Cranberry memories: New ice cream flavour pays tribute to lost friend

The friend of a P.E.I. man killed by an impaired driver in June is carrying through on a sweet promise this weekend.

Jacob Simmons was killed while out cycling on June 12.

Jalen MacLeod grew up in Vernon River, not far from Simmons' family home in Belfast.They were in the same circle in Charlottetown and close friends. MacLeod is co-owner of Truckin' Roll ice cream, and the two had been talking about a collaboration of sorts.

"His family owned a cranberry farm. Last winter, when I ran into Jake, he was kind of on his way to taking over the cranberry farm. He was quite excited. You could see that his passion was there, and we talked about doing a cranberry ice cream," said MacLeod.

"Once the news came that Jake had passed away it hit me really hard. It actually happened on the street I grew up on. I knew right then I definitely wanted to come through on that promise to Jake."

Cranberry-chocolate will be this week's special flavour for pickups of jars of ice cream.

Squanch Ranch, the name of the ice cream, is a play on Simmons'nickname. Simmons was 6'7", and known initially as Sasquatch, but that got shortened to Squanch, particularly in relation to the farm, known among his friends as the Squanch Ranch.

MacLeod will be donating 60 per cent of the sales from the ice cream to the Jacob Simmons Sports Scholarship endowment fund.

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