Advertisement

Los Angeles shop churns ice cream by bike pedalling

Los Angeles shop churns ice cream by bike pedalling

We'd all be in much better shape if we had to peddle for our ice cream.

Employees at one California ice cream shop do just that, churning its organic dairy and non-dairy ice creams and frozen desserts with an in-house bike-pedalling system.

Peddler's Creamery recently opened in L.A.'s Historic Core neighbourhood — owner Edward Belden wanted to be part of the previously down-and-out area's revitalization — and uses good old-fashioned manpower to create its frozen treats.

Watch the original Kickstarter video for the company below:

"It might sound impractical at first, but according to owner Edward Belden, it only takes about 3-4 miles of pedalling (aboard an old Schwinn bike mounted on rollers) to freeze a 5-gallon batch of Mexican chocolate ice cream, salted caramel non-dairy vegan dessert, or strawberry-basil sorbet. If you’re going at a decent clip, that’ll take about 15 minutes. Belden says it’s no problem, for now, to keep his freezers stocked," writes the Atlantic's Sarah Goodyear.

"Bicycling is something I’ve been interested in since I was a kid," Belden, who took an ice-cream creation class at the University of Wisconsin, tells the Atlantic. "And I've been into ice cream since high school. My first job was at a Baskin-Robbins. I’ve been trying to figure out how to put those things together."

While it might be tempting to ask for a ride, customers are currently not welcome to pedal at the shop. Belden wants to maintain a consistent product: pedalling too quickly or with jerky movements can negatively affect the final product.

According to L.A.'s blogdowntown.com, Belden hopes to eventually set up a system that would allow customers to churn their own batches of ice cream to take home.

As a Benefit Corporation, 5 per cent of Peddler's Creamery profits go toward social and environmental programs, like the fair-trade Dominican Republic farmers who supply chocolate to the shop, TIME reports.