News
Governor celebrates Pride Dairy ice cream
Scott Wagar
03/10/2015
Bottineau’s Pride Dairy just spent a day at the State Capitol due to a new flavor of ice cream made by the local creamery which has become the official ice cream for a very special occasion taking place in the state this year.
Jeff Beyer, owner of Pride Dairy, said the new flavor is S’mores ice cream and it has been chosen by the North Dakota Parks and Recreation Department (NDPR) as its official ice cream for its 50th anniversary which is being celebrated this year.
“We actually started about two years ago when Brad Pozarnsky, the field manager for North Dakota Parks and Recreation, approached me and told me that it was the state parks’ 50th anniversary in a couple of years and wanted to know if I would be willing to work with them to develop a special ice cream just for this occasion,” Beyer said. “So, we tried six, seven different combinations of stuff and we finally settled on S’mores ice cream.
“So, we made a few batches of it and gave it to them and they gave it to their state officials and they liked it,” Beyer added. “We then went ahead with the process and finished developing it and getting the logo and everything they wanted for the ice cream.”
In February, Beyer was invited down to the state capitol to present the ice cream flavor and was given the opportunity to meet all the legislators and share the ice cream with them.
Prior to setting up for the kick-off event, Beyer brought a number of Pride’s famous cow pies made with the S’mores ice cream to give to Gov. Jack Dalrymple. However, when Beyer went into the governor’s office Dalrymple was in a meeting and he wasn’t able to meet him. So, Beyer left the cow pies in his office, which were given to the governor, which he shared with those he was having a meeting with at the time.
Dalrymple was so impressed with Pride’s S’mores ice cream that after his meeting he went out of his office to find Beyer to tell him how much he enjoyed his ice cream.
“He came up to me and told me how much he liked our ice cream and wanted to know if he could have some more,” Beyer said.
“So, we were honored to give him some more of it and he was kind enough to do a photo-op with me holding our Pride Dairy ice cream.”
This summer NDPR will be selling the S’mores ice cream at four of its parks in celebration of the parks’ anniversary in the state. The plans are to eventually have every park in the state selling the ice cream.
The S’mores flavor ice cream is created from a chocolate base ice cream with a marshmallow cream through it and pieces of Hershey chocolate and chucks of graham crackers in it.
At the present moment, the S’mores flavor ice cream isn’t being sold at the creamery because NDPR has an exclusive contract with Pride Dairy for one year to only sell it in its parks. However, the ice cream will be sold at Pride Dairy for all to enjoy once the contract ends.
Beyer is pleased with how the S’mores ice cream project has worked out for the creamery.
“It’s been pretty neat for us,” he said. “It has given us the opportunity to gain a lot of exposure.”