By Crissy Pascual

How did you get started in the ice cream business?

None of my jobs matched me. When I got out of college I worked at the stock exchange. When I had children, I decided to be a stay-at-home mom and I did catering with my cousin and that’s how I learned how to do food service. Then I worked for a big corporation in San Francisco and I negotiated benefits for unions. I did that for 12 years. I do about 12 years per job and I’m on 13 in this one so let’s see what happens!

When I was about to turn 53, for Christmas, my sister gave me a book about Jess Jackson who started the Jackson Estate Winery. He started at 53 and was an attorney and decided to become a winemaker. He was very successful. I was burnt out of my job and my wise father used to tell me when you start hating Sundays because you don’t want to go to work Monday, you’re wasting one-seventh of your life, one day a week. I thought, I’ll retire at 65 and I don’t want to do the last 12 years in a job I hate. Without any thought and no plan, I gave notice. So, yeah, I’m a jumper. I tell everybody that I’m a jumper. We can do it. I’ll jump.  So I’m both a little brave and a little dumb.

I have people ask me all the time, did you always love to make ice cream? I like to cook and I like food so I thought, how hard could it be to make ice cream? So I bought the business (an ice cream business in Napa that was up for sale by a friend’s ex-boyfriend) and a worker taught me how to make ice cream. 

What makes your ice cream so good and do you have a favorite?

I use real ingredients. You’ll see strawberries in there. I went to a convention and they were trying to sell me on this strawberry that you just pour in. I’m like, ‘why wouldn't I use strawberries, especially in California. Why wouldn’t I use strawberries?’ And I try to source everything locally, as much as possible.

One of the things about my business is that we’re small and we do small batch. Most ice cream is 10% butterfat (FDA requires for ice cream to be called ice cream it must contain at least 10% butterfat) and ours is 14%.

We use the original churner I bought. It’s about 50-60 years old. We call her Bertha the Churner.

I have favorites for a while until I’m sick of it. For a while it was salted caramel. We make our own caramel right here.

And paletas (handcrafted ice cream pops). At first I couldn’t get people to eat them. And now everyone wants it on a stick.

What’s the secret to your success?

The P’s - persistence, pivot, passion. 

We pivoted during COVID and did really well. Events were all canceled that year and I remember being so excited about all the events we had planned. It was going to be the busiest year. I had so much on the calendar. It was going to be my best year ever. Then everything shut down and events got canceled. And I woke up in the middle of the night and said, we’re gonna do porch deliveries. And we would go as far as the city and as north as Windsor. And we were slammed. We made as much as if I did the events. A lot of restaurants couldn't stay open. They shut down. We didn’t. We pivoted. A fast pivot. And you have to jump. 

What’s your favorite part of the job?

I like to create. especially cultural flavors. I really like learning the flavors of different cultures. When I make it, it becomes my culture, I’m a San Franciscan, which means I am multicultural.

In the last 4 years I’ve grown 25% year over year. People say ‘you should retire’ and I finally woke up one morning and said, 'I like my job, I don't want to retire, I'm having fun.' 

Sometimes I’ll post on social media things that we’re doing and people I used to work with are like, 'Wait – I thought you left to make ice cream? What are you doing at a concert? Or how did you get backstage for this or that?' And I’m like – Ice cream! Ice Cream!

What is something you wish people knew about you? (This question opened a Pandora’s Box as Bernard began listing fun facts about herself)

I’m such an open book I don't have any secrets. Everyone knows everything about me!

I’m one of 8 kids and I have 56 first cousins. I’m Mexican and Irish. Both my parents were one of 10 kids.

I like to cook and I like to dance. I’m the family tamale maker. I do flamenco.

I love movies and I named my kids after old movie stars. Spencer (Tracy), Clark (Gable), Ava (Gardner) and Liza (Minnelli). 

I’m a bad driver because I didn’t get my license until I was 30 when I moved to Petaluma. 

I go to Graton with my sisters on Sundays and we play the penny slots. We go to win the membership prizes. My two favorite prizes were luggage and Henckels knives. Honestly, it would've been cheaper to buy them – but it was so fun to win!

This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and readability.