Editor’s note: This short feature is one of several brief looks at local professional collaborations included in Xpress’ Business-to-Business Issue.
Greg Garrison, who has co-owned The Hop Ice Cream since 2008 with his wife and business partner, Ashley, says that collaboration has always been at the heart of his operation.
“We’re really focused on the community aspect of the business. And so we’re always trying to find ways to work with as many different people as possible on as many things as possible,” says Garrison. “That’s pretty much the extent of our mission — just to try and get together with everybody in town and do cool stuff.”
That collaborative mindset is how Garrison met farmers Tou Lee and his wife, Chue, of Lee’s One Fortune Farm in Morganton. The Lees, immigrants from Laos, grow Asian produce, fruit and heirloom rice in Western North Carolina.
“In the last 15 years, our farm has blossomed into something that’s really nice,” says Lee, who sells his produce at local farmers markets. “It was hard at first, and tough to break into a new market. But we stuck through it, and it’s worked out for us really well.”
Garrison and Lee began working together in 2020.
“It started during the pandemic when Lee had this vision of using leftover fruits and veggies for ice cream,” remembers Garrison.
That relationship has since grown and has resulted in roughly a dozen fruit and veggie ice creams, including strawberry rhubarb and sweet potato. One of Garrison’s and Lee’s favorite collaborations is their peach ice cream — aptly named Lee’s Peach Ice Cream — which was released last week. Peach and ice cream lovers can enjoy the joint effort through August.
“As soon as we figured out that type of business that they were and how they operated within the community and how they grew their peaches and other produce, it was obvious that we would absolutely be selling this in our stores,” says Garrison.
“Collaboration is a wonderful means to get your product out there,” adds Lee. “And the publicity that both businesses receive from working together is something that you cannot buy.”
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