Ice Cream Social

David Boyer
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Society & Culture

Ice cream is universally joyful, and Ice Cream Social is here to prove it. Hosted by David Boyer, owner of Jupiter Moon Ice Cream, this podcast explores the sweet intersection of ice cream and community. From what makes a great flavor to the memories tied to your first cone, every episode digs into the stories, the people, and the moments that make ice cream more than just dessert. Whether you're a small business owner in the food industry, a local community builder, or just someone who thinks about ice cream way more than the average person (no judgment), this show is for you. David brings the perspective of a hands-on ice cream shop owner running two locations, a busy mobile event business, and more on the way, so the conversations are grounded, real, and genuinely fun. New episodes drop regularly. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, leave a five-star review if you're loving it, and share it with someone who deserves a little more joy in their feed. Because everybody has an ice cream story. What's yours? https://www.jupitermoonicecream.com/

  1. 1d ago

    How to Handle Bunnies, Doubters, and Grumblers: Community Building Lessons From Tracy Ore

    Takeaways Think big and share the load. Tracy Ore wants to essentially take over the block around the St. Cloud State University Community Garden, and she is bringing in students, the tech college, and partners so the project is not just hers.If you give people what they need, the doubters lose their argument. Tracy's bunny rule: plant 100 cauliflower, then another 100, and around 300 the bunnies get full. She takes the same attitude with people.Ice cream makers and gardeners make great collaborators. Freeze-dried strawberries keep water out of ice cream, and a garden with a giant freeze-dryer, plenty of habaneros, and strawberry basil makes for some serious flavor ideas.Summary of the episode In Part 3 of this conversation on Ice Cream Social, host David Boyer asks Tracy Ore, professor of sociology and director of the community garden at St. Cloud State University, about her ultimate growth plan. She would like to essentially take over the block, acquiring the house next to the garden and redoing it sustainably with solar power and technology designed by students. She is also talking with the tech college about students who could develop a business plan and a marketing plan for the space, and she wants more partners involved so the project is not just hers. Tracy says city officials have told her they want to incorporate the garden into plans to redo the street rather than pave over it, and David describes the garden as a bulwark against encroachments. Then David asks his favorite question: what was your favorite ice cream flavor at six years old? Tracy remembers family reunions in North Carolina, where her father made hand-cranked banana ice cream with rock salt in the yard. As an adult she is not a sweets person and prefers savory flavors, salty and sweet combinations with toffee, pistachio, and strong black licorice, and she enjoyed the strawberry basil that Jupiter Moon made. David shares the flavor he wants to flat out copy: a Ritz cracker toffee ice cream with chocolate swirls and caramel from Holy Cow Ice Cream, which won the tasting at the ice cream conference he attends every year. The two talk spicy ice cream, agreeing that dairy counteracts heat. David lists Aztec chocolate, mango habanero, and a Mexican street corn ice cream he sold only out of the trailer ("I loved it. Nobody else bought it."), and Tracy offers habaneros from the garden and describes the chili blend she makes from all of the garden's hot peppers. They then plan a winter collaboration around freeze-drying. David explains why water is the enemy in ice cream and how a freeze-dried strawberry gives strawberry flavor without little ice chunks, and Tracy has a giant freeze-dryer and locally grown strawberries ready to go, plus the chance to make astronaut ice cream. The conversation closes with the early believers who backed the garden from day one and the doubters who predicted people would just take advantage. Tracy's bunny story sums up her philosophy of giving people, and bunnies, what they need. Both agree that grumblers exist, that it takes a community effort to keep them from being the loudest voice in the room, and that optimism is a choice worth making. https://www.jupitermoonicecream.com/

  2. Sep 30

    Garden Lady: How 20 Years of Showing Up Earned a Professor a Place in Her Community with Tracy Ore

    Takeaways Big ideas can take years, so keep saying them out loud. Tracy Ore talked about creating a tomato unique to St. Cloud State from 2010 until a botanist arrived in 2022 and said it was easy, and now students have made more than 2,000 crosses.A garden with no fences, no fees, and no application can work. After 20 years, Tracy has seen people contribute well beyond what they take, the opposite of the tragedy of the commons.Community projects need a succession plan. Tracy is raising money to hire an executive director who can shadow her and carry the garden's core principles forward, so the work lasts beyond any one person.Summary of the episode In Part 2 of this conversation on Ice Cream Social, host David Boyer and Tracy Ore, professor of sociology and director of the community garden at St. Cloud State University, dig into the Husky tomato. The name honors the university mascot, though Tracy admits a different husky tomato already exists, so a tweak like "husky red and black tomato" may be coming. Tracy had pitched the idea of a tomato unique to campus since 2010, until Dr. Angela McDonnell, a botanist and biology professor who had just been cross-pollinating eggplants, arrived in 2022 and told her it was easy. Students and faculty started with striped and black tomato varieties and have now completed more than 2,000 crosses across four generations, with students presenting their work at conferences. The goal is a flavorful, attractive, consistent black and red tomato about the size of a cocktail tomato. This summer they planted seven seed sets, labeled them in secret, and Tracy and Dr. McDonnell each independently identified two seed sets they wanted. One selection is now growing in the greenhouse, and its very dark purple seedlings showed off a plant science concept called hybrid vigor. Tracy describes the flavor as sweeter and deeper than most tomatoes, great on a sandwich, and David is already dreaming of a tomato ice cream. He mentions that Crew has recently been experimenting with tomato ice cream of their own. The conversation then tours the rest of the garden: 20 varieties of okra, 30 varieties of eggplant, nearly 100 varieties of hot peppers, bitter melon, snake gourd, 12 kinds of basil, shiso, lemongrass, lemon balm, lemon verbena, and house-made tea blends. Tracy grows a wide diversity of plants so that no matter who walks in, they see something familiar, and she delivers herbs regularly to local businesses. Looking back on 20-plus years, Tracy shares a Grace Lee Boggs line from her email footer about staying in one place being the most radical thing she ever did. Staying put has given her a foundation and a community that shows up when things get hard. She shares a funny story about being greeted as "Garden lady" by the food sample guy at Costco, and says she feels she has earned a respectable place in the community and has the best job in the world. The episode wraps up with the future. David is eager to build serious ice cream collaborations with the garden, following the strawberry basil flavor Jupiter Moon made last year. Tracy shares her vision for The Commons, a house between the gardens that would become a food education and food preservation center with a cafe run by a tech college culinary arts program, plus a professional kitchen for community gatherings and ice cream collaborations. She is giving herself four years to raise money for an executive director, and has dreams of hiring a chief jam officer. Part 3 arrives next week. https://www.jupitermoonicecream.com/

  3. Sep 23

    Stay Long Enough to Name Its Problems: Community Building Lessons From a Community Garden with Tracy Ore

    Mentioned in this show: PBS Doc on Grace Lee Boggs: https://www.pbs.org/video/pov-american-revolutionary-meet-grace-lee-boggs/ Grace Lee Boggs children's book: https://link.amazon/B01TZGEbm Takeaways Real community change starts when you stay put. Tracy Ore's mentor challenged her to stay in one place long enough to name its problems with authority, and that challenge turned into a community garden that is still growing 20 years later.You do not need to know how to do something before you start. Tracy had never grown a vegetable before launching the St. Cloud State University Community Garden, and today it grows 95 varieties of tomatoes and is developing a brand-new one.Borrow companion planting for your community work. Instead of seeing other organizations as competition, ask what each partner brings to the table and how everyone's contributions can build on each other. In Part 1 of this conversation on Ice Cream Social, host David Boyer welcomes Tracy Ore, a professor of sociology and the director of the community garden at St. Cloud State University. David opens by explaining why the show exists: community and ice cream, and the people in central Minnesota doing their own thing for the same reason he started Jupiter Moon. Tracy is, in his words, the right guest. Tracy shares the origin story of the St. Cloud State Community Garden. In 2004, a mentor asked how she liked living in St. Cloud, and Tracy said she hated it and wanted to leave. That mentor, Grace Lee Boggs, told her you can't always just leave, and that you need to stay in one place long enough to name its problems with authority and then do something about it. A year later, in 2005, Tracy started a garden, even though she had never grown a garden or a vegetable in her life. Twenty years later, the garden grows 95 varieties of tomatoes, with a 96th on the way: the Husky tomato, a red and black striped variety being developed with a botanist and students. It has just completed its first field trial, and the sixth generation is already growing in the greenhouse. The conversation then turns to what it takes to make a community better. Tracy came to this work as a community organizer and a sociologist who studies inequality, and after living in her neighborhood for more than 27 years, she says she understands the community well enough to add real context when someone says "this is what's going on." She borrows a gardening term to describe how she works with partners like Jupiter Moon: companion planting. David connects it to his own reason for opening an ice cream shop, and both land on the same word for what their spaces create: joy. The episode closes with a look at Grace Lee Boggs, the Detroit activist and philosopher who shaped Tracy's life, the PBS documentary about her, and a children's book about Grace and her husband James Boggs that turns out to have a personal connection to Tracy. It is another in a summer of surprise connections. The conversation ran long, so David splits it into three parts, with Part 2 coming next week. https://www.jupitermoonicecream.com/

  4. Sep 16

    Inside Bruno Press 2.0: Why Mary Bruno Stopped Chasing What People Want

    Takeaways Sometimes the biggest business turning point isn't a new product, it's dropping the instinct to chase what you think people want and making what you actually like instead.A workshop full of strangers can do something a curated event can't. By the end of an hour, people are making plans together, proof that community can form fast when there's a shared, hands-on thing to do.Even the process behind the work, like mixing ink or running a steamroller over a print, can be the thing people actually want to see, not just the finished product.In the final part of this conversation, host David Boyer catches up with Mary Bruno, owner of Bruno Press, about everything she has going on right now. She is deep into a large public art commission for a soon-to-open apartment building, representing different cultures and communities through hands, not faces, and working against a tight deadline with a team of six summer interns. She also has upcoming workshops in the shop, including a cyanotype session (sun printing), and is preparing for the Southwest Print Fiesta this October in New Mexico, where she will teach and produce a 36 inch steamroller print. The conversation turns to why Mary's workshops matter, tying back to the show's running theme of memory and community. Unlike her curated print parties, the open workshops bring together total strangers who are, in her words, friends by the end of the hour, leaving with a finished print and plans to see each other again. David points out that this is really Mary's business model: creating the kind of connection that keeps people coming back. Mary shares the bigger story behind that shift. It took her about 15 years to stop making what she thought people wanted and start making what she actually liked, opening her doors to let people watch and take part in the process. A video of her simply mixing ink went viral, which taught her people were more interested in process than she expected. That post-pandemic pivot became what she now calls Bruno Press 2.0, and by her account, it has been the biggest change for her business, financially and otherwise. The episode closes on a personal note between two people who have known each other a while, with David thanking Mary for making time and Mary returning the compliment about David's own community-building work. No Part 4 is teased, closing out this three-part conversation. Key Topics Covered Mary's large-scale public art commission for a new apartment buildingWorking under deadline pressure with a team of six summer internsBruno Press's cyanotype workshop (sun printing)The Southwest Print Fiesta in New Mexico, and Mary's 36 inch steamroller printWhy Bruno Press's open workshops build community faster than curated eventsThe connection between workshops, memory, and running a small businessMary's 15-year shift from making what people want to making what she likesHow a viral ink-mixing video changed her approach to sharing her process"Bruno Press 2.0": Mary's post-pandemic business philosophyWrapping up the three-part conversation between David and Maryhttps://www.jupitermoonicecream.com/

  5. Sep 9

    Mary Bruno's Ice Cream Story: A Fourth of July Tradition Bigger Than Christmas

    Takeaways The ice cream memories that stick aren't the fancy ones. They're the specific, slightly ordinary ones, like a hand-cranked churn on the Fourth of July, which is exactly why a business that helps create those memories wins twice.Novelty and seasonal flavors, like dill pickle, garlic, and an April Fools "Beef Stroganoff" joke, don't need to be everyday best sellers to be worth making. They give people a reason to show up and talk about the shop.A new market, like Jupiter Moon's upcoming St. Paul location, is a chance to test bolder flavors that a more taste-conservative hometown crowd might not go for yet. Part 2 of this conversation picks up right where Part 1 left off, on the idea of core memories. David explains why he loves asking guests about their ice cream story: the best ones aren't fancy, they're specific, tied to a place or a person, even if the ice cream itself was nothing special. He argues that if a business can help create those memories, it wins twice, and Mary agrees that knowing Jupiter Moon was part of someone's memory is what makes the work worth it. Then it's Mary's turn. Her own ice cream story goes back to Fourth of July at the Bruno house, a tradition bigger than Christmas that predates the town's now-famous Joetown Rocks festival. Her dad, Don Bruno, a designer, artist, gardener, canner, and baker rolled into one, would hand-crank vanilla or chocolate ice cream in an old electric churn, and the whole family would wait, spoons ready, for the lid to come off. That story sparks a callback to Part 1's Mary Bruno Ice Cream Day idea (this time with pickles and kimchi on the table), and a detour into Jupiter Moon's running April Fools joke flavor, Beef Stroganoff. The conversation turns practical: Jupiter Moon's dill pickle ice cream (made once a year for Pickle Fest, a so-so seller once the gimmick wears off) and garlic ice cream (made the same weekend for the local Garlic Festival, where it sells out fast). Mary shares her own sixth-grade ice cream memory, a long-gone shop called Hudson and Company that made an actual bubble gum ice cream with real gum chunks mixed in, which gets David wondering out loud whether Jupiter Moon could pull off something similar. The episode wraps on flavor strategy. Salted caramel and chocolate are still Jupiter Moon's top sellers, tutti frutti didn't make the cut, and David's personal favorite, lemon poppy seed, undersells despite being a signature flavor. With a new St. Paul shop on the way, David's eyeing a bigger, different customer base to test bolder options, starting with the darker, more intense chocolate flavor Mary's been asking for. Part 3 is officially on the way. Key Topics Covered Why David loves asking guests for their ice cream story, and how "generic" memories still matterMary's Fourth of July family tradition and her dad Don Bruno's hand-cranked ice creamThe Mary Bruno Ice Cream Day idea returns, this time with pickles and kimchiJupiter Moon's running April Fools joke flavor: Beef StroganoffDill pickle ice cream (Pickle Fest) and garlic ice cream (Garlic Festival), made the same weekendMary's sixth-grade bubble gum ice cream memory from the former Hudson and CompanyWhether Jupiter Moon could make a real bubble gum ice cream flavorhttps://www.jupitermoonicecream.com/ https://www.mcbrunopress.com/

  6. Sep 2

    Doritos on Ice Cream? The Six-Year-Old Flavor Memory Bruno Press Owner Mary Bruno Can't Shake

    Takeaways The best ice cream flavors, whether it's a six-year-old's Doritos-topped vanilla or a Ritz cracker flavor that won a national contest, usually come from a sweet and salty instinct, not a polished plan.Real community can't be built to chase an instant return. When it's authentic, it becomes an experience; when it's commercial, it's just a transaction, and that version eventually fails.A single well-hosted, well-curated visit, like the one Bruno Press owner Mary Bruno put together for a local influencer, can do more for a town's reputation than a planned marketing campaign, because people can tell when the excitement is real. In Part 1 of this conversation on Ice Cream Social, host David Boyer sits down with Mary Bruno, owner of Bruno Press in St. Joseph, Minnesota, and starts with his usual opener: favorite ice cream flavor. Mary is a matcha person through and through, but the flavor stealing her attention that day was Jupiter Moon's lavender matcha, made on an oat milk base instead of a traditional cream base. David explains why the oat milk version works so well (light, icy texture, a faint graham cracker finish that pairs naturally with pie-adjacent flavors like the shop's vanilla cardamom, blueberry cardamom, and peach cobbler), and reveals that the lavender matcha itself started as a customer recommendation. Then David asks the harder question: what was Mary's favorite flavor at six years old? Vanilla, she says, but only as a base for whatever she and her brother could find in the kitchen. Doritos, M&Ms, Tang, Nestle Quik, and peanut butter all made it onto the ice cream, and her go-to combo landed on salty and sweet: peanuts, peanut butter, vanilla, and a little chocolate. It's enough to get David proposing an official Mary Bruno Ice Cream Day, Doritos included. The conversation turns to David's own ice cream confession: Jupiter Moon has never entered the annual traveling ice cream contest (Palm Springs this year, Palm Beach the year before, Savannah before that) because the shop can't spare the production capacity for the special packaging it requires. But one winning flavor still lives in his head: Ritzy AF, a Ritz cracker ice cream from Holy Cow Ice Cream in Massachusetts, built with caramel, chocolate, and a sweet salty crunch. It's on David's list to steal one day. The back half of the episode gets more personal. David explains why community matters so much to Jupiter Moon and to St. Joseph (St. Joe, or Jo Town to locals), and calls Mary out as one of the people quietly building the town's core memories through her own work. Mary backs that up with a story about curating a recent visit for a social media influencer that ended up going viral, not because it was scripted, but because everyone hosting was excited to be there. The two land on a shared philosophy: community building that's chasing an instant return always turns into a transaction, but done with real heart, it becomes an experience worth having. This episode ran long, so David promises a Part 2. https://www.jupitermoonicecream.com/

  7. Aug 26

    Should Ice Cream Shops Do Samples? A Hot Take From Two Small Business Owners

    Takeaways David and Donella both wrestle with finding the right event size. Too big and you lose the craft and the community, too small and it is not sustainable, so the sweet spot sits somewhere in between.Jupiter Moon skipped cookie dough ice cream and Jules' Bistro skips fully organic produce for the same reason: sometimes doing it "right" is not financially viable, and both owners have made peace with that trade-off.David recently reversed a longstanding no-samples policy at Jupiter Moon after realizing it was creating friction with a ritual customers expect, and one of his two shop locations still hides the ice cream from view entirely, a deliberate design choice from his user experience background.Summary of the Episode In the final part of this conversation on Ice Cream Social, host David Boyer and Donella Westphal, owner of Jules' Bistro, get into the decisions that shape a small business behind the scenes. David talks about the event side of Jupiter Moon, which now ranges from small weddings to massive festivals, including one where Jupiter Moon shares vendor space with Ben & Jerry's and ends up as the cheapest option almost by accident. Donella relates immediately. Jules' Bistro has catered for as few as eight people around a dining room table and as many as 700 vegans at once, and she has spent years figuring out where her own sweet spot sits between those extremes, since going too big means losing the craft that makes the food special in the first place. That leads into a conversation about trade-offs. David explains why Jupiter Moon does not sell cookie dough ice cream: made properly, it is prohibitively expensive, and the one time he tried it, he lost money on every scoop. Donella shares a similar trade-off at Jules', where she would love to serve fully organic produce but cannot make it financially viable, so she focuses instead on sourcing and handling fruit with enough care that more people can afford to enjoy it. David then turns the tables with a hot take question: how does Donella feel about sampling ice cream before you order? Her answer is refreshingly direct. She believes in committing to your order, and if you truly do not like it, she will make it right with a full double of something else, no questions asked. That launches David into his own sample story. Jupiter Moon was designed during COVID to keep six feet of distance between the counter and the customer, which made offering samples nearly impossible, so for years the shop simply did not offer them. He recently changed that policy after realizing that sampling had become its own kind of core memory ritual for customers, and refusing to offer it was adding friction to an experience he wants people to remember fondly. The episode closes on an even bigger reveal about how David designs his shops. Drawing on his day job background in user experience, he explains why Jupiter Moon's St. Joseph location deliberately hides the ice cream from view, forcing customers to make an entrance, read a carefully designed menu board of 20 flavors, and talk to the "ice cream tour guide" behind the counter, while the Munsinger Gardens shop in St. Cloud keeps the ice cream visible for practical reasons, including built-in sneeze guard protection and eco-friendly packaging. It is a fitting close to a three-part conversation about how much intention goes into running a small business that people love. https://www.jupitermoonicecream.com/

  8. Aug 19

    The Muck and the Mire: Why Small Business Owners Need Each Other

    Takeaways Donella's ice cream story traces back to Grandma Dorothy, who worked all year at a thrift store so she could tuck cash gifts, including a hidden $100 bill, into Christmas trinkets for every grandkid.Successful small businesses become part of people's core memories, proms, dates, engagements, weddings, and that is exactly why David and Donella keep doing this work, even on the hard days.When small business ownership starts to feel like a grind, getting back on the floor and talking to people is often the fastest way back to remembering why you started.Summary of the Episode In Part 2 of this conversation on Ice Cream Social, host David Boyer and Donella Westphal, owner of Jules' Bistro, pick up right where the ice cream memories left off. David asks Donella's ice cream story one more time, and the answer is the same as always: Grandma Dorothy. This time, Donella goes deeper into who her grandma was. The family is from North Dakota, with Grandma Dorothy living in Bismarck and later Elgin, where Donella's aunt and uncle ran a dairy farm and brought warm milk straight to the table. Grandma Dorothy worked at a thrift store and spent the whole year saving her earnings so that every grandkid got a $20 or $50 bill tucked into a Christmas tree trinket, and she always kept a hidden $100 bill somewhere in the house. Donella once found it inside a Bible, tucked between the pages of the Christmas story. From there, the conversation turns to something bigger: how memory, community, and small business are tied together. David points out that Jules' Bistro has become part of people's biggest life moments, proms, dates, first anniversaries, the same way Jupiter Moon has become part of engagements and weddings. Both David and Donella admit that running a small business still gets hard, even nine years in for Donella, and that the fastest way out of a funk is getting back out on the floor, talking to people, and remembering what the business actually means to the community it serves. They also talk about the value of a peer community of other small business owners who understand the muck and the mire that comes with it. The episode lightens up with a flavor conversation: Donella's childhood love of vanilla, her current favorites (mint chip, salted caramel, lemon), and an ice cream philosophy David shares, that people generally fall into two camps, those who like "stuff" mixed into their ice cream and those who do not. Donella is firmly in the no stuff camp, though she makes an exception for a salted brownie, sparking talk of a possible collaboration flavor between the two businesses. The conversation closes on catering, and how it lets Jules' Bistro bring the same comfort and surprise people feel in the dining room out into the wider community, and how good it feels when people notice the care behind the food, even if they cannot name exactly what makes it different. https://www.jupitermoonicecream.com/

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Ice cream is universally joyful, and Ice Cream Social is here to prove it. Hosted by David Boyer, owner of Jupiter Moon Ice Cream, this podcast explores the sweet intersection of ice cream and community. From what makes a great flavor to the memories tied to your first cone, every episode digs into the stories, the people, and the moments that make ice cream more than just dessert. Whether you're a small business owner in the food industry, a local community builder, or just someone who thinks about ice cream way more than the average person (no judgment), this show is for you. David brings the perspective of a hands-on ice cream shop owner running two locations, a busy mobile event business, and more on the way, so the conversations are grounded, real, and genuinely fun. New episodes drop regularly. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, leave a five-star review if you're loving it, and share it with someone who deserves a little more joy in their feed. Because everybody has an ice cream story. What's yours? https://www.jupitermoonicecream.com/

Information

  • Creator
    David Boyer
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    18
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Jupiter Moon Ice Cream
  • Show Website
    Ice Cream Social