Your Stories

Indie Ices, selling homemade Kulfi ice cream, won gold in the National Great Taste Awards 2009. The award ceremony, run by the Guild of Fine Food was held in London at the department store Fortum and Mason's.

Mike says: "I hope that winning the award will open quite a lot of new doors. I want to sell my product in restaurants and delicatessens. I also deliver to homes so I'm hoping to increase my sales over the winter."

Full-time Dad, Mike Tattersall had the idea of making ice cream while taking his kids to Roundhay Park: "Being a house husband I take the kids to the park quite a lot and ended up tasting quite a lot of ice cream. It wasn't even good ice cream. My Father-in-Law is from the Punjab and he had a home made recipe which tasted fantastic. I gave it a few tweaks and thought; this is so good I should sell it."

Mike at Oakwood Farmers Market

Mike and his distinctive three wheeled trike is a common sight at Farmers' markets and festivals across Leeds. Mike says he enjoys selling the ice cream himself and getting to know his customers: "It's great to see people enjoying your product. I get quite a lot of feedback. People will come back and tell me that they've enjoyed it. I really like that.

"Our top seller is Mango Kulfi, followed by non-dairy sorbets. Pistachio ice cream is probably our third biggest seller. If I want an honest opinion I can always ask my kids. They are big fans of my ice cream particularly like the chocolate one."

Despite the recession ice-cream vans in West Yorkshire have reported a good trade this summer. Karl from Rossis Ices in Leeds says because ice-cream is a fairly cheap treat, it is often the weather that hits van sales rather than the economic downturn: "We have been fairly busy this summer. The last few days as the kids have gone back to school it has been very warm. At the moment we are very busy."