Ottawa shop whips up special Nunavut Day ice cream

What began as an innocent query about getting some good ice cream from Ottawa shipped North has become a Nunavut Day tradition now in its third year.

In June 2021, Sherri Young of Iqaluit reached out to Marlene Haley, owner of The Merry Derry in Ottawa, on Facebook.

Each pint of Nunavut Day ice cream features blue sprinkles that represent the flag’s North Star. (Photo by Jorge Antunes)

She wrote, “You know, we just would love some ice cream up here. [Can you] create a flavour for Nunavut Day?” Haley said of Young’s request, in an interview Friday.

She’s not sure why Young chose her business to order ice cream from, but said it might be because Ottawa has a large Inuit community. Young could not be reached for comment for this story.

Working with her staff of ice cream makers, Haley said “it was like art inspired and the flag inspired what we put into the ice cream.”

She said they used her “famous” lemon curd to make yellow ice cream, red raspberry swirled with vanilla for the inuksuk and white field, and blue sugar crystals for the flag’s Niqirtsuituq, or North Star.

“So we made this ice cream and shipped it up to her” with the help of Canadian North airline, Haley said.

Shipping anything up North is costly. Helped by donations from the Nunavut community and proceeds from the pre-sale of ice cream, they were able to ship five boxes in time for 2021’s Nunavut Day.

That was a one-off. She didn’t ship it North again. But the store continues to make the ice cream to sell in Ottawa every year around Nunavut Day, July 9.

Each year, Haley said, Ottawans and Inuit living in the south still ask about the ice cream when Nunavut Day comes around.

She acknowledged a lot people in the south don’t know enough about the North, but hopes serving up Nunavut-inspired ice cream brings some awareness.

People come back every year for it, she said. Some will grab as much as 10 pints at a time for their friends. They usually sell out.

The shop currently sells it in one-pint tubs, but will be selling the treat by the cone Sunday on Nunavut Day.

“We like to celebrate this, celebrate the North,” Haley said.

She said that until Young reached out to her, “We had no idea about the community here [in Ottawa] until we did it.

“As soon as news of the flavour came out,” there was suddenly this rush to visit and return every year.

“And that’s what it’s about,” Haley said. “Building community.”