Higgles Ice Cream – Anna Higgens – Mountain Women Magazine

Higgles Ice Cream began as one woman-owned business in 2011, making small-batch ice cream in a shared commercial kitchen for farmers’ markets, summer events, independent grocers, and restaurants. I remember meeting Anna Higgens when she was first starting the creamery. She was renting space in Silverthorne, Colorado. Through a friend, she had invited me in to check out her startup’s new flavors. It was such fun observing her passion for the ice cream business. She told me at that time that this had always been her dream, she always wanted to make and sell ice cream.

For the past 5 years, that thought stuck with me, why ice cream? We were chit-chatting about her ice cream sojourn from the last time we met as she and one of her associates were cutting up Cantalope for a handcrafted melon ice cream going on the menu. I brought up her why and delved into it a bit more. Before opening her original production shop, Anna had worked in environmental consulting and her days evaluating our mountain wetlands didn’t fill her with much joy. During high school in Cambridge, Massachusetts she held a job at Steve’s Ice Cream shop. She loved the atmosphere and how the ice cream made everyone, including her, so happy. It was something she had always wanted to do.

One day she put her Wellington Boots into the closet for good, the opportunity to follow that cold, creamy desire came with some money she inherited. Anna invested those funds in a course at Penn State University Creamery. There she learned the business of ice cream, from milk production to blending flavors and operating ice cream machinery. It was her Ice Cream dream come true and a leap of faith that is paying off, one happy customer at a time.

From her original, small commercial kitchen, she started small selling Ice Cream with her children from a mobile stand at Colorado farmer’s markets and a location in Silverthorne. For over five years now Anna has been churning out spectacular flavors both traditional and seasonal flavors alike. Honey Lavender, Pumpkin Pie, Peanut Butter & Banana, Nutella, Eggnog. You can make delicious ice cream with any flavor, fresh cream, and sugar. One flavor I missed trying but must experience is her Olathe Sweet Corn and Cream. She was shucking corn to get it started as we wrapped up our interview.