FROZEN ASSETS ICE CREAM QUEEN BROADENS HER SCOOP C ream always rises to the top. But Anola-area dairy farmer Lisa Dyck’s premium Cornell Creme ice cream seems to be shooting for the moon. Since her first litre of premium ice cream landed in retail stores in May 2013, business has grown by several degrees. “Leaps and bounds, actually. I could probably grow more but I’m just waiting to move to a different plant,” Dyck says. Using milk that comes directly from cows on her and husband William’s 1,000-acre Cornell Dairy farm, Cornell Creme is made from natural ingredients, starting with a custard base of milk, cream, eggs and sugar. The company makes about 600 litres per production run at the University of Manitoba’s Dairy Pilot Plant, but she hopes to move
production to a dairy processing plant in central Manitoba. The move would benefit both businesses, saving her the cost of buying equipment, and giving the existing processor an extra source of income. “If he can fit us into his production schedule, we’re able to probably at the very least double production,” she says. Cornell Creme’s original menu of flavours included beer-lovers’ Malty Pale Ale, Lemon Meringue and Velvety Chocolate Truffle, and it’s growing all the time. In early May, her honey-mustard flavour was a hit with chefs at the Great Manitoba Food Fight at Red River College. And Dyck wants to add mango for summer and pumpkin for fall, along with peppermint, coffee-maple and, possibly, a new beer flavour using Manitoba-made Farmery Brewery products. Dyck has been active in initiatives including Open Farm Day, the CEO Sleepout fundraiser for Change for the Better, the Love Local Manitoba Beer, Wine & Food Festival and other events. She’ll be a presenter at the GoMedia Canada Marketplace in Winnipeg Aug. 17-21, and from June 2-6, she’s joining Manitoba’s trade mission to Futurallia business-to- business networking events in Paris, Normandy and Lyon, France. Hard to believe she got her start just two years ago, when her family gave her an ice cream maker as a gift. Her ice cream was such a hit, she researched the business and decided to go into production on a larger scale. Through a Dairy Farmers of Manitoba program, she and William became Manitoba’s first producer-processors. Since they’d been running the farm together for 20 years, the couple already had a strong business background, along with an accounting firm and a corporate lawyer in place. But Lisa, 46, had always wanted to produce something of her own, and ice cream turned out to be her niche.
“I knew one day I would find that fit, it just took me a bit longer to find it,” she says. Cornell Creme ice cream is sold at several stores and restaurants in Winnipeg, Steinbach, Beausejour
and other centres. Visit www. cornellcreme.com to find a retailer near you.
Full Moo: Dairy farmer Lisa Dyck and her husband William became Manitoba’s first dairy producer- processors last year. Photos courtesy of Cornell Creme
30 MBiz May 2014
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