Red Fox Creamery: Selling Out without Selling Out

Kathy Lewis is just finishing another summer of late nights and ice cream.

But even into September, the owner of Red Fox Creamery (co-owned by Brian Lewis) is bringing hand-crafted ice cream to the Wakefield Market—and usually selling out.

Lewis's creations are so popular they're never more than two days old. “I can’t make the ice cream fast enough,” Lewis confessed, “Sometimes ice cream will be two days old if a market earlier in the week had bad weather and a poor turnout, but usually I sell out every market.”

Lewis said she enjoys the freedom of being her own boss. “My goal is to continue to make a quality product that people come back for an d talk about. I want to make ice cream until I get tired and don’t want to do it anymore," she said.

"I never want to sell out to a big business. This is a real labor of love. It’s time consuming, and I often pull late nights in the summer making ice cream. It’s so much fun. I have no corporate restrictions—I can add chocolate chip cookies if I want. Making ice cream is a process I really just enjoy,” Lewis explained.

When Lewis isn't at the Wakefield Market Wednesday afternoons (or at another local farmer's market), she's managing Red Fox Creamery, a restaurant located in downtown Winchester whose menu is filled with fresh, homemade items.

Red Fox Creamery was originally located in Middleburg, Va. and was appropriately named Middleburg Creamery. After moving to Winchester in 2008 to location that was only able to offer food “to go,” many customers made it clear that the name “Middleburg Creamery” didn’t fit in Winchester. “We kept our name ‘Middleburg Creamery’ for a while, but customers kept asking us, ‘Why are you called Middleburg Creamery? This is Winchester!’ and we realized it was time for a change,” Lewis said.

Lewis has been making ice cream for about eight years. “I was selling commercial ice cream in my restaurant and thought I could make it better myself, so I called the FDA to see where I should start. I used to only make two quarts at a time, but now I can make ten,” Lewis explained, “Then a market master from Vienna stopped by our restaurant and tried our chocolate ice cream. She asked us, ‘Is it REALLY homemade?’ and once we told her that is was, she invited us to a meeting about the market and encouraged us to apply.”  Red Fox Creamery has been a vendor at Wakefield Market since about a month into the season in 2006.

Red Fox Creamery ice cream is not health food. Lewis said her ice creams are made with 18 percent butterfat—about 4 percent more than you can get in commercial grade ice cream from a supermarket.

"I don’t use any corn syrup. All of my ice creams are sweetened with pure cane sugar, and the only stabilizer that I use is one that is required by law. I usually roast nuts in my ice cream for flavor, and any chunk ingredients, like nuts, are always hand stirred in,” Lewis said.

As for flavor for her fruit ice creams, it’s all real. “All of my fruit ice creams have no flavored syrups, and they are made with fruit that I get at the market. My peach ice cream was made with peaches from Kuhn Orchards,” Lewis said. “My favorite thing about coming to the market is being able to purchase fresh food while I’m here.”

The ice cream from Red Fox Creamery has many fans at Wakefield Market. Mikayla Robertson, age 8, tried some cookies ‘n cream ice cream. “I liked it because it had the cookies in it,” Robertson said, “It was really yummy.”

Brandt Reitz, age 9, said, “It’s delicious! It’s more fresher and creamier than ice cream from the grocery store.”

Griffin, age “almost 8 ½,” enjoyed ice cream with Reitz, and said, “I like that it is softer than ice cream from the grocery store.”

Red Fox Creamery goes to Oak Marr Market Wednesday mornings, McLean Market Friday mornings, Kingstowne Market Friday afternoons, and Fairfax City Market on Saturdays. You can also find them in their store in downtown Winchester, Va., or on the Red Fox Creamery Facebook page.