Ryan & Geri-Martha O'Hara met at Bottega, a Birmingham restaurant know for their impeccable food, drinks & historic atmosphere. Ryan was working as a line cook & Geri-Martha as a pastry chef. After several failed attempts at catching Geri-Martha's eye, Ryan didn't give up and eventually won her heart. They were engaged on the balcony of Bottega in April of 2013 & married last year.
The idea for Big Spoon came while they were dating. Both were passionate about artisan ice cream and felt like there was a void for it in Birmingham. Ideas for Big Spoon began to form. They wanted to start small and build a company that fit their vision & dreams with a superior product. They spun their first batch of ice cream July 4th weekend of 2014 and have been growing exponentially ever since.
What makes Big Spoon special is not just the punch in the taste buds you'll get every time you take a bite but, they source all their ingredients locally. Fresh milk & cream from Wright Dairy, locally roasted coffee from Octane & Revelator, fresh produce from local farmers and even local honey. It's as fresh as fresh can be. They use no preservatives and keep batches small. Egg yolks create a rich texture reminiscent of the summer nights of your childhood spent eating homemade ice cream.
Production happens weekly at a small professional grade kitchen the couple rents out. Here you can find them hand stamping labels, taste testing new flavors & packaging freshly spun ice cream.
Their Ice Cream of the Month Club offers customers their newest seasonal concoctions delivered directly to their door once a month. At $16/month or $14 for a year subscription we can attest that it's well worth every dime! They also cater for weddings, parties & special events. You can find them selling at Pepper Place and hopefully bringing their cart to your local business during lunch hours soon! Who doesn't love an ice cream break?!
Ultimately, Ryan & Geri-Martha want to not only serve ice cream to their community but also serve the community by giving back. By building relationships & fostering a love for small business they hope to bring dreams & inspiration to local youth.
We thought we'd introduce you to a few of the stars of Big Spoon Creamery. We had the privilege to photographing some of their delicious flavors and came up with the idea of shooting them on sheets of ice. We love the way they turned out!
First up is their Banana ice cream: Egg-less ice cream base with fresh bananas pureed & spun in. Topped off with homemade salted peanut brittle.
One of our favorites is the Almond Coffee Toffee: locally roasted Octane coffee ice cream mixed with handmade chocolate almond toffee.
For a spin on the popular latin drink, Horchata offers a refreshing flavor: Steeped milk & cream with rice & cinnamon.
And lastly but definitely not least, Paris Tea: Harney & Sons Paris Tea leaves steeped in milk & cream before being spun. Clean & simple.
We asked the O'Haras a few questions to get to know them better.
What is the funniest story involving Big Spoon?
It is still funny that we started this company with a pop-up in our driveway scooping ice cream out of an old school chest freezer. We don't know how or why, but it worked! Here we are today and we can't believe how far we've come since that day!
What are your individual favorite flavors?
Ryan- I'm all about sweet & salty! Anything with nuts, peanut butter, salted caramel, etc. is up my alley. I also love to do new takes on childhood favorites. We made a cherry cola ice cream one time that tasted just like the coke floats I drank as a kid. That was definitely up there on the list!
Geri-Martha- Anything with Meyer lemon!
Since you spend a lot of time spinning ice cream, what music do you keep spinning to help you through those long days? (See what we did there?)
Ice cream is supposed to be fun, so we like to have as much fun as possible in the kitchen. We listen to a lot of old school stuff like Aretha, Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson & Percy Sledge. It's hard not to be happy when you're spinning ice cream & dancing in the kitchen!
We've loved getting to work with & get to know the Ryan & Geri-Martha and are excited where they're headed for 2015! Keep an eye out for these two & grab a pint when you can! You'll never look at ice cream the same way again!
Check them out on Facebook or e-mail bigspoonbham@gmail.com!
Until next time! Keep spinning, keep dreaming!
Spark & Arrow
(Photography & Styling by Spark & Arrow)
These two lovelies are a class act. Their hearts are as big as their flavors, and trust me that is huge!
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