do the hokey pokey
Everyone loves a good old-fashioned lolly shop, and Stirling is home to one of the best. With new owners from the UK and renamed Hokey Pokey we popped in for a ‘natter’ with Tim McNamara as we worked our way through his wife Helen’s hand-made seasonal ice cream flavours.
What is your background?
Helen is a chef and we owned a restaurant and catering business in St Andrews, Scotland for 7 years. We used local produce and the menu was seasonal. Then we had kids (Sophie now 4, and Alice 2) and the whole thing got a bit hard, so we sold the business in January 2018.
So how did you end up in Australia?
We originally came out in our twenties and loved it. Back then we spent a year working in Warnambool and learned all about Australian cuisine, a lot of which influenced what we did in our own restaurant in Scotland. Then we headed home and tried to grow up, but we never quite got over our Aussie experience. Later we found ourselves living in a one bedroom house with Sophie sleeping under the stairs, with a business that was seriously impacting on our family time, so we decided to go for broke, sell it all and move to Australia.
Why Stirling?
To be honest we were going to go back to Warnambool and already had jobs lined up. But when we arrived in Australia we decided to travel for a while before we settled down and during that we fell in love with Adelaide. We actually had to have our container diverted from Melbourne to get it here! After that it all fell into place. We always wanted to live in the hills as it’s the best of both worlds with a great community and small village feel so close to town. We now live in a big house in Uraidla with plenty of space. I’m still not much of a gardener, although the mint is going a bit mad so that’s great for making ice cream!
How did you come to decide on purchasing a lolly shop?
As a chef Helen loves being creative with food so the prospect of making ice cream and chocolates appealed to her. Obviously the hours are better for family life and I’m mostly home for the kids’ bedtime. Plus we don’t have to manage a large team of staff. It’s just us and Tash who helps us out and is fabulous!
How do you go working with your other half?
Well I love being front-of-house whereas Helen likes the quiet time in the morning making new things. To be honest, Helen does all the hard work and I just spend time in the shop having a natter! But people in Stirling are so nice! They’re happy when the walk in and seem to love a chat. It’s much nicer than Scotland.
You changed the name to Hokey Pokey. What’s behind the name?
It’s ice cream oriented and associated with honeycomb. Plus, it’s happy and fun. Actually, one of the volunteers from the Stirling Community Shop came over with a book one day that said that 18th century Italian ice cream sellers were called hokey pokeys, so there’s that too. That was a complete coincidence but I’m running with it!
What are your most recent ice cream flavours?
We’ve recently done a peach sorbet and a mandarin sorbet with the mandarins donated by Mark (a local). In fact, people come in with basketfuls of fruit for our ice cream all the time. Half the time they don’t even let me give them ice cream to say thank you. There’s just so much beautiful produce growing above the ground here. Where we’re from we’re more used to ugly underground vegetables. We’ve used rhubarb from our neighbours and recently made a batch of loquat ice cream from donated fruit. We love that people are keen to make use of their surplus fruit but it did take forever to peel all the loquats!
Your side wall mural is wonderful. How did this come about?
Well I was a bit depressed by having just a blank wall, so I was talking to Lucinda’s (the artist’s) mum about it in the shop and she introduced us to Lucinda. Our main mission was to create a piece of art for everyone to enjoy – something bright, vibrant and light-hearted but with a bit of depth. I like to think of it in three parts: one part Willy Wonka, one part Stirling and one part Luncinda’s personality and artistic vision.
What’s the long-term vision for Hokey Pokey?
We already make our own chocolates, fudge, ice cream and truffles, but we’ll introduce more hand-made produce over time. I’m also saving up to buy a horse box that I can convert into an ice cream float that we can take to events.
Have you had any regrets with all your life changes?
No. None at all. I do think it’s a big responsibility buying an established shop. Raelee (previous owner) was wonderful, this business was her entity and it formed a big part of the community. We’ve put our own stamp on it but we do feel a huge responsibility to do it justice.
Hokey Pokey is open 7 days a week specialising in delicious house made chocolate, ice cream, truffles, fudge, nut brittles and milkshakes.
Wall art by the super talented Lucinda Penn.