Getting the Scoop on Lopez Island

Emma and Sean, ready to serve up some delicious scoops on Lopez Island

Regarding weekend rituals in the PNW, there is: every form of outdoor activity, afternoons spent basking in the sun or huddled inside at a brewery, and, of course, outings to this region's untold number of farmers markets. I will concede that I indulge in a farmers market romp more frequently than most, and while I do enjoy returning to the same farmers, there’s also the delightful experience of encountering a new one. This is especially true if the farmers market is outside of Seattle and even more so if it’s on an island and almost everything is produced there. So, I was a kid in a candy store on a recent visit to the Lopez Island farmers’ market. Usually, in a situation like this, I would do a few exploratory laps to survey the options and avoid spending an entire week's salary in a mushroom-cider-sourdough purchasing frenzy. But on lap one, I noticed scores of people, young and old, sitting at picnic tables or just standing still, almost in a trance. They were all wielding ice cream cones. When my gaze lingered a little too long on one man's cone, he announced what I had already surmised: "It’s so good.”

All restraint melting rapidly, my shrewd frozen treat senses led me to Pine Tree Creamery. I stood behind a handful of eager customers and surveyed the flavor offerings: Wild Nootka Rose, Rosemary Olive Oil, Mint Chip, and Vanilla. And fear not, reader, if you are intrigued by wild nootka rose but are not ready to commit to the full scoop because what is wild nootka rose, Pine Tree Creamery is more than happy to offer tasters. After taking full advantage of this offering, I settled on rosemary olive oil. 

The great ice cream handoff

As I chatted with Emma and Sean, the brains and palettes behind Pine Tree, I learned that this was only their fifth week at the farmers market, which made it their fifth week in the ice cream business. It was a hot day and I was hungry, but at first lick, I could tell this ice cream was something else. It was light and velvety, almost like a gelato. The flavors were crisp but not overpowering. There was no residual oiliness. And the cone was no second fiddle. It was crispy and nutty and warm. Now, I consider myself a devoted ice cream hobbyist. I have never turned down ice cream on principle, and I try to maintain a healthy cadence of 1-2 cones per week during the summer. And I can confidently say this is the best ice cream I have ever had. Never before have I come so close to getting a second cone in rapid succession. And they had only been making ice cream for a little over a month?! 

I had to learn more. So, a few weeks later, I called Emma and Sean to chat about their operation and how they cracked the ice cream-making code.   

Emma is from Seattle, and Sean is from New Hampshire. They have always worked outdoors, but a few years ago, they started getting more interested in the climate impacts of food and how to get the most nutrient-dense food for themselves and their communities. Realizing that the intersection of all these themes was farming, they started working on a farm on Lopez Island through the Washington Land Trust and quickly got to know the island’s rich agricultural community. Today, Emma works at Watmough Bay Farm on Lopez, and Sean works as a tree biologist, carpenter, and, as of this summer, ice cream maker. 

Emma and Sean started making ice cream when many people started making banana bread and kombucha. But instead of relegating ice cream making to a pandemic hobby, they decided to invest in a higher-end ice cream maker in April of this year. Soon after, Sean attended a Lopez Island farmers market meeting where he floated the idea of selling ice cream at the market. The suggestion was met with overwhelming encouragement. Ice cream would not only draw people to the market, but customers would hang out and survey the other booths as they worked through their cones. A woman from Taproot Community Kitchen offered to help Sean get started. By June, he was ready to sell at the market, which is where I found him. 

Sean pausing for a picture with a fan after collecting mint

The list of Pine Tree Creamery ingredients sounds like something straight out of a Portlandia sketch. The eggs used to make the custard base are from pasture-raised chickens on Lopez, and the ice cream is sweetened with pure wildflower honey. The cones are made from freshly milled flour from Barn Own Bakery, a craft bakery and heritage grain farm on Lopez. Sean noted that freshly milled wheat flour has a higher nutritional content (high levels of fiber, proteins, and enzymes that aid in digestion) and better flavor than store-bought varieties. The nootka rose is a wild rose with Barbie pink flowers that grows on Lopez. Shawn hand-harvested the roses as well as the rosemary and the mint for the other flavors. In addition to making ice cream that tastes delicious and has an impressive nutrition profile, Sean also enjoys watching people indulge in flavors they have never tried before. He recently concocted a Douglas Fir tip flavor, which was a huge hit. In short, each lick is saturated with the flavors of Lopez Island. 

Sean harvesting pine tips

Sean and Emma’s ice cream philosophy is grounded in the ethos of hyper-local clean food, and there are many reasons for this. Buying food locally supports farmers and contributes to the local economy. Locally sourced food is also usually fresher, which usually means better flavor and nutrient density. There can be improved carbon footprint equations (though it is complicated) depending on what the food is and where it’s coming from. One of the biggest knocks on local sourcing is that it’s more expensive. But Sean and Emma pointed out that food is expensive. It’s a longer and more complicated conversation about what crops get subsidized in the US, but Americans spend less on food than in any other country. We have cheap food down to a science, but Sean and Emma encouraged me to consider what we’ve lost as a result. 

Cheaper food devoid of nutrition comes with steep healthcare and environmental costs. Over 40 percent of adults and around 20 percent of adolescents and children are obese, and heart disease (correlated with diet) causes one in every five deaths in the US. While Americans spent $2.4 trillion on food in 2022 they also incurred $4.4 trillion in healthcare costs. If we were to think about food in terms of nutritional content per dollar the equation starts to shift. The industrialization of agriculture has also led to a loss of food diversity, extensive environmental degradation, and high levels of food waste.

There is also a significant disconnect for many of us about where our food comes from, the implications of which are not usually fully appreciated. Food is connected to place and culture. Understanding what it takes to produce food generates an appreciation for the land and the valuable resources it entails. Without those connections, we are left with food that is detached from where it came from and its impact on us, our communities, and the planet. 

Sean and Emma’s vision for a hyper-local, nutrient-packed food system might seem idealistic, but it might just work in a place like Lopez Island. Lopez is unique both in its cultural focus on the local food economy and because its small island nature makes importing food just hard and expensive enough to incentivize more investment in a local system. But there are still many ways we can carry that ethos into our day-to-day lives as urban dwellers by prioritizing the products that make sense to grow and purchase locally. According to Sean, “So much of the news is focused on our destructive power as a species that we forget about our and nature’s ability to heal and nourish.”

When I asked Sean and Emma about their long-term vision, I was introduced to the delightful term “Ice Cream Farm.” They hope to one day have a micro dairy and farm where they can produce 100 percent of the ice cream ingredients locally, and educate visitors about the benefits of local food. In terms of the immediate future, Sean is experimenting with squash and pumpkin for the fall. He is also working on a “hokey pokey” flavor, which originates from New Zealand and contains chunks of crispy honey. His favorite flavor, cake batter, is not usually associated with nutritious food options, but he plans on figuring out his own take on it.

Three very happy Pine Tree Creamery customers

And then there’s the question everyone who tries Pine Tree Creamery wants to know: “Can I buy a pint to take home?” For now, no. Sean and Emma can barely keep up with farmers' market demand. At some point, they would like to do private events like weddings and family get-togethers where they can roll up with an ice cream cart. But beyond that, Emma and Sean enjoy being somewhat ephemeral. People can only find them at the farmers market on Saturdays, so they show up. While holding a cone, they will peruse the other food vendors and artisans, maybe buy some eggs and freshly milled flour, and meet a farmer or neighbor. 

When I asked Sean and Emma why they chose ice cream as a vehicle to share their love of high-quality local food, I was met with baffled looks. Why ice cream? Does anyone need to ask?