Dewey Beach just got a little sweeter with the opening of The Frozen Farmer, a family-owned ice cream scoop shop that sells frozen treats made from misfit fruit.

"We're excited to be here," said Katey Evans, founder and owner of the business, which is rooted in her family's third-generation farm in Bridgeville. "Despite where The Frozen Farmer has grown across the U.S., our roots have always remained right here in Delaware, [and] that, for us, is what makes The Frozen Farmer in Dewey particularly meaningful."

Dewey Beach Town Council approved the shop for operation at 1601 Coastal Hwy., Unit 102, the evening of Aug. 21. Less than 24 hours later, the eatery opened its doors to the public.

The menu includes handcrafted, small-batch-made ice cream; dairy-free, gluten-free and fat-free sorbets; the company's signature Frobert, a blend of sorbet and ice cream; fresh-made cookies; make-your-own ice cream cookie sandwiches; and, on weekends only, homemade donuts featuring seasonal fruits, like peach cobbler stackers. Locally inspired flavors include sweet corn, peach, orange crush, shark bite and more.

Evans said she's received tons of requests from customers to bring the company's famous crab dip donuts, which are warm, freshly cooked donuts served like bread and loaded or dipped with homemade local crab dip, finished with a choice of Old Bay or J.O. Spice, to the Dewey location. She said she's hoping to bring them to Dewey at least once in the next couple of months but needs to plan out the logistics.

All of the donuts are made fresh at the farm every weekend morning starting at 3 a.m. and are first come, first served.

The shop will be open year-round, with seasonal treats like fresh apple dumplings, apple cider donuts and apple cider sorbet slushies topped with an apple cider donut in the fall, and Christmas tree ice cream cake stackers and Santa's Cookies ice cream stackers in the winter.

Evans, a lifelong Sussex County resident, started The Frozen Farmer in 2015 as an initiative to reduce food waste by using high-quality, cosmetically imperfect fruits to create frozen desserts. 

She also owns and operates Evans Farm and T.S. Smith Orchard Point Market with her husband, Kevin. 

"Like many farmers, we've always faced the challenge of what happens to perfectly good produce that doesn't meet traditional retail standards or cosmetic standards," Katey said. "A watermelon, for example, may be too small or too big to make it to the bin, to the store, [despite there being] nothing wrong with it, so that's really where The Frozen Farmer was inspired."

During Delaware's growing season, the company uses fruits and produce grown on the Bridgeville farm. They also partner with other Delaware farmers for ingredients they do not grow themselves.

The family has operated the more-than-2,000-acre farm for about 83 years, and they are now raising their four daughters to carry on the legacy.

In 2020, the company was featured on ABC's "Shark Tank," through which the Evans secured a deal with Lori Greiner. They have since expanded to all 50 U.S. states.

Katey said they aren't looking to bring a national chain to Dewey, but rather to connect a Delaware farm business with a Delaware beach town.

"Our hope here is to create a place where families visiting Dewey can walk in, enjoy a scoop of ice cream made with ingredients right from the fields of Evans Farms, and experience a taste of what Delaware agriculture is all about," she said. "For us, this location is more about telling that story than just selling ice cream or sorbet. It's connecting people with the farm and where their products were grown."