Mars Hill ice cream spot aims for 'simple but weird' flavors

MARS HILL - Meadowsweet Creamery operates four days a week at its Mars Hill spot, located in the Mars Landing Gallery near the library.

Due to its rising popularity — the shop just gained its first employee — it may have to expand its business hours.

The business is the brainchild of married couple Andrea Clem, a pharmacist, and Michael Clem, a former mental health professional. The couple celebrated the shop's anniversary July 10.

"It's been really good," Michael Clem said. "When we got the shop, we thought, 'Well it's a place to make everything, and we won't have to rent a kitchen. Now, the shop, especially this year, has been getting busier and busier. The neighbors have been super nice. That's definitely been one of the cooler parts about getting to know people around here. They've been nothing but supportive. There's really not that competitive feel. It's like, 'We're all in this together. Let's all help each other out.'"

According to Andrea Clem, local businesses such as Stackhouse, Wild Violet and Papa Nick's have shown support for the new ice cream shop.

"It's exciting to make those relationships and have them be supportive of us," she said. "They've all been really awesome and tell people about us."

One aspect that seems to attract more customers is the shop owners' emphasis on fresh ingredients, thanks in part to the their work at local farmers markets.

"Most of our ingredients are either organic or non-GMO," Michael Clem said. "We try to get the best quality that we can. There are a lot of different farms around the area. We sell at different farmers' markets, so there are a lot of local farmers that have amazing products that they grow right here in Madison County. It's really amazing that we can incorporate a lot of that into our ice cream."

"Root Bottom Farm, we've been getting lavender from Sarah (Jones Decker) and (her husband) Morgan," Andrea Clem said. "I sell right next to Sleight Family Farms and New Roots Farm at the UNC A(sheville) market. We get goat cheese from Spinning Spider. We did a bleu cheese ice cream, using bleu cheese from Lane in the Woods. Fermenti has given us a bunch of things like lemons and blueberries that we've made in ice cream."

A sweet history

In 2012, Andrea Clem owned an ice cream sandwich shop, Beakers and Cream, in Boston after graduating from University of Connecticut. Before that, while in school, she worked as a pastry chef at Journeyman, a high-end restaurant in Somerville, Massachusetts.

"I got a lot of practice in making French macarons, custard and lemon curd, and things like that," she said.

After the couple moved to Western North Carolina, they just couldn't let the dream of opening another shop die.

"When I moved down here, Michael kept bugging me like, 'Let's make ice cream,'" Andrea Clem said.

Before opening the shop, the Clems operated a kitchen in Barnardsville and were primarily selling at farmers markets and wholesale accounts. Mars Landing Gallery owner Miryam Rojas reached out to the couple about opening a shop in the art gallery, and they jumped at the opportunity.

"I was working in the mental health field for 15 years and after working in the mental health field for 15 years, you need a break for your own mental health," Michael Clem said. "So, I was thinking about switching career paths. Then the pandemic hit, and I was furloughed for a couple months, and we were like, 'Maybe now's a good time.'"

In just a year, Andrea Clem taught her husband all her recipes and the couple began preparing the batches together.

While local ice cream shops such as The Hop and Ultimate Ice Cream have merged unconventional — or, perhaps, what some would call "wacky" — flavor ideas with more conventional ones, the Clems are taking a similar approach with their business.

"I think the 'fig and goat cheese' one is one where people say, 'That sounds gross. Let me try it,' and then they buy a whole pint of it to take home," she said. "I think that one surprises people. Black garlic and chocolate, too. The miso caramel is one of our most popular. That's our sweet white miso from Miso from Miso Masters. We try to keep things exciting."

The couple said the fig and goat cheese ice cream is one of Meadowsweet's most popular ice cream sandwiches.

"We do a goat cheese ice cream with homemade fig jam, and then we do a rosemary shortbread cookie, so it's like a sandwich," Michael Clem said.

Andrea Clem said her favorite flavor is rosemary ice cream, though the shop's coffee and donuts flavor also cracks the list as one of her favorites.

"It's a donut macaroon, so it tastes like a donut," she said. "It's got cinnamon and nutmeg, and then it's got coffee ice cream."

Andrea joked that the pair "talks about ice cream all day."

"Andrea has like a photographic memory," Michael Clem said. "But she also has one when it comes to taste. She'll eat something and then be able to invent (a flavor from it). We also go backpacking a lot. So, we'll be hiking a lot and get really hungry, and that's usually our time when we start writing down lists or whatever."

The Clems estimate they have come up with more than 150 flavors in the shop's first year of business.

When starting out their business, the Clems sought advice from Ultimate Ice Cream owners, Kevin and Lucia Barnes.

"We sat down and met with them, and they explained how they got started," Andrea Clem said. "They started their ice cream business before they had kids, and they had three boys that they basically raised in the ice cream shop. They talked to us about how they started, how they grew, and got their different locations. They have such an amazing product, and their flavors are so unique. So, I feel like in that sense, we are kindred spirits. We feel very lucky that they've been so open and warm, and very sweet and helpful."

Michael Clem said the Ultimate owners have served as mentors for the couple in their ice cream business.

"They told us, 'We've run into all these problems you're going to run into. Here's how we navigated them,'" Michael Clem said. "It's really good to have somebody where if something comes up, we can go to them and ask a question."

While a number of Madison County businesses serve ice cream or smoothies — such as Hot Springs' Artisun Cafe and Laurel River Store, and Madison Gifts and Pharmacy in Marshall — Meadowsweet is the county's lone shop dedicated to ice cream.

That identity is something the Clems take a lot of pride in, according to Andrea Clem.

"We love Madison County," she said. "We're really happy to be here. We feel really lucky that we landed here. Getting to know the community has been really special."

Meadowsweet Creamery is open 2-5 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays and noon-5 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Mars Hill ice cream shop offers up 'simple but weird' flavors