June 18th: Magnolia (a new market for us!)
Sundays, starting May 8th (Mother’s Day!): Broadway

Be sure to check out the webpages for each farmers market as a couple of them are changing location this year. We’re really looking forward to seeing all of our market friends, customers and vendors alike and getting back into the Half Pint swing!

We’re also gearing up for some festivals, fairs and other big events and will be sure to keep you posted. Make sure to follow us on Twitter to find out up-to-date information about flavor offerings, upcoming events, and other important info.

I’m off to Guatemala!

Half Pint Ice Cream will be back in action for the 2010 Farmers Market season! We are really looking forward to hanging out at our usual haunts: The Broadway Sunday Farmers Market, The Phinney Farmers Market on Fridays and the Lake City Farmers Market on Thursdays. We will also be starting up at the Edmonds Farmers Market on Saturdays. It’s going to be a busy summer.

And…we’ve got lots of new exciting flavors and other surprises in the works for all of you, our loyal customers. Help us decide which four flavors we should feature first! Tell us your standby favorite, or suggest something new.

We’re offering a 15% off discount for booking an event with Half Pint for the month of April! The Half Pint Ice Cream cart adds a unique element to all kinds of events from kids’ parties and office events to weddings and bar mitzvahs.

Contact halfpinticecream@gmail.com to book your April event and receive 15% off your total!

Aloha from Kauai!

So Half Pint is on a winter break. But, never fear, we will be back up and slinging ice cream again come April! For the time being, however, I am living on Kauai, Hawaii, and soaking in the sun. I’ve also been getting lots of ideas for tasty new ice cream flavors. I’m thinking macadamia nuts will feature prominently on the the Half Pint menu this coming season

Kauai has a great farmers market scene! Here on the island, they are aptly named “Sunshine Markets”. I am living in the town of Kapa’a, which has one of the largest and most well-attended sunshine markets on the island. On my third day here, I went to check it out. It was abundant with beautiful fruits and veggies, some of which I’d never seen before like rambutans and pouteria, also known as “egg fruit”. The avocados were almost as big as my head and the bananas were teeny tiny and sweet as can be. And the market is very well supported! It felt like the entire town of Kapa’a was there shopping, and in such a small town, the sunshine market is definitely a social event, a place for people to meet and to catch up with each other as they shop for delicious produce.

Here are some photos from the Kapa’a Sunshine Market:

It has been so much fun to walk around and see how different the offerings are here versus at the farmers markets in Washington. And it’s wonderful that the markets here are so well supported and attended. One has to get to the market early to ensure that the items you’re looking for aren’t sold out! I will certainly miss the fresh liliko’i (passion fruit) and, my favorite tropical fruit, pineapple. But, it’s nice to know that when I get back to Seattle, it will once again be farmers market season and I can look forward to all of the tasty seasonal Washington produce!

More from Kauai soon!
Aloha!

Check out adorable Baby Johanna in her Half Pint onsie!

You can purchase your own Half Pint merch at our Cafe Press site.

August has been a BUSY month for Half Pint! Lots of farmers markets, special events…we’ve been elbow deep in ice cream for weeks.

Last week we participated in a really cool event at Tom Douglas’s Palace Ballroom. It was an ice cream social! Several artisan ice cream companies participated including Half Pint, Parfait, Empire Ice Cream, Poco Caretto, Full Tilt, Molly Moon and The Dahlia Bakery. Adults and children alike flocked to the Ballroom for this ice cream extravaganza and enjoyed samples from all of the ice cream companies, as well as games, delicious ancho chili corn on the cob, pinball (courtesy of Full Tilt!) and a photo booth. It was a great time!

This past Sunday Half Pint was lucky to be a part of the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance‘s An Incredible Feast. This fundraiser for the NFMA paired farms up with local chefs, who created delicious dishes using fresh produce from that particular farm. Half Pint scooped up little cones and cups of Fresh Watermelon-Mint Sorbet, which was made using watermelons from Tonnemaker Family Orchards. It was a lovely evening filled with food, fun and farmers!

We’ve also been busy scooping ice cream at lots of parties and other events. If you’re interested in having Half Pint scoop ice cream at your next event, drop us a line and let us know what you’re looking for!

It’s shaping up to be a gorgeous weekend. Check out the forecast. So, come on out to your local farmers market, have some ice cream and say hello. We’d love to see you!