Carol Johnson, Southern Indiana Business Report
ORLEANS – Sadie Padgett sold her first cup of ice cream from a card table at one of her brother’s motocross races.
She was 11 and was looking for something to do at the races. Her family was friends with the owners of the Orange Leaf in Bedford and they worked out an arrangement for Sadie to sell cups of frozen yogurt.
She called her business, Sadie’s Sweets.
Fast forward six years, Sadie’s Sweets outgrew the card table and became Hometown Scoops, serving ice cream from a colorful yard barn just off the Orleans town square on Washington Street. Sadie is now 17 and a senior at Orleans High School. The business now includes dad Larry, Sadie and younger brother Lincoln, who all have their individual roles in what has become a full-time and almost year-round business.
On a typical summer day, customers are lined up outside the bright blue building with a pink ice cream cone on top. Inside, the staff is busy scooping up flavors like Fat Elvis, Kitty Kitty Bang Bang, Exhausted Parent and Zanzibar along with traditional flavors like cookie dough and butter pecan.
A gathering spot lets customers enjoy their cool desserts at picnic tables and comfy seats under shade trees. The business is just feet from the Padgetts’ home, so don’t be surprised if a few of the family’s chickens wander over.
The current location of Hometown Scoops opened two years ago, a response to the COVID pandemic. The Padgetts, at that time, had a food trailer and traveled to festivals, races and catered events like graduations and weddings. But COVID put a damper on those events, so a permanent location with outside seating was a safe option.
The business soon took off, drawing in people from Orleans, Mitchell and those traveling through on Ind. 37. With Sadie in school, Larry took on the duties of scheduling the food truck events and ordering ice cream, allowing Sadie to focus on payroll and scheduling of eight part-time employees.
It helps that Larry, who works full time at GM Bedford Casting, has a background in the food and beverage industry.
“Dad helps me so much. Without him, the business wouldn’t be running at all,” said Sadie, who works about 20 hours a week at Hometown Scoops.
Their ice cream is made by Chocolate Shoppe, a maker of super premium ice cream in Madison, Wisconsin. The Padgetts rotate out their flavors, offering 16 varieties at a time. They also make malts, shakes, sundaes and banana splits. One of their signature items is a silo, which is layers of cake sourced from Sweet Cakes in Bedford and ice cream.
If the family was ever going to do a business, ice cream was a natural fit, Sadie said.
“We love ice cream,” she said with a laugh. “I remember one time we were in Florida and had ice cream at five different places in one day.”
Hometown Scoops is gaining a reputation outside of Orange County. Sadie recently traveled to St. Louis and Louisville as part of a tourism promotion with the Indiana Destination Development Corporation. Sadie and the IDDC team handed out 300 cups of ice cream with an Indianapolis 500 pace car as a backdrop.
“It was so awesome to be able to do that,” she said.
Living next door to the business has its pluses and minuses. Sadie said she can look from her bedroom window and see if the line is long, she can walk over and help out. Brother Lincoln points out, living next door means customers can walk up on the front porch or kids want to check out the chicken coop.
All the family agrees, operating a business in a small town is fun and rewarding.
“My favorite thing is serving the community because our community does so much for me and my family,” she said.
Getting to know their regular customers is another part of the business they enjoy.
“It’s so nice to be the reason that people make their Sunday trips to come to Orleans from other communities,” she said.
If you go
Hometown Scoops, 255 W. Washington St., is open 2-9 p.m. weeknights and 2-10 p.m. weekends now through Labor Day and weekends only from Labor Day until Christmas.