| July 28 2010
Portland has many CSA farm-share programs, but when I saw that Sarah Hart at Northeast 28th Avenue’s Alma Chocolate was launching a CSI—community supported ice cream—program this summer to finance the purchase of a $4,000 Pacojet Ice Cream Maker, I was immediately intrigued.
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| Photo: Julie Blakley |
The lucky first 30 subscribers (the shares were quickly snapped up in just a few days) pay $150 and get a bi-monthly pint of ice cream for one year (that works out to $5.25 a pint—pints in store will sell for $8).
Every two weeks for a year (July 2010 to June 2011), subscribers get to choose from very dark chocolate, vanilla bean custard, or a seasonal vegan sorbet (I tried a coconut sorbet that was to die for). Members will also get extras, like “caramel sauce, candied nuts, and chunks of toffee...”
Hart said the idea for her CSI came to her when someone suggested she partner with local farms to add her chocolates to local CSA baskets. She knew she really wanted the expensive ice cream machine, and one night, “the two ideas met in my head and said ‘hey’.”
Hart says her flavors will use local and organic ingredients and will always be experimental and seasonal. Ginger lime sorbet, candied orange peels and seasonal sorbets will be among the “special flavors that’ll change.”
“Our booth at the [Portland] farmers market lets us be right there,” says Hart. “We can see whoever has fruit…and see what’s looking good.”
Hart’s sweet and unique concoctions at Alma prove she’s unafraid to experiment with seemingly untraditional flavors—her shop has popular Thai peanut butter cups and habanero caramel chocolates.
When asked where else she’ll find inspiration for her rotating ice cream flavors, she says she gets inspiration for multiple sources.
“I think like anyone who likes to cook, I’m always reading cook books and magazines, going out to eat,” said Hart. “I often think ‘how would that translate into something sweet?’”
She also says a lot of what she does in her chocolates will be seen in her ice cream (which will be sold from her shop on Northeast 28th and perhaps at their farmers market booth in the future).
While the strawberry and balsamic, raspberry and lemon basil, and dairy-free coconut sorbet with chocolate chunks I tried at the store were absolutely delicious, Hart says also to look out for flavors working with chilis and chocolate and more.
Try Sarah Hart’s unique and delicious ice cream flavors at Alma Chocolate at her shop at 140 Northeast 28th Avenue.
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