35 years ago Peter and Hazel Hartle ran a 60 Friesian dairy herd on 126 acres directly opposite the historic remains of Corfe Castle in the heart of Dorset, along with the variable ‘help’ from their three boys of 6 months, 1 & 2 years of age.

However, with the introduction of milk quotas they found it impossible to maintain the farm as a viable enterprise and had to come up with something pretty fast that they could do with their lovely milk that didn’t result in penalties for over production or tread on anyone’s toes by embarking on a venture which was already being done locally.  As they had developed quite a passion for ‘ice cream crawls’, it seemed a natural progression to make their own ice cream… but so much better than anything they had ever come across on their ‘crawls’.

They were adamant from the start that their ice cream should be utterly natural with no artificial additives and most certainly not coloured – who needs a ‘fairy liquid green’ in their mint ice cream! After they hit upon ice cream they beavered away finding out everything to know about what they were getting into… they were in for a few shocks along the way!

Peter & Hazel took turns in milking and skimming some of the milk for double cream to make super ice cream.  They would flip a coin to decide who would drive off in the little van complete with chest freezer in the back to deliver to anyone they could find locally who showed an interest.  This was the beginnings of Purbeck Ice Cream!

And now…

We celebrated this momentous occasion in October, and had such a great night. Let’s face it, we don’t need much of an excuse to party and Pete & Hazel are always one to share their celebrations and gratitude with the wonderful team we have. A big thank you to The Salt Pig Swanage for the great food, service and venue! A little excerpt of the evening (which luckily for you doesn’t include the well prepared/rehearsed ‘in tune’ song from the team) – click here.