Stensland Family Farms, dates back over a hundred years. Jason Stensland says his great great grandfather homesteaded the farm near the Northwest Iowa town of Larchwood.
The Stensland’s are grain farmers, and they ran a dairy operation for 20 years. However, in 2015 they started their own creamery, which currently involves 10 family members. Jason says they added the creamery by necessity. “Our story is trying to survive on the farm and vertically integrate ourselves so then we can keep the the heritage going and our family farm going and providing for our families.”
The ice cream production is done right on the farm and is overseen by Jason’s twin brother, Justin. “We’ll make about 1,400 quarts today and we do that two to three times a week roughly.” The family produces 70,000 to 80,000 quarts of premium ice cream annually using a small batch process. Justin says it starts with their base ice cream mix. “You dump that into an ice cream machine and then depending on the flavor you’re making and then you add your ingredients. You mix it all up and it takes about 10 minutes to make a batch and it comes out like soft serve.” He says it then goes into the freezer for 18 to 24 hours at -25° to harden.”…