THE FIRST SIBBY'S ICE CREAM PARLOR!
Visit Sibby at her ice cream parlor
OrganicZone... inside the historic Viroqua Public Market.
Farm & Ranch Living Magazine
June/July 2009
A Scoopful of Goodness [direct link]
This ice-cream maker found a recipe for success by doing things the old-fashioned way.
By Marija Potkonjak, Associate Editor
Sue “Sibby” Sebion loves rooting for the underdog. Maybe that’s because she’s a bit of an underdog herself.
Sue is an ice-cream maker. Her creation, Sibby’s Homestead Ice Cream, competes with mega brands for the hearts and taste buds of ice-cream lovers all over the world. She’s slowly gaining on them one wholesome scoop at a time.
She makes her ice cream in a red barn on her family’s 150-year-old homestead near Westby, Wisconsin. It’s the kind of rich, creamy stuff that takes you back to a simpler time when using the best ingredients from farmers nearby was just the way things were done.
“Everything we do is local and organic,” notes Sue. “Except for the vanilla. I have to go halfway around the world for it. I’d get it locally if I could.”
Localism is at the heart of her business plan and it’s the philosophy she lives by. “The entrepreneur farmer is the most powerful person on Earth,” says Sue. “Nobody has empowered the farmer.”
Land of Milk and Honey
Vernon County is blessed with rich, fertile soil, deep river valleys and an established organic movement. The headquarters for Organic Valley, a national organic cooperative, is just 15 miles away in LaFarge.
“When the early Native American settlers came, they must have thought they’d found the land of milk and honey,” says Sue, whose own ancestors came from Norway over a century ago hoping to find the same thing.
Sue grew up on a farm near Chaseburg, Wisconsin in the 1960s. Her parents owned a dairy farm. In fact, just about everyone in her family farmed or raised dairy cows. Her connection to the land practically wrote the story of her life.
“Growing up on a farm had everything to do with it,” says Sue. “I went to a one-room schoolhouse that my dad and his siblings went to. I thought everyone was having the same childhood as me.”
When she was 17, Sue left home to try her luck in La Crosse, where she worked for UPS. La Crosse was about as big-city as Sue ever got. For almost 20 years, she drove the back roads of southwest Wisconsin, delivering packages and watching the region’s organic movement come to life.
The Root of Grassroots
Sue didn’t plan on becoming an ice-cream maker. Her life’s dream was born out of necessity and a mother’s love for her sons.
“I didn’t find ice cream,” Sue says with a smile. “ice cream found me.”
Sue’s boys, Ross and Joe, were 5 and 3 at the time. She was still driving for UPS while her husband worked for FedEx.
“We were working all the time,” says Sue. “Growing up on the farm with Mom and Dad working at home was all I knew. I wanted to give my boys the childhood that I had.”
So, Sue searched for something she could do at home. At one point, she considered mint and hemp farming.
Then one day Sue and a girlfriend stopped at the local pizzeria after work. They ran into a guy who worked at the Viroqua Dairy and started talking about the old days of ice-cream making.
“I told him they should start making organic ice cream,” recalls Sue.
And that’s how she found her calling. Making ice cream was that elusive something she could do at home. Sue began her business at what she likes to call “the root of grassroots.”
She worked with Dr. Bob Bradley at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to create her ice-cream recipe, which is a simple one—cream, non-fat dried milk, naturally milled sugar, egg yolks and pure vanilla extract. The ice cream is available in two flavors—vanilla and chocolate.
Sue made batches at home and sold the ice cream at public markets. She made deliveries in her own truck.
In the beginning, Sue used cream from the Viroqua Dairy. When the dairy closed and the bank turned it into a parking lot, Sue had no other choice but to take out a loan and turn her barn into an ice-cream factory.
“I wasn’t planning on building a factory on the farm,” says Sue, who makes 4,000 pints a month. “I just didn’t see any other option. Now everything is totally under my control.”
Her entire business model is about buying the best ingredients from local producers. Sue believes that localism will one day be the saving grace of America’s family farms, small businesses and tradition of competition.
“The American dream is to be an entrepreneur,” says Sue. “When there are only a few banks and a few companies making cars, for example, then we’re in trouble.”
To make her case, she points out that last summer when the average price of a gallon of gas topped $4, people in Viroqua weren’t willing to dig into their wallets to go shopping in La Crosse.
“It just makes sense,” says Sue. “People have tough choices to make. Why not support your local farmer, save money and have better food—all at the same time?”
Peace Food
Eight years after making her first batch, you’ll find Sue’s ice cream in the freezer aisle at Whole Foods and co-op grocery stores around the country. There on the package is a photo of Sue with a Holstein cow and a label branding the ice cream as “the official planet peace food.”
“Eat in peace,” says Sue. “I mean it with all my heart.” 
In 2007, Sue and her business partner, Tony Macasaet, opened an ice-cream parlor in Viroqua’s Public Market. Sibby’s Organic Zone is one of a few organic ice-cream parlors in the country. ForbesTraveler.com recently named her ice cream as one of the top 10 in the United States.
The parlor is a place to relax and dig into ice cream sundaes topped with chocolate, caramel, butterscotch, seasonal fruit, chocolate chips or espresso. Each scoop is served in a handmade waffle cone or in a compostable cup made from corn.
The lunch menu promises “locally raised pizzas,” and you can bet the strawberries on your sundae came from a farmer you might have passed on the road into town.
“It’s just so good,” says a DHL deliveryman who stopped in for a bite between deliveries. “It reminds me of the stuff I ate when I was a kid.”
To learn more about Sue Sebion, log on to www.farmandranchliving.com and click on “Links.”
GRIT Magazine
November 2008
Sweet success in rural Wisconsin [direct link]
By LEAH CALL//
Suzanne Sebion is passionate about organic, farm-fresh food and living a natural, simple lifestyle. She’s also passionate about
revitalizing her community and saving the family farm. This southwestern Wisconsin woman found the perfect outlet for her passion – ice cream.
In 2001, Sebion began producing Sibby’s Homestead Organic Ice Cream. It’s free of preservatives, chemical additives and genetically engineered ingredients, and it is soooo good! Today she makes her custard-like organic ice cream daily at the 3,500-square-foot homestead creamery she built on the farm that has been in her family for 150 years.
A parcel delivery truck driver for 19 years, Sebion saw firsthand the growing organic movement in Wisconsin’s Kickapoo Valley, and she wanted to be a part of it. With roots in dairy farming, her thoughts turned to ice cream, and, with some help from University of Wisconsin-Madison dairy science professor Dr. Robert Bradley, she created the perfect recipe. Certified 100 percent organic, Sibby’s uses fresh organic cream from local farmers, organic cocoa, organic egg yolks and pure organic vanilla extract.
The perfect recipe
With the perfect recipe and a few pints of her handmade ice cream, she hit the road to market her product.
"I bought a deep freeze and would go to Madison and Milwaukee once a month and deliver to food co-ops in La Crosse and Winona," Sebion says. She continued that practice until she had enough customers to attract a distributor.
Sibby’s has come a long way since that first trek to Madison. Though she oversees everything, Sebion has a manager to handle much of the production and make ice cream five days a week.
Sibby’s Homestead Organic Ice Cream can be found in food co-ops and natural food stores in 16 states and is now distributed throughout the Midwest by organic distributor United Natural Foods.
"We are in all the Whole Foods Markets now in the Midwest, and I’m meeting with Costco next month," Sebion says. "We will take it national next summer."
Going global
This sweet Wisconsin treat has even drawn international interest.
"Last week, I was contacted by someone in Shanghai, wondering if I’m ready to move into the major cities in China," Sebion says. "I would supply the five-star hotels as a boutique ice cream."
Sebion attributes her international fame to her new packaging and redesigned Web site – released in 2007.
"Sibby’s is food without judgment. It’s the way I live my life," Sebion says. "I decided to label it ‘The Official Planet Peace Food.’ Eat in peace. Love Sibby. It’s short, it’s simple, and I mean it from the bottom of my heart."
Since releasing her new label, she has spoken with farmers and representatives from Costa Rica, Panama, Canada, Ireland, Turkmenistan, Brazil and beyond.
"Who knows what will come across my desk next week," Sebion says. "Is it because it’s the Official Planet Peace Food? Probably!"
World peace is a pretty big undertaking for a little pint of ice cream, but this ice cream, produced in one of Wisconsin’s poorest counties, is also the foundation of another noble effort. Sebion hopes the ice cream that returned productivity to her family farm can help do the same for the nearby rural community of Viroqua.
In late 2007, Sebion, along with business partner Tony Macasaet opened an organic ice cream shop, Organic Zone, in the recently renovated Main Street Station, an indoor public market on Viroqua’s Main Street. The market is an outlet for area artists and entrepreneurs to market their wares.
"Tony and I are local kids. We’ve seen our downtown fall apart. And we are trying to rebuild our town," Sebion says. "We are trying to create jobs here in the market. We’ve got 90 merchants that make money each month. Everything here is based on fair trade, localism and organics. What we are doing is working – in the name of organic ice cream."
All the ice cream sold at the Organic Zone is produced at Sebion’s homestead creamery, just a few miles away.
"We bring the mix here – have a soft serve machine and can do all these crazy specialty ice creams. I’m doing wild huckleberry that we buy from farmers in Montana. I buy my walnuts from a widowed Amish woman, who supports seven of her children off of her little store here. The candy comes from an Amish lady, too."
Sebion enjoys supporting local growers and mentoring others to run businesses, especially in organic foods.
"So instead of four people on the planet owning our food supply, we take it back – little by little, and all the job creation that goes along with it. And good food again," Sebion adds. "That’s something we grew up with. It’s not rocket science."
An Organic Zone REVIEW....
People's Food Coop SHOPPER (La Crosse, WI)
September 2008
REVIEW: Sibby’s Organic Zone Ice Cream Parlor [direct link - PDF]
Coexistence is the key to success (and happiness)
If you thought Sibby’s just meant local, organic, old-fashioned, pure, farm-fresh ice cream, you’d be wrong. It’s that and so much more! Since the pening of their organic ice cream parlor, the menu offerings have expanded to include a bounty of locally produced foods—from fresh vegetables right off the farm to handcrafted cheeses to organic pizzas, hot dogs, sauerkraut, wines, rootbeer, beers…and more! They do wonderful things with the quality ingredients—simple, elegant, tasty, and healthy offerings grace the menu, which continually changes depending on what the local farmers and artisans have to offer. Particularly noteworthy is the perfect food of the day, which is a soul-food-inspired dish made with local vegetables and greens that vary from day-to-day. Today’s epicurean delight was a mouthwatering blend of kale, chard, garlic, rice, beans, and various seasonings. The baked Scandinavian cheese drizzled with hot huckleberry sauce, washed down with a tasty local brew, is sublime, and that alone made the trip more than worthwhile. The hot dog emergency turns out to be more than the sum of its parts—the powerkraut, blue cheese, hot sauce, japaeños, capers, ketchup and mustard take an ordinary dog to new culinary heights!
Owners Sue Sebion and Tony Macasaet opened the Organic Zone (Oz) one year ago. Both grew up in Vernon County. Sue had 8 years of experience producing the Official Planet Peace Food—Sibby’s ice cream. Tony felt compelled to move back to Viroqua after years of medical school and time spent as an ER doctor in Chicago. Sibby brought experience as a small-business owner with a vision (and reliably fabulous ice cream) and Tony, being a doctor, knew how much good health relies upon food and happiness. Oz is about wholesome, fresh, homemade, healthy food, full of life and made with love.
The space is modern yet cozy and occupies the back of the atmospheric, historic, and beautifully refurbished Viroqua Public Market. The Public Market houses dozens of small businesses—from handmade jewelry and soaps to antiques, fair-trade imports by Ten Thousand Villages, brewing equipment, and an independent music store (and lots more). The floods of 2007 made the opening a challenge—but a great deal of passion and perseverance paid off! The philosophy behind Sibby’s is simple and noble: “Coexist in peace, eat in peace, lead by example, and do well by doing good.” Not only has Sibby built a brand, she’s built the foundation of a community that is all about coexistence and interdependence. Most of the previously mentioned ingredients are lovingly grown or hand-crafted by friends of theirs, and there is a farmers’ market right across the street! Although Sibby and Tony are local small business advocates who have tirelessly struggled to revitalize downtown Viroqua, they attribute part of their success to Wal-Mart’s arrival right down the street. The result, interestingly, is not a negative one, but a positive one—locals now shop in town rather than driving to a larger city like La Crosse or Madison. Wal-Mart’s traffic has all sorts of independent businesses popping up in Viroqua. That’s coexistence!
The Viroqua Public Market also houses Greenman Music Hall, which hosts world-famous musicians along with local favorites. Check it out—their calendar is always full and eclectic—world music, folk, rock, blues, jazz, hip-hop, soul, classic as well as new, and occasionally, concerts for kids (www.ViroquaPublicMarket.com or call 608.637.1912).
Enjoy refreshments at Oz before the show or come and browse the market while live music is piped throughout.
The unique, independent, authentic, idealistic,
artistic, and local flavor will always have a place
as long as people are willing to take a chance and
follow their bliss. Simply put, this warm, artistic,
communal place is a draw for people of all ages—
it’s where you want to be!
what? Sibby’s Organic Zone Ice Cream Parlor
where? In the Historic Viroqua Public Market
213 South Main Street
Viroqua, WI 54665
608.637.3202
Milwaukee Journal Sentinal
June 10, 2008
Peace, Love, and Ice Cream [direct link]
By KAREN HERZOG//
Anyone who has tasted old-fashioned, homemade ice cream will immediately recognize the farm-fresh flavor of Sibby's certified organic 
vanilla ice cream.
Produced at a homestead creamery in the hills of southwest Wisconsin near Viroqua, the ice cream is billed as "the official planet peace food" by Sibby's founder and co-owner Sue Sebion.
Sebion calls it peace food "because it really ties to great memories, most of them childhood, of eating ice cream in the hot sun on a carefree day," she said.
Her picture is on every pint, posed beside a Holstein "so it's more personal," she explained.
And thankfully, the farm creamery escaped recent flooding, unlike last August, when floodwater damage closed Sibby's for several months.
While organic customers enjoy her vanilla and chocolate ice cream, Sebion said she's seeing more customers who are looking for locally produced boutique foods. Ice cream is a recession-proof treat, she said.
"Even in the Great Depression, people splurged for ice cream." (A pint of Sibby's costs about $4.40 retail, or $3.50 at her Viroqua shop.)
Sebion, 46, had a creamery built at her family's 150-year-old Norwegian homestead farm four years ago, when a creamery in Viroqua that had been making ice cream for her shut down. This is her eighth year in business.
Sibby's ice cream is sold in several stores in the Milwaukee area, including Outpost and Whole Foods. Beyond Wisconsin, it is
distributed in about 16 states, Sebion said.
She said she'd like to increase her distribution nationwide, "But I don't want to do the Wal-Mart thing. I want to be in small, boutique grocery stores."
The Sibby's recipe was formulated by Bob Bradley at Babcock Dairy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Sebion said. Made in small batches, it's classic and simple, containing just cream, non-fat dried milk, naturally milled sugar, egg yolks and pure vanilla extract - all organic, of course.
Sebion mostly sells through retail stores, but she also has a shop in Viroqua - Sibby's Organic Zone (Oz for short) at the Historic Viroqua Public Market. Her Web site is www.sibbysozone.com.
She considers it ice cream with a purpose. Each pint carries the statement, "By supporting this ice cream, you are helping us fulfill our mission: saving the family farm." 
Sebion grew up on a dairy farm, and says her childhood inspired her to value the simple things in life, including farm-fresh ice cream. She buys organic cream from Organic Valley and Westby Cooperative creamery, located in the same county as her creamery.
For her community, Sebion is filling a gap left by the closing of Viroqua Dairy.
Viroqua resident Arlene Reed stopped in at Sibby's Organic Zone shop one recent day for a cup of ice cream.
"We miss the dairy here real bad," she said before tasting Sibby's with butterscotch sauce. "I used to eat the ice cream from the dairy. This is every bit as good."
Forbes Traveler
June 16, 2008
America's Best Ice Cream
Jennifer Murphy
Cool off with these sensational scoops [direct link]
.......For purity, nobody does it better than organic ice cream entrepreneur Sue Sebion, who runs Sibby’s Organic Zone Ice Cream Parlor in Viroqua, Wis. Made on her family’s homestead farm with organic milk from local sources, it’s not hard to see why Sibby’s has become synonymous with good, old-fashioned wholesomeness. This is ice cream at its best: pure, simple and made with love............
Entrepreneur Magazine online
Jan 20, 2008
Sibby's expanding near and far [direct link]
As more frozen dessert companies add organic lines and increase consumer awareness of these products, companies that have been exclusively organic are finding new opportunities to expand. A case in point is Sibby's, which has been providing organic ice cream to markets in Wisconsin for seven years. The company has gained national distribution through the premiere organic distributor, United Natural Foods, and has recently opened its first retail shop in Viroqua, located not far from the family farm where the ice cream is produced.
Sibby's is the creation of Sue "Sibby" Sebion. She developed the ice cream as part of an effort to preserve the 150-year old farm homesteaded by her great-grandfather, while also remaining true to her own commitment to the organic and sustainable agriculture movement. Working with ice cream experts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Dairy Research, she was able to develop a formula using all certified organic ingredients, including the egg yolks, vanilla, cocoa and sugar, supplied by small local Wisconsin farmers or fair-trade growers overseas.
The new shop, dubbed the Organic Zone serves fair-trade, locally roasted coffee and espresso drinks, soda, tea and hot dogs, along with a soft serve version of the ice cream. The shop's style is described by Sibby as "new-age vintage," with an emphasis on recycled materials.
Sibby's expansion included overcoming a major setback this past year when floods from the nearby Mississippi River, described did serious damage to the ice cream plant on the farm. However, support from the local community and the ice cream's fan-base helped to put the ice cream business back on its feet.
With new packaging, the brand is now available in all Midwest Whole Foods Markets as well as many food co-ops and natural food stores across approximately 16 Midwest states, as well as in select markets in New York City, Greenwich, CT, the Boston area, and parts of Maine.
La Crosse Tribune
January 7, 2008
Sibby's serves up old-fashioned ice cream fun [direct link]
By KJ LANG / La Crosse Tribune
VIROQUA, Wis. — For 20 years Tony Macasaet didn’t eat ice cream. After being spoiled by the Viroqua Dairy just down the street from his childhood home in Viroqua, the commercial brands he found as an adult were all disappointing.But that changed when he met Sue Sebion, also known as Sibby, and tried the homemade organic ice cream she makes on her family farm in rural Viroqua.
“Now I have to watch myself because I get into hedonistic ex-cess,” he said. “It is unbelievable how good it is.”
Today, Sebion and Macasaet are in business together. They opened an ice cream parlor called Sibby’s Organic Zone, or OZ for short, in November in the Historic Viroqua Public Market in downtown Viroqua.
They describe the place as a combination of a Starbucks, Ben & Jerry’s and a Subway all under one roof because they also serve coffee, desserts and sandwiches.
Yet, walking in the door, it is obvious their business is anything but a commercial chain. “I wanted this place to have its own soul,” said Sebion.
And it does. The room is painted in the color scheme of Sebion’s Scandinavian roots, from the blue floors to the salmon-colored walls.
They’ve used recycled materials in nearly every element in the shop. The decor is what Sebion calls “new-age vintage.”
Decorative windows were originally from Fort McCoy, picture frames surrounding photographs on the walls are made from the woodwork of the 150-year-old Sebion homestead, the floor is made from recycled tire rubber and booths are recycled from another café that used to be in town.
The practice of using recycled materials comes second nature to Macasaet and Sebion. They said that, technically, the entire Public Market is recycled, too.
It was built in 1912 and used to be an auto garage. But, now on Friday nights, it’s bustling with people coming to hear concerts, visit the shops, record an album at the music store, visit the art gallery or just lounge on the sofas directly outside OZ.
The entire market is committed to a vision of “localism and fair trade,” said Macasaet.
Adding more business to Viroqua gives them a way to rejuvenate the same downtown where they watched "out of business" signs go up along the Main Street years ago, said Macasaet.
And, it gives them a way to give kids the ice cream parlor like the Viroqua Dairy they remember from when they were young, added Sebion.
Where it wasn’t about just eating great ice cream, they said, but about the experience of coming into a quaint little shop, sipping on sodas and savoring creamy, homemade ice cream out of a malt glass while listening to music or viewing art in another spot right around the corner.
Sibby’s Premium Organic Ice Cream was founded in 2001 by Sebion. Her ice cream is now distributed in 16 states and the Middle East.
Forbes Magazine Online
December 21, 2007
Sibby's Premium Organic Ice Cream Enters New Phase [direct link]
VIROQUA, Wis.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Following the devastating Midwest floods of August 2007, recovers and is back at full production. The seven year old manufacturer also has announced the launch of new packaging and the debut of their first organic ice cream parlor in Viroqua, Wisconsin.
Sibby's Premium Organic Ice Cream, a 100% woman-owned, independent ice cream manufacturer was founded in 2001 by 'Sibby' or Sue Sebion who heads the company.
Sibby, whose business barely survived the catastrophic floods of August gleams, "After seven years of struggle and then enduring the flood disaster, I finally feel prepared for growth and success; my new packaging is incredible, I have the support of Whole Foods and coops like Outpost [in Milwaukee, WI], and we have national distribution... most importantly, I'm making some amazing ice cream! We also send a heart-felt thanks to the generous donors and especially sowtheseeds.org who helped collect the disaster relief funds. And of course, I wouldn’t be here without my many loyal customers.”
She continues, “It’s wonderful how a big company like Whole Foods stood by me while we were down. Whole Foods CEO John Mackey is genuinely committed to embracing their local suppliers… I am a living testament to that.”
The new packaging highlights the uniqueness of her product. Sibby's is a hand-made all organic ice cream custard made from fresh, local milk. Her product is gluten free and made without gums or artificial ingredients. Sibby herself oversees every step in production.
The ice cream factory is tucked onto her family's picturesque 150-year old Norwegian homestead farm. One of Sibby's goals is to keep the farm in production through value-added ventures and sustainable practices, "saving the family farm" as the label declares. “My great grandfather homesteaded this farm in 1858. It’s our mission to keep it producing and in the family.”
Sibby with national distribution through the premiere organic distributor, United Natural Foods, is available in all Midwest Whole Foods Markets and many food coops and natural food stores across approximately sixteen states and growing.
Sibby's Premium Organic Ice Cream is also pleased to announce the opening of her first soft-serve ice cream parlor Organic Zone in Viroqua, Wisconsin. In addition to Sibby’s ice cream, Organic Zone serves up fair-trade, locally roasted coffee and espresso drinks, soda, tea, hot dogs, and other treats.
The décor is "warm, George Jetson, Norwegian, and eclectic". Many of the elements are recycled in one fashion or another. “New vintage, if you will", her business partner Dr. Tony Macasaet explains. “We wanted to create a parlor that enhanced the Sibby’s experience.”
Wisconsin Public Television's "In Wisconsin"
September 2007
Sibby and her famous organic ice cream will be the feature of the acclaimed Wisconsin PBS news magazine "In Wisconsin". Aired September 20th, 2007.
CLICK HERE to VIEW the "In Wisconsin" Sibby's segment
" Sue Sebion, aka Sibby, is an organic ice cream entrepreneur making a living off her Vernon County farm near Viroqua, Wisconsin. In just six years, she has gone from having a once again productive farm to creating and marketing a product available on stores shelves in Wisconsin and 17 other states. But it didn’t happen overnight. According to Jan Gallagher, Director of the UW-La Crosse Small Business Development Center, creating and maintaining a successful small business requires persistence, tenacity and an ability to roll with the punches. "
"Discover Wisconsin" newsmagazine
June 2007
Sibby's one of a handful of Wisconsin ice cream manufactures highlighted during a special Ice Cream episode of the popular TV show, "Discover Wisconsin". Aired: June 2007. Will air again June 2008. Link to Discover Wisconsin website.
CLICK HERE to VIEW a clip from the "Discover Wisconsin" ice cream episode
Wisconsin Trials Magazine
May/June 2007
Sibby's Organic Ice Cream a Wisconsin Trails Magazine "Editor's Find"!
Coulee Region Women Magazine
June/July 2007
Farm Fresh Success - Sibby's Organic Ice Cream serves up natural goodness
By Leah Call
Bountiful Cupboard Magazine
July 2007, Issue no. 4
The Scoop on Local Ice Cream
By Henry Verden
CNN / Money
America's favorite ice cream
Ice cream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream: the nation's best regional ice cream makers.
July 29, 2005:
By Gordon T. Anderson, CNN/Money staff writer
When European megalopoly Unilever swallowed up Ben & Jerry's a few years back, fans of the quirky Vermont company feared the worst.
Protests were organized and Web sites sprang up, put together by people who worried that the takeover would mean the end of American ice cream as we know it.
Turns out, they needn't have bothered.
It is true that a handful of giant companies -- including Unilever and arch-rival Nestlé -- dominate the $20 billion U.S. ice cream industry. But it's also true that the nation is awash in little guys churning out some of the best frozen treats in the land.
And Americans are eating it up. We annually consume about 6 gallons of ice cream per person -- roughly 19,200 calories, for those who are counting.
In every part of the country, regional dairies compete with the multinationals for shelf space and customers.
In fact, about 500 companies make and distribute ice cream in the United States, according to Shannon Arnold's "Everybody Loves Ice Cream" (Emmis Books, 2004). And that doesn't include mom-and-pop cone shops where they make their own for on-premise licking.
Among the best-known (and biggest) of the regional manufacturers is Brenham, Texas-based Blue Bell, which sells more than $300 million of ice cream in 14 states. It's a favorite of the First Family, along with everyone else who's tried it.
Starting small, but staying big
Like microbrewers and small-scale chocolate makers, entrepreneurs are drawn to ice cream as a labor of love.
"Nearly everyone in the ice cream business started out small," writes Arnold. "Founders started making a few gallons in the back of the store, the kitchen or wherever, and over time, their great ice cream gained a following."
Although it's a challenge for small manufacturers to get their product into mass retailers like Sam's Club or Costco, there's plenty of room for little guys to carve out niches.
Take Sue Sebion-Huber, whose 100-acre farm -- it's the sort of place where all the cows have names -- has been in her family since 1856.
She runs Sibby's Premium Organic, a tiny Wisconsin-based purveyor of a lauded, all-natural ice cream. Sibby's fan base is devoted but small, since the stuff is distributed in just a few states in the upper Midwest.
Unlike many other product categories, consumers have time and again shown themselves willing to try new or unfamiliar ice cream brands, just because they taste great. In this business, startup dreams can sometimes come true.
And here's the sweetest news for high-quality ice cream makers: For all the low-carb-no-carb-soy-based delights that spring from food factory laboratories, most people still prefer the good stuff -- precisely what the smaller players are best at making.
Sales of premium and superpremium styles account for some 42 percent of total industry revenues, versus barely 15 percent for all the "light" formulations combined. While periodic diet fads may trigger sales blips, growth in the full-flavored categories has been continuous since the 1980s.
Of course, the national waistline has continued to grow, too. But so what? If you're going to eat ice cream, go for the gusto, I say.
You can always substitute broccoli for french fries beforehand.
The Capital Times
Monday, November 11, 2002
By Mary Bergin, The Capital Times
Madison, Wisconsin
One of the few U.S. ice cream products to earn the new "100 Percent Organic" label comes from a Wisconsin woman whose formal education ended when her UPS delivery job began at age 17. " I put a lot of smart people around me," says Sue Sebion-Huber of Westby, near La Crosse. "I never went to college, but I'm good at telling my story."
She relied on the advice and expertise of Robert Bradley, a retired University of Wisconsin dairy science professor, to create Sibby's Premium Organic Ice Cream.
Sibby is her nickname, the product was test-marketed in Milwaukee and Madison in 2001, and since Sept. 1 it has been distributed throughout the Midwest.
Blooming Prairie Distribution bought 900 cases so far, says Sebion-Huber, "and I don't know exactly where it's gone."
In Madison, some of the stash is in food co-ops. At about $3.60 per pint (compared to about $3.50 for Haagen-Dazs, $3.40 for Ben & Jerry's), it contains just five ingredients, including vanilla extract from Madagascar and cocoa from Africa. Egg yolks act as a preservative. Cream and nonfat dried milk can be traced back to local farmers' cows.
The small, organic-certified Viroqua Dairy makes the product in two flavors (vanilla, chocolate). A seasonal berry flavor may be added next year.
The product's biggest public exposure so far was through the recent Madison Food & Wine Experience and Milwaukee's Taste of Home Cooking Expo. Sebion-Huber scooped out samples as a part of the Something Special From Wisconsin vendor booth, going through 150 pints.
"I'd like to say that it's an Old World family recipe, passed down from one generation to another, but it's not," says Sebion-Huber, 41, who lives on the 100-acre homestead that belonged to her grandparents in 1856.
This is not where the milk for her product is produced. But Laotian families plant gardens on the homestead, she says, and this is where her family's heifers graze.
"I feel passionate about the land, the organic movement, the environment," Sebion-Huber says. "The consumer gets this nice, clean food. The farmer who's producing the ingredients gets a premium price for his product. The dairy industry and the environment are better because of all of it."
Smaller herds mean less disease and need for chemical intervention, she believes. "When I was a kid, nobody was milking 1,000 cows. There were herds of 30 or 40, a size that gives you time to baby the environment. And not get antifreeze in your ice cream."
Organic farmers, Sebion-Huber says, get around $20 per hundredweight for milk, compared to around $9 per hundredweight for milk produced on conventional farms.
During each of the past 10 years, the growth rate for organic foods has been 20 percent in Wisconsin, The Business Journal of Milwaukee has reported. That's called the highest rate in the nation, and dairy farmers who sell organic milk are benefiting the most.
Sebion-Huber notes that her part of the state is a hub of organic food production. It includes the Organic Valley Family of Farms (headquartered in LaFarge), the largest organic farmer-owned cooperative in North America.
"Organic farming was happening all around" her when she decided to produce all-organic ice cream. The product seemed like a natural fit to her.
"I didn't know a lot about ice cream until I got into this," Sebion-Huber admits, and that's where the UW's Bradley comes in. He encouraged her to use only the finest ingredients, thus the involvement of Madagascar and Africa.
Bradley has created formulations for other ice cream producers, changed ingredients in products and changed formulations to make a product less coarse/icy. But this was his first organic product.
"Consistency is the mark of quality, every time," Bradley said of ice cream. That means you can't wing the recipe, but an expert may not need to experiment much to make it right. As Bradley says of his Sibby's work, "We tried it once, and we had it."
Quality was his biggest challenge, especially when factoring in influences outside of his control -- retailers who don't store ice cream at the correct temperature, consumers whose freezers are "torture chambers" because they're not cold enough.
That's why the product is sold in pint containers only. It lessens the chance of leftovers being stored for a long time at the wrong temperature.
Although Sibby's ice cream is meant to be eaten "spoon soft," not "freezer to mouth," Bradley said he thinks it's fine to just put it in a bowl and serve it.
He recommends serving it at about 5 degrees, and said the temperature inside a good freezer is minus 20.
Of the 1,200 Organic Trade Association members in North America, it appears that only one other presently produces 100 Percent Organic ice cream: Straus Family Creamery, in California.
Spokeswoman Vivien Straus says such products are "quite rare" because "most companies add guar gum or some sort of emulsifier, which are not organic products."
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration won't know how many products have earned the 100 Percent Organic label until January. That's when they'll get product records from certifying agents.
onMilwaukee.com
By Gregg Hoffmann, Beyond Milwaukee
It's a fair distance from Milwaukee's Outpost Natural Foods to Suzanne Sebion-Huber's farm in Vernon County. It's even farther to Dubai in the Middle East, but Sibby's ice cream is cool in all those places.
Sebion-Huber, owner of Sibby's Premium Organic Ice Cream, makes her product right on her farm in Vernon County, in the southwest part of the state.
The Outpost was one of the first places to test Sibby's, which comes in vanilla and chocolate. "It really was a key place for me when I was first getting started," Sebion-Huber says of the Milwaukee coop. "They are a great coop and helped get the product established."
Dubai's connection started last year when Sebion-Huber, whose nickname is Sibby, linked up with Nils El Accad, who owns Organic Foods and Café in Dubai and distributes American food products through the Al Accad group in that Middle East area of the world.
"We met at a trade show in California in April 2004," Sebion-Huber explained. "I knew nothing about Dubai. I looked into it and found out that Tiger Woods plays golf there, and Star Jones got married there. Other celebrities have homes there.
"I wasn't in a position to say no to anybody. So, we shipped our first order of 300 pints in January 2005."
That has led to another order of 1,000 pints, and who knows from there. "The mission of Nils is to support small, high-quality food makers and help get their products into Dubai and elsewhere. They loved our ice cream. I guess we're the first to have organic ice cream in Dubai," Sebion-Huber said.
Dubai is one of the richest countries in the world. One travel writer calls it, "rich, lavish and abfab."
It's a long way from Esofea to Dubai, Sebion-Huber has learned. "I ship the product to New Jersey the day after we make it here," she said. "It gets to Dubai in about five weeks, which isn't too bad. It's kept cold during that time."
Sebion-Huber admits she never saw the Middle East as part of her market when she first started Sibby's. After 19 years with UPS, she wanted a change. In 1989, she had restored what had been a family homestead farm, established first in 1856, and had been thinking about ways to make it self-sustaining for a while.
After getting hurt in the stock market crisis like so many others, her dreams had to become reality. "It kind of found me because of circumstances," Sebion-Huber said. "I would look at this area next to the old barn and wonder what I could do. I thought of everything from organic farming to growing pot...for the medicinal market, of course."
While talking with a friend, Sebion-Huber came up with the idea of ice cream. She took a small business course at UW-La Crosse, and struck a deal with Tim O'Connor, who owned a small dairy in Viroqua at the time. Sibby's would be born at that dairy.
Sebion-Huber also consulted Robert Bradley, a retired University of Wisconsin dairy professor. "Bob was a key. He knew so much about ice cream and shared it with me," she said.
The ice cream was test marketed at Outpost and in Madison in 2001. Blooming Prairie Distribution was the first to distribute it.
Sebion-Huber made the ice cream in Viroqua until that dairy closed. She then took most of 2003 off to build the current factory right on her farm. Production started up again in 2004.
Her husband, Tom, and sons, Ross and Joe, help out in the process. Sibby's factory is running at around 4,000 pints every three weeks and is capable of producing up to 80,000 pints a week. If the people in Dubai and elsewhere really like the stuff, Sibby will hire some employees.
Sebion-Huber gets her cream from Organic Valley, the highly successful organic co-op in nearby La Farge. Egg yolks also come from local farmers.
A couple other ingredients come from much farther away - vanilla extract from Madagascar and cocoa from Africa. All ingredients are organic, and Sebion-Huber's farm is certified organic.
Vernon County has around 150 organic farms, as well as Organic Valley coop. So, Sebion-Huber's product fits right in with that initiative.
"I feel passionate about the land, the organic movement, the environment," Sebion-Huber said. "The consumer gets this nice, clean food. The farmer who's producing the ingredients gets a premium price for his product. The dairy industry and the environment are better because of it."
Sibby's is an example of many specialty foods, ranging from ice cream to gourmet cheese to wine and beer made in Wisconsin and exported around the world. Sebion-Huber is developing an e-commerce store through the Department of Commerce's wisconsincommonmarket.com. Sibby's own Web site is sibbysfarm.com.
Sibby's also is listed among the companies in Something Special from Wisconsin and among the Wisconsin Artisan and Farmstead Dairy directory.
The business has attracted media attention recently. The public radio show, Coulee Region Connections, featured it in July. CNN also recently did a story on it.
Sibby's also was featured in the May issue of Grocery Headquarters, a respected trade magazine, and mix, a Twin Cities Natural Food Co-ops publication.
"It's been great," Sebion-Huber said. "I've been getting hundreds of emails. We don't have a big marketing budget, so the publicity helps.
"I've learned so much in four years, from how to make organic ice cream to how to export to Dubai. It's hard work, but you just keep learning and growing."