MERIDIAN, Idaho -- July is National Ice Cream Month, the perfect time to whip up a waffle cone full of the nation's favorite frozen dessert! It's also the perfect time to get to know one of southern Idaho's most beloved ice cream creators: Reed's Dairy.
The Idaho Falls-based farm was founded back in 1955 by the Reed brothers, who started off raising hogs but eventually switched to Holsteins to produce farm-fresh milk. Alan Reed is the son of one of those brothers, and is now the president of the dairy, though he says his first job with the family business was a little less glamorous. "I ended up scraping out the milk barn," Reed laughs, "...not the funnest job after school but that was my assignment."
Back then, the cream skimmed off the milk was being sold to other local businesses, and the older that Reed got, the more he knew there was an opportunity there. "I just kept thinking we need to be making ice cream," he recalls.
But Reed knew theirs needed to be the cream of the crop, and had to impress one person in particular: his grandma. He tells Idaho News 6, "My Grandmother Reed always made ice cream for family parties, her big thing was really good ice cream, so way down deep my goal was to make something that grandma would really like."
After going back to school to learn the tricks of the trade at an ice cream course at North Carolina State, Reed and his team eventually landed on the perfect grandma-approved combo of fresh-from-the-farm cream and milk, and got to scooping, installing their first dipping cabinet inside a retail space at the dairy in Idaho Falls. A second Idaho Falls-area retail shop soon followed, and now, Reed's has five retail locations all across southern Idaho, including scoop shops in Boise, Meridian and later this summer, Kuna.
From ice cream to milk to cheese curds, all of the dairy products inside Reed's stores are made with milk drawn fresh from their herd of nearly 200 Holsteins, with little down-time from cow to customer. "It's right from farm, to our stores, to the consumer's table," says Reed.
Their ice cream is consistently a fan favorite, and with over 80 inventive flavors on rotation, there's certainly something for everyone, though Reed says one flavor in particular always takes the top spot: "Vanilla is our top seller, we use an interesting blend of vanilla - Indonesian, Tahitian and Madagascar" to create the over-the-top vanilla flavor.
If you want to dig into a scoop of Reed's ice cream for yourself or pick up a gallon of their creamy, dreamy chocolate milk, you can find them on Chinden Boulevard in Meridian and Lake Hazel Road in Boise. Their brand-new Kuna location is set to open in August of 2021.
Reed's also does a home delivery service, bringing their fresh milk and cheese along with a variety of other locally-sourced products right to your doorstep.
To find out more about their delivery service and everything else the dairy has to offer, visit their website here.
