Behind the Scenes

Behind the Scenes of Food Favorites Story: Jancey Smith Photos provided

Poppin’ John’s Ice Cream Homemade Memories

One of summer’s favorite treats is ice cream. It’s cool, creamy and lightly sweet with a host of possible flavors. It’s even better when it’s homemade. A local couple has a busy side hustle making homemade ice cream on the weekends.

Joe and Debbie Whitbeck of Princeton, can be found at vendor fairs, festivals and weekend shows like the Antique Tractor show, with their “Poppin’ John’s Ice Cream” food truck. Initially, their son Doug bought this antique ice cream maker from an old guy in Henderson, Kentucky. He thought it’d be a hobby and good way to spend time on the weekends with his daughter. After a couple of years, it just got to be too much. He was getting calls ranging from Ohio, Tennessee, and North Carolina to travel to fairs, festivals, and rodeos throughout the midwest.

That’s when Joe and Deb bought the business. For the last three years, they have been serving up this sweet treat throughout the area. They started with just a few tables and a tent in front of their antique ice cream maker. After pricing the cost of an actual food truck, the pair, with the help of their sons, got creative. They took a pop up camper and gutted it, so they could transform it into a customized food truck. This project took two months to do but was worth all of the effort. It’s air conditioned and has a freezer to hold the ice cream in between being made and served.

Debbie & Joe Whitbeck

A creamsicle float

Joe, Debbie & Doug Whitbeck

Their vending season is April through October. Whenever the Whitbecks do an event, they begin preparing the day before. It takes that much time to clean and make the base flavors. At each event they arrive two hours before the start to get a head start on the ice cream. It’s always made on sight for freshness. They can make 9 gallons an hour. Debbie works inside scooping up orders while Joe runs the machine outdoors, making ice cream. He often gets distracted by kids and adults asking questions and observing the process.

They fit in well at antique machine shows because their ice cream maker is a 1934 John Deere hit and miss engine. This 88 year old engine is a classic. It has a very distinctive sound that folks can hear the engine “popping” from a good distance away. That’s how they got the name “Poppin John’s”. It’s a pulley system that makes ice cream from 2-5 gallons into Amish barrels. There are no spark plugs but it runs off a magneto.

Joe, Debbie & Doug Whitbeck Debbie has adjusted the recipes over the years and is very specific on the ingredients. Their ice cream is all natural using sugar, sweetened condensed milk, a touch of salt and either heavy whipping cream or half and half. She’s also adamant about using Madagascar vanilla. It takes 45 minutes to make six batches of the base mix to get the 24 gallons they need to start off each show. That head start is needed so that Joe can keep up with demand.

The main three flavors are chocolate, vanilla and the classic flavor of butter pecan. During the summer they offer lemon and for fall switch it up to include pumpkin pie. However recently they’ve been experimenting with floats as well. Some folks like to reminisce over a root beer float while many go for the creamsicle.

Temperature is an important factor in making ice cream. The sweet spot is zero to 10 degrees. If the temperature is too low, the ice cream will be rock hard and if it’s above that it will be too soft and mushy. When you’re at an event and the temperature outside is 80-90 degrees, that will affect their product and adjustments need to be made. It’s taken a little practice to hit that sweet spot. During the off season, the

How the Whitbeck’s began selling ice cream at vendor shows, with just tables and a tent.

refabricated camper and the poppin’ John are safely stashed in a storage unit. Each season brings new ideas, flavors and challenges. When Joe retires from the regular day job with Ford Motor Company, they hope to book more shows and expand their flavor options. In the meantime, take a taste of days past when you hear them poppin’.

The camper that became a food truck.