Kelsmor Dairy Ice Cream, Herefordshire

Kelsmor Dairy Ice Cream is made by Susan Jones on the family farm at Garway in Herefordshire.

Every ingredient in the ice cream is of the highest quality. That quality starts with the milk, which comes from the farm’s herd of Guernsey cows. It’s often used only a few minutes after it has left the cow too. Fresh fruit or natural fruit paste is used to flavour fruit ice creams and if a flavour is described as “Bailey’s Irish Liqueur”, that’s exactly what it contains. Susan makes all the usual flavours, but supplements them with seasonal flavours: damson ice cream made from Herefordshire damsons is a particular Autumn favourite and other seasonal choices include lavender, Herefordshire cider and Christmas pudding.

In the season the Jones’s spend three days a week making ice cream and four days out and about selling it. They take their ice cream van to as many as five events per day, including farmers’ markets, fetes and sports events. They also offer a delivery service. Finally, their ice cream is stocked in local shops and restaurants. The venture is so successful that even though the Jones’s don’t have a parlour, just 5% of their milk adds 50% to their milk income!