The romance of Salt Spring Gelato began over 20 years ago when another romance blossomed between the company’s future owners, Lauren and Marck Shipley. The Shipleys met in Hawaii in 1985 when Marck walked into Lauren’s shared house. Soon, Lauren would leave Hawaii and her career as a gemologist to join Marck in the Bay Area, where he held a career as an executive in the high-tech industry of Silicon Valley.

A three-week trip to Italy sparked the Shipleys’ love affair with gelato almost 15 years ago. Traveling with their two children, Lauren and Marck were enchanted by the Italian practice of on-site, artesian food production. Each gelato shop made its own gelato, and each was slightly different in taste, texture and quality. Although they didn’t know at the time what a huge part gelato would play in their future, the Shipleys were hooked.

Marck and Lauren discovered Canada’s idyllic Salt Spring Island when they decided they’d had enough of the high-tech world and wished to find a simpler environment to raise their children. Touring the island over Valentine’s Day weekend, 2002, they found both a home and a business they could run together with the historic Harlan’s Chocolates. The couple decided to add gelato to the retail shop, making it themselves in small batches at the rear of the store.

Since introducing homemade gelato to Salt Spring in November 2003, the Shipleys have watched their passion grow into their biggest success. Salt Spring Gelato is now produced in a new facility and is wholesaled to fine restaurants, retailers, and hotels on and off island. The company is the first in Canada to make organic gelato. Using locally produced organic milk and a high percentage of locally made ingredients, these business choices reflect the Shipleys’ commitment to create a small ecological footprint and support local economies.

Coming full circle, the Shipleys are about to open a retail shop and gelato business on the island of Kauai, where their romance first began. For the couple who loves fine chocolate and gelato … their life couldn’t be sweeter.

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