Stephen Fedore is the popsicle maker and owner of the Fauquier-based Little Pop Truck.
Stephen Fedore and his wife, Maria, often brings their daughters – 9-week-old Mabel, 2-year-old Mildred and 4-year-old Hazel – to the markets to join in on the fun of Little Pop Truck.
Stephen Fedore is the popsicle maker and owner of the Fauquier-based Little Pop Truck.
Next time you’re at the Warrenton or Marshall Farmer’s Market and you want a delicious frozen treat, look for the cool turquoise and silver Little Pop Truck. Retrofitted to include two large display freezers, a line usually forms as soon as it pulls up.
“We've only been to a handful of markets now, but at the last two we sold out of pretty much everything,” said popsicle maker and owner Stephen Fedore. “My wife, Maria, and I started making popsicles last November or December. At the time, we had two young girls, and we wanted to get them to spend more time with us in the kitchen making food and eating more fruit, and making popsicles was a fun way to do it.”
They enjoyed them so much that this past June the couple started officially offering their tasty homemade popsicles to others.
Many of the ingredients come from local grocery stores, but they’re working with a private family farm in The Plains to incorporate more local fruit.
“We want to continue to expand and form more partnerships with local farms,” Fedora said. “We try to do fresh fruit whenever possible, but we’ll do frozen fruit when necessary, especially with hard-to-find fruits.”
One of the most popular flavors, especially with kids, is strawberry, and they often sell out of those fast. The husband and wife also enjoy combining flavors and making unique combinations.
“We do a chocolate-dipped strawberry that is popular, and blueberry lemonade is also a hit, but my personal favorite is the spicy peach,” said Fedore. “It’s spicy, but it's cold, so as you take a bite, you want another bite because you want to cool off your mouth, but then it's hot again, so you have to take another bite, and so on.”
Other flavors include cherry limeade, pineapple coconut and a mango strawberry, which they call an inside out because there's mango in the middle of the strawberry.
One of the most special things about Little Pop Truck, says the owner, is the truck itself, which took about three months to retrofit. While buying popsicles, people are also usually snapping pictures of it.
“We bought the truck a couple of years ago, and I’ve always loved taking old cars and odd vehicles and building them into different things. I'm originally from Oklahoma, and I did my undergrad at Oklahoma State where tailgating is really big at football games,” Fedore said. “I bought an old ambulance and retrofitted it to what we called a ‘tailgate response unit.’ It wasn’t saving any lives, but it was making lives more enjoyable.”
Stephen Fedore and his wife, Maria, often brings their daughters – 9-week-old Mabel, 2-year-old Mildred and 4-year-old Hazel – to the markets to join in on the fun of Little Pop Truck.
After retrofitting the truck, Fedore had to buy the large freezers, install an approved commercial kitchen in their basement and purchase a special popsicle machine that freezes popsicles in about 16 minutes.
“One thing led to another, and all of a sudden you're like, ‘Oh my gosh!’ Expanding from a hobby into a small business is a major expense.”
All in all, he calculates, it added up to around $35,000, if not more. That’s a lot of popsicles!
Fedore and his family are looking forward to bringing the truck to festivals and other local events.
“We’re attending the Great Meadow Invitational horse steeplechase race at Great Meadow Park, and we will also be going to private parties,” he said. “We have a minimum purchase of a 100 popsicles for those, but the client keeps any popsicles that aren’t eaten.”
As a full-time data and technology consultant for education organizations, making and selling popsicles was a huge shift for Fedore.
“I have a passion for my full-time job, but the nice thing about Little Pop Truck and making popsicles is working with my hands and getting to hold the product I produce. On a computer, it's all digital work,” he said. “The other really exciting piece of it is seeing the reactions of individuals, especially kids, when they walk up to the truck; they’re really excited by it. Then to see the big smiles on their faces as they walk around the markets eating our popsicles is very satisfying.”
His wife often brings their daughters – 9-week-old Mabel, 2-year-old Mildred and 4-year-old Hazel – to the markets to join him.
“We live about a quarter mile from downtown Warrenton in the Old Town area, so she can walk to the market from our house,” Fedore said. “We've only lived here a bit over a year and a half, so we’re excited to meet and interact with more people and build connections.”
With his popsicles so in demand, Fedore is considering buying another truck and expanding the business. There may one day be Little Pop Trucks all over town.
This article originally appear in the August 2022 issue of Warrenton Lifestyle Magazine, which featured this year's Best of Fauquier winners. Click here to browse an e-edition of the magazine.
More information can be found at LittlePopTruck.com or by emailing info@littlepoptruck.come.
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