By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com

With so many different ice cream flavors to choose from one would be hard pressed to find a new flavor to try, however at the inaugural Bucyrus Baconfest one local ice cream confectioner might have something few have tried before.

Mark’s Homemade Ice Cream will be concocting a special recipe just for the festival. With bacon being the theme, they will be unveiling a maple and bacon ice cream. Mark’s Homemade Ice Cream’s Mark Pfeifer explained how his company came about this newest creation.

“For the Baconfest we made a maple and bacon ice cream,” Pfeifer said. “My dad is a part of this business, and he always has some unique ideas. We talked about a bacon flavor, we thought about it, but never really had a reason to research and make it. But then the Baconfest came up, and that is how we decided we were going to go for it. We weren’t exactly sure what we wanted to do, but we decided maple flavor and bacon go pretty well together, and that is kind of how we came to this flavor.”

Pfeifer, who purchased an ice cream maker in January, experimented with various recipes before summer rolled around. Pfeifer explained that the need of a commercial kitchen led to his fledgling business doing business with a local event center.

“We needed to find a commercial kitchen; an approved kitchen by the health department. We were looking around for a place where we could make our ice cream and that is how we ended up at Trillium Event Center just to start selling stuff through custom orders,” Pfeifer explained.

Pifer explained that working with the Trillium Event Center has been a great experience.

“It has been fantastic. Dick Gervais, who manages it, has been super helpful, super encouraging, for us starting out,” Pfeifer explained. “We can go in there in the mornings, make our ice cream, and store it there. It is a pretty symbiotic relationship. They have used our ice cream several times. So Trillium has been great, and good people.”

Pfeifer explained his favorite part of running an ice cream business.

“Aside from actually make it, I love seeing people’s first reaction trying it,” Pfeifer said. “It is a high quality ice cream that you wouldn’t expect it from a local producer, but it takes just as good as your higher quality ones like Haggen Das, or Ben & Jerry’s, just as good if not better in some people’s opinion.”

Pfeifer, who is in his third year at the University of Akron studying business communications, explained that after graduation he hopes to grow Mark’s Homemade Ice Cream.

“When I graduate school I hope to grow the Mark’s Homemade brand. Not exactly sure what the future looks like, but hopefully have a store front, do some wholesaling to different places. We are not exactly sure what we will do, but that is what I plan to do after I graduate is grow Mark’s Homemade.”

Pfeifer explained that growing up around the dairy farm led to his love of ice cream making.

“I grew up on the dairy farm my whole life, just recently we decided we were going to retire from that and sell our part of the farm. So my whole life I have been around dairy. I think that’s kind of where the ice cream started out from.”

Mark’s Homemade Ice Cream features a three-part mission statement. Pfeifer explained his mission statement.

“Our mission statement is to promote the dairy industry, to make quality ice cream, and to show Christ’s love through service. So the promoting the dairy industry has always been very important to me and making sure that people know that the food they are eating is safely produced and healthy for them.”

Mark’s Homemade Ice Cream currently offers a wide variety of flavors to choose from. Pfeifer noted that his most popular flavor surprisingly is not vanilla, but actually peanut butter.

For more information on Mark’s Homemade Ice Cream visit their webpage at http://markshomemadeicecream.com/, or visit their Facebook page.