COLUMBUS, Ohio — The average American eats about 20 pounds of ice cream a year, according to the International Dairy Foods Association, with one company in Ohio churning out more than five million gallons of the sweet treat annually.
The business is a family tradition and now in its fourth generation of ownership, and two sisters are making history at the head of the company.
For Joanne Dager, home is where the ice cream is.
“I’m gonna be here forever,” she said. “It’s in my blood.”
The vice president of Velvet Ice Cream follows an old family recipe to make one of the company’s signature sundaes.
“My uncle back 40 years ago had this on the menu,” she said. “And this is one menu item that’s always been a staple.”
It’s called the feed bin and with 14 scoops of ice cream and other toppings, it’s a showstopper.
“Some families have come in and they’ve made it a family tradition to where they just eat it all together,” she said.
Family is what Velvet Ice Cream is all about.
Founded by their great-grandfather in the early 1900s, Joanne and her sister Luconda are keeping the Utica ice creamery churning as the first females to run the company.
“Humbling, really,” Luconda said.
Luconda’s the oldest of four girls and the company president. She was essentially born for the role.
“This was the first place my dad brought me when I came from the hospital,” she said. “So, when you’re like first born into the family, it’s like, let’s take her to the plant!”
But it was after going away to college and getting a job outside the business she realized following her family’s footsteps was where she belonged.
“I wrote my father a letter and said I’d like to come ack and work for the family business, and that’s kind of how it all happened,” she said. “He never asked us to come in, he never put pressure on us.”
But pressure is what it takes to dish out the frozen treat in the ice cream parlor where Joanne perfected her technique, circling the inside edge of the container. She admitted she’s gotten a lot of practice over the years.
“I’ve been doing it since I was about 12 years old,” she said.
With her, and Luconda’s, kids now learning the ropes as the fifth generation. They’re getting a taste for continuing in the family tradition.
While leading the business, the Dager sisters expanded the company’s reach from primarily central and southern Ohio north to Cleveland and neighboring states.
With the treat a part of Joanne’s daily diet.
“Definitely we see a trend May through October and through the holidays, but I eat ice cream every day,” Joanne said. “I really do.”
Velvet Ice Cream’s parlor in Ye Olde Mill at their Utica headquarters will open for the season May 2.
