florals. for spring. groundbreaking. confession, i sometimes bank on the weirdo flavors to not sell well so i know that’s at least one pan i don’t have to make again. boy did that bite me in the bottom this week. doing up more magnolia serviceberry today because folks tasted it and ordered it and welp that happened. special thanks to the trees at bodo’s for their fruit and the small magnolia at lampo’s patio for its petals, especially the furtive panic forage i did last night while people were eating 😬.
splendora’s. open 12-9. shops at stonefield.
PS someone’s persian grandmother deployed her judgy eyebrows to great effect yesterday. there is pistachio gelato available today.
made a wee cake for a pal but the sentiment goes out to all the 2026 grads this weekend. you did it. it might have been a slog but you made it to the end. congratulations! soak it in. cherish your memories. and don’t panic in the big wide world. i have biology degree where i focused in genomics and was studying for GREs and looking at gene therapy grad programs when i stumbled into loving making food. you got this and i’m stinking proud of you for having made it. xoxo PK Ross, CLAS 05
splendy’s open accustomed hours 12-9. shops at stonefield. i have a little time if you want to order a mini cake for yourself. $12/ea with a gf cake bottom.
gf/vegan cupcakes for the weekend
vanilla + strawberry vanilla
coffee + chocolate
earl grey + lemon
more flavors added saturday.
wednesday and focusing on gelato production in anticipation of graduation weekend craziness. but thursday’s priority will be baking. gluten-free vegan cupcakes flavors tbd; check stories this evening or tomorrow for what’s coming out of the oven. hoping to also make some incredibly *not* gf/vegan goat cheese thumbprint cookies.
if you’re tucking in provisions of pints and quarts so as not to be running around town when families and grad descend, please do call ahead or text orders to 757-408-0719 to be assured of your flavor choices. xoxo
Flavor List
Dairy Free
Mango
Lemon
Chocolate
Raspberry
Strawberry
P.O.G. (passionfruit orange guava)
Oatmilk Maple Serviceberry*
knocking around from last week: Oatmilk Coffee
Dairy-based
Chocolate
Vanilla
Cookies and Cream
Stracciatella
Coffee
Salted Caramel
Mint Chocolate Chip
Coffee Heath Bar
Gianduia
Blueberry Lemon Zest
Rum Raisin
Magnolia Serviceberry*
Cardamom*
Peach Mango Pie*
*production day today and not immediately available
there is no moment where i question whether or not i’m potentially autistic than when someone asks me ‘what’s the best one?’ panic and consternation fill me up to my ears. you’ve not given me any metrics on your definition of ‘the best.’ there’s a book of over 400 flavors in my head but only space for 20 pans of gelato at a time; what if ‘the best’ isn’t available that day? i can tell you which are the ones we sell the most of but that’s not a strong argument because some specialty flavors disappear before they are in the case. also you didn’t ask for my cv of flavors. what if you can’t trust me because i put ketchup on omelettes and come from a hellman’s family?
were it not cost-prohibitive and, i suppose, stickily unethical, i’d put folks needing to align with a homogenized perspective in a functional mri machine so we can see together which flavors actually light them up. be curious! it’s a frozen treat, the least serious caloric thing. you can trust me to put care and intention into every pan. but for the love of the divine, i don’t want to serve you ‘the best one.’ i want to serve you *your* best one, on that day, in that moment, of that season.
monday and splendy’s is closed. hope to see you at little market at lampo tomorrow.
if it’s yours to celebrate today, happy mothers’ day! i’m lucky enough to have half my genetics from this woman, lucy ross. smart and direct and hardworking, she’s the reason we got to america in the first place. she’s still the driving force behind my owning any real shoes and continues to hold the secrets to rellenong manok and morcon, because mine never turn out as well. happy mother’s day, mama!
in the season of life that i’m also lucky enough to watch my friends be moms. such strength and joy in their raising their fierce and sometimes feral children. i hope the tiny hooligans appreciate y’all.
if it’s not yours to celebrate today, if the second sunday in may is one of loss or ache or lack, i hope peace finds you.
splendora’s open 12-8 today, shops at stonefield
several special orders for gluten-free vegan cupcakes this week but don’t fret. made extras for carbohydrate corner.
vanilla + chocolate strawberry
almond + orange zest
double chocolate
chocolate + vanilla
gelato will be restocked through the day. basically out of honeysuckle until next week. making more beets and roses and making more of the hitters like cookies and cream and coffee. but if you very much *need* a flavor, ring up and we’ll put it by for you.
saturday. open at the shops at stonefield 12-9. xoxo
After a morning trying to convince ram lambs halters are a good thing 🤣 a lunch of beets sautéed in olive oil with quick stir fry of the greens from @septembersunproduce septembersunproduce with a slice of homemade gf bread topped with fresh chèvre from @caromontfarm and fresh radishes with a drizzle of fig balsamic with dessert of fresh strawberries from @agriberryfarm and a gf amoretti cookie from @splendyscville Yum!! Next up ewe lambs and halters #farmlife
edit. erased some flavors from last week
gf vegan cupcakes: double chocolate. chocolate vanilla. vanilla + strawberry chocolate.
will do more baking this week
Flavor List
Dairy Free
Mango
Lemon
Chocolate
Raspberry
Strawberry
Oatmilk Coffee^
P.O.G. (passionfruit orange guava)^
knocking around from last week: Blueberry Spruce
Dairy-based
Chocolate
Vanilla
Cookies and Cream
Stracciatella
Coffee
Salted Caramel
Mint Chocolate Chip
Coffee Heath Bar^
Gianduia^
Ube Pandan
Strawberries and Cream
Honeysuckle^ (very limited, up to one half pint per person pls)
Beets and Roses
knocking around from last week:
lavender
^production day thursday
last year i spent so long gazing at the produce in the @septembersunproduce stall that i think my phone read my thoughts. the algorithm fed me the content of a beautiful portuguese recipe creator who made a salt-roasted beet dip with rosewater. his was full of herbs but he stressed his belief in beets and roses being a match made in heaven. seizing the opportunity to make something from the local produce i was coveting, i landed on doing up a beet base swirled with rose gelato. the answer to the perpetual ‘will it gelato’ in this instance was a ‘yes!’
roasting beets impacts the oomph of their natural sweetness while lessening the dustiness inherent in the root. a simple blitz in dairy base yields a bright pink gelato, strange in its earthiness but savory is balanced with enough sweet to dodge the gimmick allegations. what makes the zing become a zang is the rose swirl. rose petals steeped in cream with just a few drops of perfumey rosewater undulate floral brightness in sparing bites. one of my favorite things to come out of last year’s market hangs.
tuesday and we’re closed at the shops at stonefield. but find splendy’s at @littlemarketatlampo 3-7. carrot nutmeg amaretti (also more root veg from ssp!) and gluten-free vegan cupcakes in tow as well. xoxo
monday and splendora’s is technically closed but if you are in need of scoops, i’ll have the doors unlocked while i do some prep. i hazard a guess as to 2-6.
tuesday i and this platonic ideal of a strawberry will be setting up at little market at lampo of an evening. excited for market pal little gold to be back with granola and popcorn! and of course looking forward to purloining vegetables from september sun, sticking my face into a pigeon top bouquet, and thieving cheese samples from caromont. schlepping along scoops of:
passionfruit sorbetto
mango sorbetto*
lemon sorbetto*
mint chocolate chip*
strawberries and cream*
chocolate*
stracciatella*
beets and roses
ube pandan
*available by the half pint
sundry gluten-free baked goods will be coming along to market as well. might try to see if carrot nutmeg amaretti work when the carrots are from frozen. as ever, you can order larger quantities of flavors from the shop’s list to pick up on tuesday’s little market. requests taken until noon tomorrow. xoxo
splendy’s isn’t able to vend at the filipino cultural festival today but i hope you make it out to the ix from 3-8 today. @cfca_charlottesville put together an amazing lineup of performers and vendors to share filipino culture with you!
when i sat to compose this post it started angry and got angrier. how one of my first goals when i learned to make gelato was to make ube. how i used to have to drive to virginia beach to get store bought halaya. how fifteen years ago, front of house hated me for making it because the reactions were confusion and sometimes disdain. how none of it made sense to me because filipinos have been in america for generations. i mean, defectors from spanish galleons were here before america was a country, the first documented asians on the continent. the united states owned where i was born in living memory, from roosevelt to roosevelt, fifty years as a protectorate in the pacific. but people were making fun of a flavor i associated as commonplace from childhood? even now, being here, knowing i can get local calamansi but i don’t because the farmer picks them too ripe, even when i asked him for an entire year for a case of underripe ones. being filipino gets erased in a million different ways. the anger felt too much.
today’s festival is meant to celebrate though. we have a rich and joyful culture, one that takes a pause from working the fields to notice the high stepping of birds and turning it into a dance, one that sings for for no reason and sometimes without knowing the language. three hundred and fifty years of colonialism and filipinos are still givers. we still believe and live kapwa, the interconnectedness of all things. i hope anyone who comes through my shop and sees coconut calamansi feels a sense of belonging, that ube flan does have a place next to cookies and cream, that they clock the wink and the nod to jollibee in peach mango pie. happy first filipino cultural fest day! when the trends leave ube behind, we’ll still be here making it for you. xoxo
splendy’s open, shops at stonefield 12-9
