St. Michael Native's Ice Cream Creation Finally Hits Shelves before State Fair

 ended with sweet success, as her flavor became the inaugural winner of the Kemps Hometown Challenge at the Minnesota State Fair in 2011. 

Now, just days before the Great Minnesota Get Together opens on Thursday, her flavor has hit the shelves in local stores. "The Land of 10,000 Licks" was delivered to local grocers and retailers this week, according to Kemps Ice Cream staff. 

"It's gone so much farther than I could have imagined," she said last yearfrom Machinery Hill, where Kemps was sampling the two flavors. "I kind of entered on a whim, and here we are."

Folkens came up with her creation–a vanilla ice cream with caramel, toffee bits and sea salt–when she was inspired by a candy she tried while camping with her family in Cross Lake.

Kemps opened up competition for its next ice cream flavor to the public for the first time in history in the spring of 2011. The result was the "Minnesota's Hometown Favorite" ice cream competition. The company used the site Kemps Next Flavor to collect hundreds of ideas from ice cream afficianados around Upper Midwest.

Folkens was able to go to Kemps offices prior to the fair and taste their version of her idea.

"I was really excited, and a little relieved," she said. "I was just hoping it was as good as I thought it could be. It's great."

Folkens' flavor topped the flavor "Pubhouse and Peanuts," a salty, chocolaty concotion of popcorn-flavored ice cream, dark chocolate and peanuts, created by Kelly Moritz of St. Paul.

Folkens earned a check for $2,500 and a year's supply of her ice cream creation.

This year's competition features a couple of new creations. 

Rah! Rah! Rhuberry and Mini-sota Donut are the final two flavors competing in Kemps Hometown Favorites Ice Cream Contest for the opportunity to be the newest addition to Kemps’ line-up. Locals dreamt up these flavors, Kemps turned them into a reality and now the choice is in the hands of Minnesota State fairgoers.

Shelly Massingale of Circle Pines dreamt up Rah! Rah! Rhuberry, which includes custard ice cream, swirled with strawberry rhubarb sauce mixed in with pieces of pie crust. The second flavor, Mini-sota Donut, was submitted by Beth-Ann Bloom of Woodbury and contains cinnamon and nutmeg chips with chunks of mini donuts. 

Check them out on Machinery Hill again and vote for your favorite.