Inspiring Tassie family enjoys some sweet success
The incredible story of how one Tassie family built their ice cream empire from a second hand soft serve machine to their very own shop front.
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The way out from Struggle Street is paved with ice cream.
So far, so true, for Martin and Emma Hamilton.
Income insecurity came early in the couple’s marriage.
Seventeen years ago they were on their honeymoon in New Zealand when Martin received a phone call to say his casual job at a call centre was his no longer.
The following year, their son William was born, then came Alex, now 13, Susan 12, and Amy 5.
Three of the children are on the autism spectrum, which means a time-consuming and expensive round of appointments. Plus, they decided to home-school all the children.
Emma said sometimes it feels as her life is spent in waiting rooms – at the speech therapist’s, the doctor’s, the occupational therapist’s. Plus there are all the activities to round out the children’s social lives – Girl Guides, swimming, piano lessons.
Martin spent more time as a chauffeur than a breadwinner. Although he had trained as a chef, eventually specialising in patisserie, he was not working in that field but in door-to-door sales, instructing in martial arts and as a mobile DJ, among many casual jobs that would fit with the demanding family schedule.
Often they were reliant on Centrelink payments and it was a struggle to make the rent.
Alex was a big fan of TV shows such as Gourmet Farmer and River Cottage.
About six years ago he told his parents he wanted to have a family farm and make food and sell it to people.
Emma said: “We want to give our children the opportunity to follow their dreams, but this was so far out of our range.”
Growing food would not happen at their rental home in Westbury, but they did not want to tell Alex that it couldn’t be done.
Some time later, Martin decided to go back to cooking, specifically to his go-to food, ice cream. Over six months they saved $1000 and bought a second-hand Mr Whippy soft-serve machine and hired the commercial kitchen at Deloraine High School.
They called their enterprise The Devil’s Own Ice Creamery, and began donating a percentage of sales every month to the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program.
Their first venture selling ice cream was at a fete at Westbury Primary School. They made $800 and felt they were on their way.
Their second outing a month later was at Deloraine Show on a windy, miserable day that wrecked their marquee, and all the takings went to replacing that.
As with so much in their life, they were doing things the hard way. First they had to fit around the hours the school kitchen was available to them – often early in the morning.
When they went to events they would be at the school at 4am to load the ice cream on to a box trailer, along with chairs and tables. Then they would drive to the venue, where it could take two hours to unload the trailer and set everything up, including two 25-litre jugs of water brought from home. It took another hour to pack up.
They became clients of Many Rivers, a national service that helps people with no or low incomes start businesses. Their mentor at Many Rivers pointed the Hamiltons to Seedlab, the business incubator program founded by Hazel MacTavish-West.
They were accepted into Seedlab, which pointed them to the availability of loans from State Growth, and wrote supporting their application.
They were awarded a loan and just before last Christmas, bought a food van. Now, only the ice cream had to be loaded before an event and once at the venue, they flicked a switch and were ready to serve within 15 minutes of arriving – with hot and cold water on tap.
The Seedlab training helped them transform from a hobby pop-up to proper business, Martin says.
Emma was the one to attend most of the Seedlab talks and masterclasses on Zoom. One presenter particularly grabbed her attention – Tamsyn Murray of Josh’s Rainbow Eggs in Victoria. She was not only was part of a mother-son business – her son Josh began the business when he was only nine – but was another home educator.
The Hamiltons make all their ice creams from scratch. For the Cookies and Cream flavour, they first make the cookies. They are similar to Oreo biscuits, but gluten-free, as are all the Devil’s Own products. They make lemon curd and meringue before they can start putting their Lemon Meringue ice cream together. This and Pavlova are the only ice creams that contain eggs.
They buy berries locally in summer and freeze them for later use and don’t stint on other ingredients – the whiskey in Irish Whiskey ice cream is 10 years old from Bushmills, the oldest distillery in Ireland, and a 12-year-old Armagnac laces the caramel sauce in French Indulgence ice cream.
Ideally, on the two or three days a week they make ice cream, they liked to have a full day at it, which was not always possible at the high school. And with such a production set up they could not apply to the Tasmanian Dairy Industry Authority for a wholesale licence to sell their ice cream to retailers.
They searched for a commercial kitchen and found the former Smokey Joe’s restaurant in Lawrence St, Launceston. The cafe set-up got them thinking they could use it for more than a production facility.
Last month they opened The Devil’s Own Ice Creamery selling direct to the public from noon Fridays to Sundays.
Each weekend they have 13 ice creams from their range of 85 different flavours and three sorbets, as well as savoury and dessert offerings, and drinks, including chocolate made with their own ganache.
A private dining room has become a school room, as the juggling act of educating the children while earning a living takes more than several leaps forward.●
Elaine Reeves is a freelance food writer who has done some work for Seedlab.
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