Altadena Farmers' Market Vendor Opening Ice Cream Shop

A vendor who produces and sells her own line of jams and jellies at several Altadena events and businesses is opening an ice cream shop in Sierra Madre.

Karen Klemens is the owner of Mother Moo Creamery at 17 Kersting Court in Sierra Madre.  The store is located on a small diagonal street off the main road through Sierra Madre next to Lucky Baldwin's, in a storefront that formerly housed a Domino's Pizza chain.

While this is her first business to have a physical storefront of its own, Karen Klemens has been producing her own line of jams, jellies and preserves called “Mothercluck!” for years. Currently, Klemens sells those products at the Altadena Urban Farmers Market, Webster’s Stationary, and Lindy & Grundy, an organic meat store on Fairfax Avenue in West Hollywood.

If not for all the construction inside and the Domino’s Pizza signage still lingering above the storefront, you might think the store was already open for business.

“I like to keep the door open,” said Klemens, as kids stop with their parents to learn more about the new shop, all the while licking their chops at the thought of the homemade ice cream Klemens tells them is on the way.

Ever since a small sign first went up in the window advertising Sierra Madre’s newest business-to-be, passers-by have stopped in to find out more information, and they’re usually greeted with an open door and, somewhere inside, the cheerful new owner working with contractors to revamp the former pizza joint into an organic ice cream shop, just in time for summer.

For Klemens, the transition from canning to ice cream making came, as with most other things, out of a need to put her foods to work in new ways.

“It was about a year ago and I made this wonderful raspberry jam,” Klemens said. “And I thought, wow, what could I make with this jam other than something for breakfast. And then I thought, wouldn’t it be great with ice cream. And then I thought, wouldn’t it be great to make my own ice cream,” Klemens said with a laugh.

It was then that Klemens had the idea for a full-fledged creamery. So in January she packed her bags and headed to Penn State to take a class on ice cream called “From Cow to Cone.” 

But if a college course devoted to ice cream making sounds odd, rest assured this class is no cakewalk. Viewed by many as the Harvard of creamery education, this class counts among its alumni the likes of Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield – know to most simply as Ben & Jerry - who got their start in the business by first taking the course.

As for what sets her store apart from other frozen treat shops, Klemens said it’s all about the process.

“We’ll be making ice cream here on the premises and my base ingredients will all be organic,” Klemens said. “I will also be trying my best to use locally sourced produce. So if there are, say, cherries or peaches, there will be local farmers market additions to those ice creams.”

It’s that sense of being a part of and giving back to the community that Klemens said formed the foundation of what Mother Moo Creamery will stand for once the doors open for business in July.

But there’s a wholly separate side to the Mother Moo business model, advertised in Klemens’ window as “Home Preservation Classes and Workshops,” an idea very near and dear to those in Altadena who embrace the .

Still, for people stopping by, what that means, as well as how it fits into the idea of an ice cream store, is something that Klemens said has attracted plenty of questions.

But Klemens, who calls herself “Mother Moo” and asks that you do too, told Patch all about the classes she’ll be offering, something covered in this Sierra Madre Patch article: “.”