Ballard's Parfait Is Trying to Become Washington's First Certified Organic Ice Creamery

Ice cream shop Parfait is raising money through a Community Sourced Capital campaign to expand into a full-fledged, certified organic ice creamery. If it succeeds, Parfait will claim the title as Washington State's first such place.

Parfait launched first as a dessert truck, moving to a brick-and-mortar space in 2013. As owner Adria Shimada so eloquently told Eater last year, Parfait became the only true from-scratch ice cream shop in the city; there's no "pre-made dairy goop" as the ice cream base, but rather pure, unadulterated cream and eggs. The mix-ins are also made from scratch. "My mission for Parfait has always been to make real, organic ice cream, where the ingredients go from the farm to our freezer, without a factory in between," Shimada says.

The hopeful expansion will allow Parfait to supply local grocery stores and cafes with their products:

The funding from this campaign will enable us to purchase a vat pasteurizer and complete the WSDA's rigorous licensing programs for becoming a certified organic food processor. Our ice cream is already made from scratch using organic ingredients, but in order to offer it through wholesale, we need to purchase a vat pasteurizer. Additionally, getting our organic certification will make Parfait the one-and-only certified organic ice cream shop in the entire Pacific Northwest! As always, customers will be able to watch Parfait’s ice cream magic in the making through the wall of windows behind the counter of our beautiful, light-filled shop. It will all still be made right here in Ballard!