- June 21, 2021
- Posted by: Stratford Team
- Category: Business
Twice a year, dozens of people line up outside Wild Scoops ice cream shop in Midtown Anchorage with bundles of rhubarb — last Wednesday they came sticking out of Tupperware, plastic bags and a Tito’s Vodka box. There, owner Elissa Brown offers them a deal: $1 per pound, redeemable in ice cream.
“Rhubarb season is such a fun time of year in Alaska, it signifies the start of summer and the start of more fruits and veggies to become abundant,” Brown said.
Wild Scoops and other Alaska businesses collaborate with customers by exchanging cash or store credit for rhubarb. They solicit spare rhubarb from peoples’ backyards for seasonal products — from sherbets to wines.
Brown offers shoppers a free ice cream cone for four pounds of rhubarb, or a free pint for 10 pounds. Brown said Wild Scoops collected more than 1,000 pounds in just four hours at Wednesday’s event.
“We’re sort of at capacity since it takes us so long to…
