Los Angeles Shop Churns Ice Cream by Bicycle Pedaling

The ice cream shop joins the man-powered vending machine in the ever growing list of pedal-powered gadgets.

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Peddler's Creamery / Facebook Page

Now that the cupcake wars are over, let’s get back to obsessing over ice cream. Peddler’s Creamery, which just opened up in L.A.’s Historic Core neighborhood, relies entirely on in-house bike pedaling to churn their stock of organic dairy and non-dairy ice cream and sorbet.

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In an interview with the Atlantic, owner Edward Belden, reveals that it only takes about 3-4 miles–or about 15-20 minutes–of pedaling on an old Schwinn bike mounted on rollers to freeze a 5-gallon batch, with flavors ranging from vanilla to Mexican chocolate to fig ginger. The bike is set up in the front room with a chain running through the wall to the back where it is connected to an ice cream churn, according to L.A.’s blogdowntown.com.

Built to environmentally friendly LEED standards, the store is the product of a three year journey, beginning with Belden taking an ice-cream creation class at the University of Wisconsin and then churning ice cream on the back of his modified tricycle. With one scoop at $3.50 or two for $6.50, 5% of profits go toward social and environmental programs, like the fair trade Dominican Republic farmers who supply chocolate to the shop.