
Sunshine Ice Cream
- a wartime success
Nelson has a reputation
as New
Zealand’s sunshine city, and it was
also the home for some years to the
Sunshine Ice Cream Factory, owned
by Ralph and Irene Thomas. Their
son, Roger, now lives in Stoke and
has clear memories of his parents’ ice
cream factory and shop. |
The original Sunshine Ice Cream shop
was on Trafalgar St, where Hallensteins
now stands. It started as a fruit and
vegetable shop but in 1936 the shop was
split in half, to make space for a new milk
bar in part of the premises.
The milk bar
was such a success that after 12 months
the fruit shop was redundant and the
milk bar, ice cream and confectionary
shop took over the whole site.
"It was probably the biggest
confectionary retailer until Woolworths
came along and took away that part of
the business," said Roger.
To start with, Ralph Thomas had the
Nelson District Agency for Tip Top Ice
Cream, but in 1941 he decided he could
do better himself, and built a small ice
cream factory at the back of the shop.
Photo:
Sunshine Milk Bar and ice cream factory, 1941. Proprietor
Ralph Thomas at rear in
factory.
-
The Nelson Provincial Museum, Kingsford Collection, 154357/6
-
Permission of the Nelson Provincial Museum, Nelson, N.Z., must be obtained before
any re-use of this image.
The churn that mixed the ingredients
was behind a glass wall and visible
to customers, which gave an added
interest. Real fruit ice cream was made
with pineapple pulp from Queensland
that arrived in jerry cans, black passion
fruit from Katikati and local Nelson
berries.
The refrigeration machinery
was supplied by H W Clarke from
Wellington (agents for Westinghouse), and Roger went in 1942 to
be an apprentice to Clarkes. He worked
for them for six or seven years and
installed about a dozen supercold ice
cream plants in the Wellington region
- which included the top of the south.
Sunshine Ice Cream was distributed to
other outlets from the Nelson factory.
By the end of 1942 business was going
so well that the Thomas family leased
part of a new building in Buxton Square
and built a bigger factory, increasing
production to supply Westport,
Murchison, Wakefield and Brightwater.
There was, of course, a war on, so butter,
sugar and cream - the main ingredients
- were rationed.
"The mix changed
according to what was available," said
Roger. The butter used was unsalted,
and the main ingredients were full
cream milk powder, butter or cream,
golden syrup and honey. Nelson Dairies
controlled the supply of cream and the
manager of the time, Charlie Ruffle,
sometimes had a surplus so the factory
would stop whatever other mix they
were doing to use up the excess while it
was fresh.
"Because of the uncertainty
of supply we had to have double the
refrigeration space so that we could
cope with a sudden flush of cream," said
Roger, who installed and maintained the
machinery for his father.
The ice cream making process followed
a basic recipe. First the cream was
pasteurised, then aged for 48 hours,
then churned at 36 deg, at which stage
the fruit was added. The mixture came
out of the churn for two to three hours
in a semi whipped state, and then went
into the blast freezer for five to six
hours. "The timing was critical," said
Roger, and there were usually three staff
members working in the factory at any one time to keep an eye on things.
Photo:
Sunshine Milk Bar and ice cream factory, 1941 (detail). L-R:
Elsie Hutson and Irene
Thomas.
-
The Nelson Provincial Museum, Kingsford Collection, 154357/6
-
Permission of the Nelson Provincial Museum, Nelson, N.Z., must be obtained before
any re-use of this image.
Roger continued working for H W
Clarke, and remembers building a mini
ice cream factory in their Wellington
workshop that went with the American
forces to Guadalcanal in 1943.
" We built it in a frame so it could be
transported, and it was amazing how,
despite the war being, on we were able
to get hold of all the components with
no trouble," said Roger. Another similar
machine went to New Caledonia around
the same time.
Roger left H W Clarke to come home
and work for his parents in 1947,
assisting in the milk bar and factory and
offering a refrigeration service in the
district. In 1950 Roger left to pursue
his own sporting goods business and his
mother put the milk bar up for sale in
1952.
Tip Top bought out the ice cream
business in 1954 and had a factory for a
while on Waimea Road, behind what is
now the Night Owl dairy.
- Thanks to the Tasman District Council for permission
to reproduce this article which originally appeared in the
April 2008 edition of their publication, "Mudcakes & Roses".
Other references and related sites:
Longwhitekid - history of Peter Pan, Tip Top, Meadow Gold, Wall's, Hokey Pokey,
and
much
more:
http://longwhitekid.wordpress.com
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Ice Cream Brands from the Past. |