Story

Lifelong Washingtonians, Karl and Bev Black have created a legacy which reflects their shared love of the environment, sweet desserts, dedication to family, and love for one another.

Meeting over 45 years ago in the hippy heydays at a friendly potluck, knowing glances over Bev’s chocolate-chip cookies led to love at first sight; Karl was hooked at first bite. The two set to homesteading in the Skokomish Valley, hand-building their rustic dream cabin on fifteen acres of raw mountain valley bliss while operating a small local greenhouse business.

The valley was birthplace and home to their three children, Trail, Alana and Joel. Karl and Bev have marked their land by planting fields of ornamental Japanese maples and vibrant blooming seasonal flowers.
On a 1984 Seattle road trip, while sampling a delicious refreshing Cantaloupe Sorbet, they shared an exciting new business vision. With three young children at home, the decision to transition from horticulture to foods production was intimidating and demanded much soul searching. Karl and Bev knew it would be no simple task to achieve their dream.

“Heavenly Gelato” soon opened in Lacey, WA and the family immersed themselves in the task of learning everything they could about making the best product. The business ran for two years before Karl and Bev realized the audience at their small mall storefront could not support their dreams of dozens of gourmet flavors. Still believing strongly in the product, they began marketing their desserts wholesale to restaurants in the Puget Sound area and found a foodie niche hungry for custom crafted gourmet sorbets and ice cream. Karl and Bev changed the business name to “Olympic Mountain Ice Cream,” applied their knowledge of small batch gelato crafting, and began selling their original line of super-premium ice creams.

Over thirty years later, the children are all grown, with grandchildren at play in the yard of Karl and Bev’s forested family home and ice cream factory. Karl and Bev still hold the same incredibly high standards for the ice cream they produce, forever convinced that ice cream should be an indulgence worth savoring.

At Olympic Mountain Ice Cream, only the freshest ingredients are used in our ice creams and sorbets. We purchase all of our berries and stone fruit in their peak from Pacific Northwest growers and nearly all of the herbs that we use in our products are grown on our farm.  We do not settle for anything but the finest ingredients and strive to make the best possible product.  We love our ice cream and wish the same to you!