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From Tricycles to Food Truck Parks: The Pedal Pops Story in Northwest Arkansas
Episode 326 • 1st September 2025 • I Am Northwest Arkansas® • Randy Wilburn
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About the Show:

This episode is part of a special series supported by the Walton Family Foundation. Through their Home Region program, the Foundation is investing in the people and ideas shaping Northwest Arkansas—across housing, entrepreneurship, transportation, and leadership.

In this episode, we explore the world of local entrepreneurship and community-building with Lynn Wong and Mike Thompson of Pedal Pops and Pedal Park. Host Randy Wilburn sits down with Lynn and Mike to hear their journey from corporate careers and dreams of an ice cream shop to building a thriving local business serving all-natural fruit pops and ice creams in Farmington, AR. The conversation dives into the evolution of their business, their commitment to healthy and local ingredients, and how Pedal Park has grown into a true community hub, supporting fellow entrepreneurs and providing space for local food trucks, events, and gatherings.

Lynn and Mike share insights on working with local partners like Ozark Natural Foods and area breweries, developing creative flavors, navigating the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, and why community collaboration is at the heart of their work. Whether discussing pop-up collaboration with nonprofits, fostering a welcoming environment for all, or offering advice to aspiring small business owners, their story highlights the unique spirit of innovation and togetherness in Benton and Washington Counties.

Tune in for an inspiring look at how local ideas and partnerships are shaping the culture and economy of Northwest Arkansas, and learn how Pedal Pops and Pedal Park are making a sweet difference in the region!

Key Takeaways:

  • Resilient Local Business: Pedal Pops grew from a kitchen experiment to a beloved local brand by focusing on all-natural ingredients, market feedback, and creative flavors tailored to what the community wants.
  • Community Collaboration: Pedal Park operates as more than just a food truck park—it's a center for celebrating diversity, supporting fellow entrepreneurs, and fostering lasting relationships among small business owners.
  • Innovation Meets Tradition: By reimagining nostalgic treats to be dairy-free and health-conscious, and by partnering with local brewers for boozy pops, the founders offer something for every palate and occasion.
  • Inclusive Gathering Space: Pedal Park hosts trivia, bingo nights, live music, pop-up markets, and events like “Theology on Tap,” cementing its role as Farmington’s go-to place for connection, creativity, and local flavor.
  • Inspired Entrepreneurship: Mike and Lynn share candid advice for new business owners, spotlight area resources like EforAll, Startup Junkie, and commercial kitchens, and encourage others to take “baby steps” and build on the region’s collaborative spirit.

All this and more on this episode of the I Am Northwest Arkansas® podcast.

Important Links and Mentions on the Show*

Tune in to KUAF 91.3 FM to listen to the I Am Northwest Arkansas® podcast on Ozarks at Large every Tuesday at 12 Noon and 7 PM CST. And, check us out on their podcast as well.

This episode is sponsored by*

The Walton Family Foundation

About the Walton Family Foundation
The Walton Family Foundation is, at its core, a family-led foundation. Three generations of the descendants of founders Sam and Helen Walton, and their spouses, work together to lead the foundation and create access to opportunity for people and communities. The foundation works in three areas: improving education, protecting rivers and oceans and the communities they support, and investing in the home region of Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas–Mississippi Delta.

Hear all of the episodes from this series right HERE


Learn more at waltonfamilyfoundation.org

*Note: some of the resources mentioned may be affiliate links. This means we get paid a commission (at no extra cost to you) if you use that link to make a purchase.

Connect more with I am Northwest Arkansas:

Thank you for listening to this I am Northwest Arkansas podcast episode. We showcase businesses, culture, entrepreneurship, and life in the Ozarks. 

Consider donating to our production team to keep this podcast running smoothly. Donate to I Am Northwest Arkansas

Mentioned in this episode:

Winetopia 2025

We’re back at the barn! Winetopia is THE annual event that highlights the best of what our NWA Community has to offer, and we are thrilled to be back at the Barn at the Stonebreaker this year! Winetopia is where you can taste incredible top-tier wine, local craft beer, top-shelf bourbon, a variety of other spirits from our favorite local distilleries, AND hand-crafted mocktails. A specially-selected menu from Stonebreaker catering and our favorite Mia Tarts round out the evening! A ticket is all you need to access one of the most special nights of the year. Your favorite features from Winetopia will be there - the famous wine toss with Carny in the Corner, DJ Shortfuze spinning smooth tracks all night long, and the best silent auction around! You’ve been waiting all year for this event, and it’s now around the corner! We cannot wait to see you there!

Winetopia 2025

Apple Seeds An Evening at the Farm, Saturday, October 11th, 2025

Evening at the Farm is a celebration of community and togetherness. Gather with friends, family, and fellow food enthusiasts for a memorable farm-to-table meal. What began as a small gathering has grown into one of our most beloved traditions, celebrating the flavors of the season and the community that makes it all possible. By attending this event, you'll not only treat yourself to an unforgettable culinary experience but also support our mission to empower and nourish our community.

Apple Seeds Fall Dinner 2025

Transcripts

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It's time for another episode of I Am Northwest

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Arkansas, the podcast covering the intersection of

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business, culture, entrepreneurship, and life in

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general here in the Ozarks. Whether you are considering a

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move to this area or trying to learn more about the place you call

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home, or we've got something special for you. Here's

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our host, Randy Wilburn. Hey,

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folks, and welcome back to another episode of I Am Northwest Arkansas.

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I'm your host, Randy Wilburn, and I'm excited to be with you as always. You

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know, this summer 2025, I've actually made

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it a part of my mission to get out into the community as much as

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possible to record some of these episodes. And so I'm excited to be able to

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do that. With this particular episode I've had lately, I've had

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a chance to go to where people are to tell their story.

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And so today's episode is going to be no exception to that. I'm

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sitting here with Lynn Wong and Mike Thompson from Pedal

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Pops. And Lynn and Mike reached out to me via email

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a while back and I. I was familiar with Pedal Pops. I didn't know

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know about them. And, you know, Lynn and Mike reached out and we

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got on a phone call, which is kind of what I do to learn more

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about somebody and why we should try to feature them on the podcast.

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And, you know, they had a really compelling story that I thought it would be

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worth sharing. And again, I love the fact that they're here in

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Farmington, straight down Route 62, which is

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also MLK, which is also Main Street. It's also a lot of things,

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but these guys have a really, really cool

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food truck park right here on 62. And

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I figured why not have these guys on the podcast to tell their story?

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And so without further ado, I want to welcome Lynn Wong and

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Mike Thompson to the I Am Northwest Arkansas podcast. How are you

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guys doing today? Doing really well. How are you, Rennie? Good, good. Glad you're here.

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Yeah, I'm glad I'm here too. So listen, I would love for you one of

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the things that we do, and if you've listened to a few of the episodes,

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which I think you said you did, I'd love for you guys just to kind

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of share your superhero origin story. We all have one, but I'd love

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for you guys to just to talk a little bit about how you got to

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this place that we are at right now with Petal Pops. And I know

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it's a long arc, but we can you find a place where you can

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tell the story, and then we'll. We'll segue into where we are in the

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current times. Sure, I guess. Let's get it started. I started

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off in Atlanta as a small entrepreneur. I was in corporate

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accounting. Enjoyed that for a while, but then I realized that I wanted to do

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something a little bit more and kind of get into the entrepreneurial

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side that kind of runs my family. My mom was a piano teacher.

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So one of those things I really enjoyed growing up was like her self, you

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know, her dedication to her students and things like that. So as I started off

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in a small grocery store, so to speak, we were making ice

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cream. And I really enjoyed that piece of it. And that's something I've always wanted

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to do. I've always had an interest in sweets and things like that.

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So we tried that. Didn't quite work out as well as we thought.

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I went to another business right down the street from us.

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Literally, you step out of our house and it's two doors down. That's how

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close it was. I enjoyed that for a while. And then we had

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an opportunity to relocate to northwest Arkansas for

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one of the big box companies. And then about that time, I decided

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I wanted to. When we moved here, I just wanted to take an opportunity to

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kind of adjust what I was doing. So I was. I'd been in the corporate

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world for so long that I decided that I wanted to take a stab at

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entrepreneurship. And that's kind of where we started off with pedal pops.

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Yeah. So pops came before the park. The pops came

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before the park. That is very, very true. That's a good point. So

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let's see, how does it go? We. We wanted to do something since we had

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lived in. We were living in Bentonville at the time. We wanted something that was

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kind of nostalgic, that kind of fit in with the small town feel of

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Bentonville. And Bentonville at the time was small. It's kind of grown a lot larger

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than that. But at the time, we wanted something that would fit in with it.

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So we ended up finding a tricycle, and we actually

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end up buying a tricycle. And we would. I would ride around the

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Bentonville square area. And originally we started off with

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selling. Wanting to sell ice cream. The pops side of it actually kind of

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fell into it due to. Oh, how do we put it?

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There was something that basically happened with the Department of Health with ice cream. They

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weren't quite as accepting of us as we had thought. And

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then. So we basically kind of adjusted our format. And then once we did that,

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then we Started making fruit pops right after that. There was a

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guy in Atlanta, the name of the company is

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King of Pops. He had a great, great word alliteration for it.

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And he did something and it kind of. It helped. He actually

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had something that was. That was attractive to both kids,

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teenagers, adults. It actually was attributed to everyone. So everyone

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really enjoyed it. I thought doing something like that would be kind of fun to

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do as well. We tried to avoid the dairy piece of it just because we

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were trying to avoid the problems that we might have run into. And so that's

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kind of how we fell into the niche of making the all natural frozen fruit

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bombs. I love that. I love that story. And, you know, it's so funny, I

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was telling somebody earlier today, there's nothing new under the sun. Right. So

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inspiration is what it is, and it represents something different for each of

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us. That's why that story is, I think, is really important. And so you were

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able to kind of take that King of Pops, which is a great alliteration and

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it's a great name. And that was probably some of the

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encouragement that you needed as you were getting petal pops off the ground.

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And, you know, the other thing too is that there's a lot of people that,

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you know, dairy is not always their first choice when it comes to a

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cold dessert. And so it's nice. I mean, I'm a. I'm a big sorbet

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guy. I love sorbet. I can make homemade sorbet. There's something

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to be said about that. And then maybe some of, you know, and then, you

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know, again, dairy just interacts differently with different people. So you want to give

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people some options. Yeah. And to back up a little bit, too, one of the

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things I had finished, I had done at the very beginning was I had

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taken a look at what was available in the market shelves as well. So

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typically when you walk down the shelves, you'll see ice cream, ice cream, ice cream,

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ice cream. And it's just full of fat, full of really, really bad things. A

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lot of ingredients you really can't name. And so we basically

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realized we wanted to make something that was healthy. Yeah. And something that is actually

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beneficial and that, you know, would appeal to the masses, so to

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speak. At first, we originally made it with sugar, and then later on we

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adjusted our formula, so to speak. And then we started using stevia. And

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stevia is a. So it's no added. No added sugars. And then we

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also, with the pops, there's no high fructose corn syrup.

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There's no preservatives, no artificial colors or no artificial flavors

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either, which is why. It'S in a lot of places like Ozark Natural

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Foods. Correct? Yes, exactly. So I had to get that in there, so. No, I

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appreciate that. It's, it's, yeah, I was gonna say there's lots of other places. No,

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of course. Yeah, of course. So, yeah, no, I, I, I love that though. And

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you know, people want to have kind of like a guilt free dessert if possible.

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You know, we're constantly trying to make desserts at home. My wife and I have

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a contest to see who can make the best, you know, homemade dessert that's kind

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of all natural, that doesn't offend our palate, but at the same

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time tastes good, you know, and it's worth trying. So I mean, it's one of

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those things. So you just never know. You know, it's, it's. Sorry, it's funny you

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mentioned with onf, you know, they're actually, when we actually got to the point in

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time, we started doing wholesale accounts. They were our first wholesale account, really. They

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were. And that was back in, when was that? Back in 2012.

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Okay, okay. And that was one of the things that I was very appreciative. And

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you know, there's folks that have been there the entire time that still, you know,

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we still work with that. We really enjoy, you know, their feedback. Well, I love

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hearing that. And as a continuous shout out to Ozark Natural Foods, as most

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people know that are listening to this, at the time of recording, I was, I

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am on the board and I really do appreciate one of the things

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that the Ozark Natural Foods has endeavored to do is to be

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a place where local producers can hang their shingle

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and put their stuff out there for the world to try. And I think,

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I mean, you're an example of that. 13 years being able to

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have your pops and Ozark Natural Foods, that's huge. And there are a lot of

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other stories like that. And it's one of the reasons why ONF is trying to

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get about 30% local producers in the co op.

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And they're slowly getting to that number, which is huge because especially in the

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day, this day and age with sometimes we run into logistical problems

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and other issues that come up when it comes to shipping food from one place

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to the other. It's nice to know that a lot of the things that you

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get that are in your local grocery store are locally made.

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So I'd like to add that with Ozark Natural

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Foods, what we did Experience was also the people that worked

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there that made a difference for the little entrepreneur.

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Because, you know, both the leadership as well as the people who made

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sure the shelves were stocked were always kind and supportive of us.

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And it is in our experience that that is not

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necessarily a given. Yeah. So it's not just the longevity of the

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relationships is also the people that create the longevity of the

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relationships. And we're just so proud and so excited

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that we get to have walked this time together and look forward to

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more. I love that. I love that. So, Lynn, since you you sharing

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a little bit, why don't you tell us a little bit about how you brought

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your skill set to the table here for Pedal Pops and how

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that has married with Mike's passion for what

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essentially you guys created together. Because I think it's important for people to

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know that, you know, we don't always have to do this thing alone. And it's

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always nice to have somebody else that can help you out with the process.

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And so I'd love for you just to share a little bit about your background

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and how you have kind of brought your skillset and experience to

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the table here with Petal Pops. Oh, gosh, that's a long

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question for a little life, but gratefully.

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Born and raised in Singapore, educated there as well

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in people watching, more formally known as sociology, and

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began my corporate life and corporate career with, at

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that point in history, the world's largest shipping line. Through that work,

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I had the opportunity to accept an expat assignment to the United

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States. And that brought me to Atlanta, Georgia, where Mike and I

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met. And one of the highlights of our partnership

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that made it so fun and easy was that we both love food and we

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both love culture. Yeah. So date nights were never an issue. And it was

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even better because he cooks and makes desserts and has no issues making them

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for my friends. Yeah. Along the way, I discovered that he

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had a secret dream that he wanted to someday own an ice

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cream shop. And it came from some wonderful childhood experiences.

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But the, you know, accountant trained, responsible man that he

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is did the business plan like they tell you to do. And it got

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a little overwhelming when you see how much money you need. But I think this

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is where I compliment him really well as chief

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visionary and chief cheerleader, because I went, okay,

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when the day comes that you have your ice cream shop,

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I'm not standing outside begging people to come in and handing out 50% off

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flyers. I want a line wrapped around the block because they've already had

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your ice cream. So you want to make ice cream? Let's go make some ice

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cream. So, literally, we got to a point in, you know, just

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exchanging and sharing visions for the dream that we went to a

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big box retailer, bought a lot of Cuisinart ice cream maker

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machines, got some gallon jug buckets, and he

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started making ice cream, and we started selling it to friends who had

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parties. And we were always gifting our friends

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ice cream to refine the flavors and all of that stuff. And one

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day In, I think, 2009 or 2008, some

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friends of ours believed in our dream so much, they created, like,

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a banner for us. And we both had the first experience

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of selling the ice cream at a local festival

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in town. And from then on, Mike was hooked. Yeah.

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And so, you know, his ice cream making ventures has

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led him to put significant energy, money, and

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passion into two businesses that didn't quite work out the

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way we had envisioned. But when we got to Northwest Arkansas in 2011,

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we realized that with no kids and a pet

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at that time, we could both reinvent ourselves. And

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if we didn't take the chance on ourselves, who would?

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And even if we failed, what's the worst that could happen? Yeah, he still loved

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accounting. He could always go back to corporate. But we're sitting here today because he

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never looked back and just kept on growing. Yeah, I love that. I mean,

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that's a very special story. And I think a lot of it probably resonates with

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a lot more people who then. Who would like to admit it? Because I think

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sometimes we. We run this gamut of trying to be who we

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are in our public Persona versus who we are privately. And

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sometimes the two don't necessarily come together. And I think it's

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important for people to understand that, you know, to be your full,

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authentic self sometimes requires sacrifices. Sometimes it

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requires you to do the uncomfortable thing to kind of push forward. And,

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you know, it's so funny. I saw an illustration the other day, and it was

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a story about a swimmer named Trudy Ederle. And

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there's a scene in the movie where she's swimming the English Channel. She's the first

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woman to ever do it. And there. There is a. She comes upon

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just a mass of red

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jellyfish. And it almost looks like there's blood in the water, but it's actually just

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jellyfish. And her coach is telling her dad. The dad's like, you know,

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gotta pull her out. Cause she's not gonna make it through that. And he said,

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no. And the coach was like, no. Sometimes you just have to go through a

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thing as opposed to you can't go around it. You can't do that. Sometimes

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you have to go through a thing to get where you're trying to go. And

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I think it's. That's an important message that we all need to hear. Because,

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you know, thinking that you're going to start a business or, you know,

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excel in your career without going through some pain and heartache

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is. It's almost. That's not going to happen. And it's going

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to require. There's going to be. Everybody gets their pound of flesh taken

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out at some point in time. And so, you know, whatever that looks like.

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And it sounds like you've had that experience in the evolution of Pedal

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Pops. And I think it's important for people not to understand or

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glamorize entrepreneurship so much that they don't recognize that

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it is a sacrifice and it is a challenge. And I'm reminded of that every

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day. As an entrepreneur, I'm like, man, this is not easy. It really

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isn't. And even getting started as an entrepreneur nowadays, there

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are much. The programs that are available nowadays are

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much more organized to help you figure out how to do

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things, such as E for all or Startup Junkie. You know,

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there's lots of programs that are available to do that. I know back when you

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became an entrepreneur. Back when I became an entrepreneur, those programs

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really weren't available. No, no. As a matter of fact, I was telling somebody about

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score, and they were like, what score? And I was just saying that was a

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society of retired corporate executives,

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and there's score's still around. And I want to say that

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SCORE has some loose affiliation with the Small Business

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Administration, but the bottom line was you could basically get a

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mentor, somebody that had either run a business or had a high degree of

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success in business, and they would kind of shadow you and give you

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some advice and guidance and would either choose to listen to them or not.

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The frank thing you mentioned that that's one of the things that when we went

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through, we actually did go through score, and we took two different products. We took

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our ice cream, and we took our fruit pops, and then the ice cream they

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love, they're like, oh, my gosh, this is going to succeed. You're going to do

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really, really well. The fruit pops, they looked at it and said, well, it's okay.

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I really wouldn't focus on this, and maybe you shouldn't do this. And, you know,

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you come to that point in time, like, do you follow your passion? Do you

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kind of Listen. And we kind of follow our passion and listen at the same

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time. So, you know, even today, we're lucky in the aspect

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that we resolved the problems that we had with the.

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I guess, the guidelines that we needed to follow within the Department of

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Health guidelines. And so we end up. We actually do make ice cream now. So,

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you know, and that's one of the things that we still have the ability to

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kind of work through everything else. So we still met with our score mentors, and

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we still work through the different folks, and it's great once you find someone, you

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know, as a fellow entrepreneur, that you actually kind of bounce things off of as

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well. Yeah. So. And it sounds like your business

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model here has evolved over time. Oh, definitely. Can you talk

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a little bit about that and kind of where you were in 0809

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versus where you are today? Because it sounds like you have a little bit of

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everything. I mean, you have this beautiful food truck park.

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You have a whole setup here. I'm looking at kind of the

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internal workings of what seems to be. I can imagine when you guys are busy.

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This is a very busy center of a hub of activity. Oh, definitely

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is. Definitely is. I guess as we kind of got started, you know, in 0809,

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there's just kind of figuring things out. You know, I had to desire, had the

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passion, had the guile to do it, but I just wasn't sure where it was.

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We actually had a really dear near friend who basically, you

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know, kind of gave some guidance. I was trying to remember the movie with Bill

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Murray in it, but basically, you know, you just need to take baby steps. Just

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take baby steps. I can't remember what it was, but, you know, I had Richard

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Dreyfus in it. But the thing was, like, I was so overwhelmed because you have

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to get, you know, you have to get all these different certifications, licenses, all

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that kind of jazz. I love that. Yeah. Yeah.

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Lynn is showing me some pictures of. Of Mike back in the day, and

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just kind of, you know, what they say is they don't despise small

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beginnings. You got to start somewhere. And I think it's funny that you actually

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showed a few pictures to me of where you guys started from, and that

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probably keeps you grounded in terms of where you are now and where you want

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to go. It does. So I was gonna say over the. Over the time, and

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as we talked about, we, you know, with great encouragement from my family, not

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just Lynn, but for my extended family, you know, they have been always very, very

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supportive, and that's something I really, really wanted to do was to try to, you

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know, follow this entrepreneurial dream. So, you know, when we moved here,

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everyone in northwest Arkansas has been very, very

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gracious and very nice. They've been very warm and welcoming.

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And that's one of the things, like, you know, when we, we started playing around

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with their flavors, the very first flavor we made was strawberry basil. It's not

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exactly what I would say is, you know, a very kid friendly pop

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because kids try it and they're like, what is this flavor?

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But, you know, we started doing things like watermelon, blueberry. Sorry,

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blueberry, lemon, I think is what it was. Watermelon, blueberry is something we do now.

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There's so many flavors that kind of run through your head that kind of get

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confusing at times, but it's kind of neat. As we've kind of

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grown, you know, we've gone from originally having a tricycle and then we

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rented space and we. I found that, you know, going to.

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I like that Lynn's funny because she keeps popping up pictures. So,

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you know, we start off with a tricycle and then we end up doing larger

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events. And then later on we, we end up buying a food truck of our

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own. And then we, we have graduated, you know, from

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smaller steps to larger steps to, you know,

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now actually having a facility of our own. We talked about it and we,

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we bought this one, 69 W. Main St. That's where we are.

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We bought this facility in 2018 and then we

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kind of basically manufactured our fruit pops out of. Out of it. Four

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or five years. We actually lasted. We went through Covid as well as a lot

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of businesses did. We survived, which was great. A lot of businesses

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didn't. You know, our heart goes out to the folks who didn't quite make it.

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And then in 20. Was it 2021?

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2020. We started to kind of work

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on Pedal park itself. So we wanted a place basically where

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we could have. Where people would actually come to it, come to

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the facility. We've always been a mobile business, so we've always

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gone to the different places like, you know, the botanical gardens, the Fayetteville farmers markets.

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You know, we always go out to the events. But we wanted a place where

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people could actually come together and find a place to do that. And

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that's kind of where we end up with Pedal Park. Yeah, I think. And the

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thing I like that's cool about this is that, you know, people might say, oh,

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well, you're kind of early here. But this area is growing so fast.

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And I Was talking with the executive director for Ozark Regional

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Transit. We were just talking about just the silly amount of growth that's

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happening in northwest Arkansas. And so I remember when I first moved here

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10 years ago, this area here was not

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as developed as it is now. And so much so that, you

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know, at the time, Farmington was like, man, you're going to Farmington. That's way out

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there. Now it's like, well, Prairie Grove. And people are a lot. I have a

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lot of friends that live out in Prairie Grove because it's just. They have

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housing choices and there are a lot of options, but, you know, it's not that

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far away. And I like that all of these different

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local city centers are popping up where people are like, well, that's

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my neck of the woods. So I'm here on the south side of northwest Arkansas,

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down here on MLK or 62. And I, you

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know, I have a microcosm of things that I can choose from,

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including, you know, Petal Park. Yeah, sure. It's funny,

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Len kind of pointed out to me over time when we talk about the

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evolution of Petal Pops, I kind of jump around here with

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between pedal pops and pedal part. But with Petal Pops, we always start off with

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we wanted to make the, you know, the fruity pops that we made. Yeah. But

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then later on, we try to figure out how to bridge the gap between young

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and old. So, like, if we would sell something at an event, we would say,

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hey, would you like a fruit pop? And you're like, oh, it's, you know, it's

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kind of too cold for my teeth and stuff like that. It's like, okay, well,

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you know, we have some boozy pops, if you like. Wait, wait, what? You have?

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What? You have boozy pops? Yeah. And that's one of the things that we ended

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up doing to help help ourselves grow with that. Sure. Yeah. And

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that's. That helped us kind of bridge the gap. And that's kind of like we're

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trying to figure out how to get all the different folks to come into our

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place. And that's one of the things that as we've kind of grown with Puddle

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park, we've kind of grown that aspect. So when people come

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in, they, you know, we get an opportunity to come

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here. When we blew out the idea of Pedal park was actually

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to have the four food trucks that we have here today. It didn't always. It

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didn't start off that. What do you call it? It didn't start off all that

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quickly. Yeah. Or that successful but it has grown over time.

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And so that's one of the things that we have now is we have four

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food trucks from four different places. So we didn't want to have any kind of

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repeat things. Yeah. So that's kind of what we end up doing here. Yeah, I

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love that. So tell me a little bit about. Since you brought it up, tell

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me a little bit about Pedal park and what's represented here from a

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food truck perspective. In addition to the anchor, which is

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Petal Pops, and you've got an outlet here where people can kind of

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come right up to your door and order, and then

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you have a nice seating area here. And then when either. If

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they've already eaten something from one of the food trucks, they can come here and

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get a nice dessert. But I see that. I get the concept, and it's a

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really cool concept. But tell us a little bit about how this all came about

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and how you chose who you chose to have at the Pedal Park.

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You know, Petal park was really born of us

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just loving to collaborate with other businesses.

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So when the opportunity came to create

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Boozy Pops, it coincided with the

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growth of craft beer breweries in northwest Arkansas.

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And so, you know, we would go there on dates and just hang out and

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visit with them and just share with them. And some of the local breweries were

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fascinated and were supportive of Mike trying to create custom

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Popsicles, you know, with their beer. You know, not everybody is excited,

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but that was really the sort of beginnings of it, of

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collaborating with others. And as we grew out

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of Bentonville and then into Fayetteville

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and then Farmington, really motivated because

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the rent was just too complex, and it was just a

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little hard to keep prices affordable for the Pops. And so we

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had to find the balance that worked for us. But as we got

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into Farmington in 2018, we

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started realizing that, oh, we were actually

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bringing Mike's original dream of an ice cream shop to

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life. Yeah, you know, we just said ice cream shop. We were willing to

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let go of the timeline, willing to let go of the details, and just

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stayed in the business because we followed his

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passion. And it was always about making ice cream, making

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popsicles to make people happy. Yeah, right. In

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2020, when the world shut down for a little bit like

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everybody else, it challenged us to rethink.

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Are we in it for some more, or is it time to complete the

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chapter? What was it? And Mike and I are blessed to be

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fairly well traveled in both work and leisure, and our

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families are fairly international. So we've been the Beneficiary

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of people who have been kind to us,

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broken bread with us, and shared desserts with us. And so we

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realized a few things through the first years of COVID

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that that we were going to keep Piddle Pops Alive. And in

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21, when there was quite a lot of unrest, we

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realized that we were ready to bring

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all our resources, so our hearts, our energy,

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our savings, our ideas to do what

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we can as a couple and as individuals to grow

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happy, healthy communities. And like you said, there are very few

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original ideas, but there are lots of original expressions.

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Sure. And so how Mike would express that that complements the way I

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would express that my work is primarily with humans services,

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you know, mics through creating tangible offerings and physical

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spaces. And so in 21, we

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had the courage to start talking to people

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about what it would cost to build out

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the space that we have in Farmington. And we

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caught the earth of one of the local architectural

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firms through a wonderful human by the name of

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Jessica Wallen, also a local advocate for

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housing and design. And she heard us

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through the ramble and the vision and the excitement and introduced us

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to the company. They sat listen to our dreams. We

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originally wanted to use containers to create the space as

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a nod to my career in global shipping, but the price tag came back

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at just under a million dollars. Oh, wow. And we realized that if we had

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a million dollars, that would still not be a responsible way of spending it. But

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then one day, after talking about it some more, we realized Mike

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was still very excited about it. And we came up with a low cost

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approach of simply landscaping the space,

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building out the patio and having a covered porch.

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We took it back to the design firm and they were so generous with us

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and they helped us really bring the dream to life. Yeah.

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And so really, Petal park is an extension, if you will,

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of our home, really, that Mike and I used to have

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a home in Atlanta where we were the site of all sorts of

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parties that would welcome the young and old and pets when we have room for

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them. And Petal park seeks to do just that. Creating a space

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where humans, young and old, can come together

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in real life, smile at each other and remember what it's like to

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visit, have some food, have some treats,

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and just be neighborly. So that's how it kind of all came

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to be. And over time, the four food trucks that we have here really

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reflect that. Presently we have a

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Asian style food truck, Yummy Yangs. We

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have a Indian curry place.

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We also have that'll be curry and Go Curry and go. We

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have El Jefe, the Taqueria, our very first tenant,

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and a Cajun food truck. Daisy and Dois,

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Daisy and Doyce. Yeah. And what is so cool about all of them is

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they actually look out for each other. So we do the first step by making

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sure they don't have competing items on the menu. So we

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compete together as a team, even if we're separate businesses.

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But they really look out for each other from a safety, from a

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sharing business tips and cheering each other on to

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keep the place clean open when they're customers.

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What a delight to have them. One of the things that as Lynn mentioned,

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they're trying to, they do a great job helping each other out. The interesting thing

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is all four food trucks are all entrepreneurs. They actually

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just started their own food trucks. So you know, we try to take our

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experience, our experiences haven't grown over time to

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help them out with their, their food trucks as well. You know, we can't provide

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them how to cook, but we know we can help them guidelines with certain things

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they need to take in consideration. Yeah, I love that. I mean,

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and that's. It sounds like it's quite emblematic of what you find here

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in northwest Arkansas, that collaborative spirit. Right where. Yeah, I mean, yeah, there's

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some competition there, but at the same time we're all just here trying to

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survive and have some fun in the process and maybe make a buck or

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two. And you know, especially in the vein of what you guys

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do, feed some people and create some happy customers.

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Entrepreneurship, you know, at its heart is in service

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of customers, in service of other humans. Right. So with our

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space, it's also fun for us to see how many other

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businesses we can elevate to help everyone

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thrive. So we, when we got our beer and wine license,

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we also made sure to include as many local breweries and

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cideries as we could. And you know, based on our location,

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we now think of ourselves as their little ambassadors in this side

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of town. So if someone in the Prairie Grove Lincoln area wants something

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craft brew, they can stop by for their first pint of

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something from a local brewery or cidery. And if they're excited, we would certainly

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encourage them to, you know, head up north to spend some time at the

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brewery. Same thing with the distillery. And wherever we can

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from a space perspective, supporting other entrepreneurs and creating pop up

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space for them, whether it's E4ALL or Canopy NWAS

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Inspired Hands Bakery where, where we can create a

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blend. We absolutely will. And it's really awesome that the food trucks

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owners also look at these pop up opportunities as supporting

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and not, you know, taking away from their businesses.

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Yeah. You know, and again, it's what you guys are doing, I think

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is important, important here in northwest Arkansas. And we see it over and over again.

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You know, as I was sitting here thinking about some of the breweries that we've

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had on the podcast, Black Apple, which is Leo

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Orpin. Those are some amazing folks over there. And I actually thought, man, that,

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you know, that yes, some of his ciders would make a really good pop,

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as a matter of fact. So, you know, that would be quite interesting. So

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we've, I was gonna say we, we have give ourselves a little picture. We have

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like nine beers on top of nine local beers on top. We have three local

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ciders on top as well. Okay. Which is kind of rare. You don't always see

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that. You know, a lot of times you'll see somebody have Angry Orchard and it's

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like, I can get angry Orchard anywhere. So. And as, as Len mentioned before,

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you know, we started playing around with some boozy popsicles. Excuse me, boozy

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pops. And one of the things that we worked with was core,

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core brewing back in the day when I think when they were still making,

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still making beer and so, you know, like Leghell and lager, that's one of

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the, the ones that they had. And we actually made that into a boozy pop,

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so. Really? Yeah. Now let me ask you, this is. And I'm just, this is

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just off the top of my head, can kombucha become a good pop?

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It can. You have to figure it out. Funny. Funny enough,

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one of our, one of the local places that we, that support us and

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we support them as well. Neal Family Farms. They're. They're

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blueberry and BlackBerry farm up in Rogers. So

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we make pops for them. And one of the things that they did was they

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worked with, I think they worked with Ozark Beer to create a

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blueberry kombucha. Okay. And we actually made that into a pop. It was a little

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bit on the sour side. But, you know, we. You basically kind of adjust

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people's perceptions because if you say to a young, a young child is like, hey,

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would you like some kombucha? And they're like, what is kombucha? Yeah, they won't go

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for it. But if you say, hey, would you like some like a sour blueberry

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pop? They usually go for that. Yeah, I mean, they like that idea. What kid

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doesn't like Sour Patch Kids? So this is just a natural extension to

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that. So I Mean, it certainly makes it easier to think about, so.

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Well, I'd love for you to maybe tell us a little bit more

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about how you've kind of brought the community together here at

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Pedal Park. I know when we last spoke, you talked about some of the events

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like bingo and trivia, which really helped to bring people together. Is

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there a current schedule of events that you have where

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that you're saying, hey, we're open and you can come here and do this now?

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I would imagine I could come here and bring some car, a set of cards,

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a deck of cards if I wanted to come play here, or maybe my mahjong

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table or something like that. So there's options, right? Definitely your mahjong table.

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Definitely a mahjong table. So talk a little bit about how you, you create

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space for that. Sure. Like the Puddle Park's motto is food,

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friends and festivities. That's one of the things that we do. That's, that's kind of

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how we, we kind of got things going as far as like,

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you know, trying to attract people to our area. So one of the

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things that we, we've tried a lot of different things. The ones that have really

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stuck have been bingo. Bingo's on Wednesday nights,

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Trivia is on Thursday nights. And for the rest of the

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summer we actually have a disc golf putting league from the

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LDPGA group coming out each Friday.

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And basically you can pay a little bit fee to get into it and then

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they give out prizes for the winners. For us for

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Wednesdays and Thursdays, it's all free. You don't have to pay. You can just come

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out and hang out. And we do ask that you support the food trucks. If

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you want to buy something from us, that's great too. Not necessary. Over the past

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we've also tried karaoke. What other things have we tried?

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The current schedule is Wednesday, Thursdays and Fridays.

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And that's where we seem to connect

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with most of the community wanting to also spend time at Pedal

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Park. And in the past we've had a variety of things that now are more

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of a pop up if there is a match. So we've been a place

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for local singer songwriters, you know, that is led by, you know,

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Lacey Hampton, who's a local award winning musician and her

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brother. We've also had dance classes

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here. We've also had pop up yoga. We've also had

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just a variety of other things. Oh, once a month we

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have theology on tap that is hosted by the.

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The Farmington United Methodist Church. Really? Yeah. So. So it's

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Theology on tap. You can come grab a brew and hang out and talk

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with the folks from the church. I love that. I think that's a

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great idea. I mean, so you're really incorporating the whole community

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and we're trying our best. We definitely have our space open,

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so we like the idea of entertaining programs and having people kind of come

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out and use our space and we try to do whatever we can to support

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them. I think as Lynn mentioned before, Canopy.

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Canopy actually comes out through inspired hands and they actually

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sell non baklava. Great

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baklava. The food that they have at Canopy is amazing. It is.

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I mean, there's a bunch of different items that Canopy produces through their

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entrepreneurial program, which is excellent. So highly recommend that to

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anyone that will listen and check it out for themselves. So, okay, so

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we get the idea, the community engagement now that you guys

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are in the place that you are. We're on this side of the pandemic, so

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we're, we're looking forward to moving forward. And granted there are a lot of things

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in the world that are going on that sometimes cause us pause. But

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I digress. I think the reality is, is that life goes on, right? I mean,

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I'm still recording my podcast on a regular basis. You guys are still making pops

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on a regular basis. So what are you most

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excited about for the future, both for Northwest

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Arkansas, but more importantly for Petal Park. We're

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incredibly excited at the growth

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of the area and the

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really unique opportunity where people,

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wealth and wellness is actually coming together

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in northwest Arkansas. Is extraordinary to see world class

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facilities both with whole Health institute as well as, you

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know, market of the Ozarks by the AFIC organization kind

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of come up where we're supporting farmers and we're supporting wellness.

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And the airport is growing. You know, I have to. We get pedal

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pops at the airport. You know, we are trying.

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Okay. Because I can see it's portable. I could carry that on a flight with

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me if I need a cool, like cool down on the way to my

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flight. So. So for anyone who's listening. Yes,

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there we go. Yeah. If anyone's listening, we'd love to talk to you. Yeah.

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We have heard from the team at the airport and they're

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acknowledged that they know our product and they'll see what they can do. And

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so for that we're super grateful. Like I mentioned before, Mike and I got a

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chance to travel quite extensively, live abroad. And so we're just excited

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to do our part to be that blend of local and global

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and that there's a lot of civic opportunity to come

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together about housing, transportation. We're excited about that.

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You know, it's a little known fact, but there's actually a small bike lane just

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outside Pedal park and we have limited parking. So we would

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love to see more golf carts and cyclists and all that come

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safely to Pedal Park. We are most excited to keep

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bringing that global to local through Pedal park.

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Whether it's through your taste buds, you know, through Asian

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food, Cajun food, Mexican food, you know, the pop

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ups that canopy inspired Hands Bakery brings.

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Supporting domestic vendors like the people that supply our

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wines or you know, the global companies

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that, that we get to support like your Coke and spray is

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incredibly important for us as we continue to cast a

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vision to become this community pub hub, if you will,

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where it is as inclusive as we can make it. So we're

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being thoughtful about gluten free, dairy free, nut free.

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To just always have something that

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anyone could enjoy, could enjoy, you know. Yeah. You

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know, if they come visit, it's funny. So, you know, we've talked

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about a little bit about the fact that we've actually traveled pretty extensively.

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We've been fairly lucky. You know, we have an international household. We've been to

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Singapore, Southeast Asia. We've gotten to travel a good bit. So

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we always try to bring those flavors back as well, especially into our

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fruit pops and things like that. And so that's one of the things that we

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really enjoy is, is trying to figure out like how can we take something like

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one of the flavors we have now is like mango chamoy. We didn't really know

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the funny thing. What about tamarind? Tamarind. We do some tamarind stuff as well. Okay.

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Yeah. Okay. Yeah. But the idea is like they like. I didn't even know about

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chamoy until someone introduced me and said, where's your chamoy? I was like, where the

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heck is chamoy? And then what's. And we actually, you know, came up

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with our own recipe for it. So a lot of people try it and it's,

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you know, a lot of taste testing. So that's one of the things that we

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actually encourage people to come out as well as, you know, I, if I'm ever

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in the kitchen playing around trying to figure something out, I'll actually walk out into

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the porch and say, hey, would you give this a try and tell me what

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you think. And the crazy thing is, you know, we try to find kids because

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kids will give you their honest feedback. And that's what cracks me up. Is like,

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hey, what do you think about this? Like, oh, this is horrible. Like, okay, we

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know that we need to change this, or, this is great, you know, so that's

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the kind of feedback that we look for. It's nice to see what is one

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flavor that you've created that you thought in your mind, you were like, man, this

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is just not. I don't think this is going to go over well that people

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have just fallen head over heels for. Wow, that's a. That's

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a. That's a hard question. Usually it doesn't begin with, I don't think

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people will like it. It's more the other way. Like,

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what might people like? What other creative combinations can I

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come up with based on the ingredients I have? And so

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I do know that one of the ones that didn't quite work out, which I

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thought would work out really well, was this grapefruit mango. And I thought because

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it's tangy, a little sour, but that we haven't really sold many of that.

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However, you know, there's some flavors around that we just kind of had an experiment.

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I think I had extra honeydew melon around sitting around the kitchen, and

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I threw a slice of peach in there. And honeydew peach is one of our

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seasonal flavors that people absolutely adore, and they just love it.

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I'm actually looking over your shoulder, trying to look at all the other ones that

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we have. And rainbow is by far, you know, kids favorite. That is,

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you know, if you say the word rainbow, it's like, oh, what do you want?

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We have all these different flavors. How about rainbow? Rainbow. How about rainbow? Starving

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mango, Kiwi blueberry. It's. It's sweet, mellow, tart, and refreshing.

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So as an adult, that sounds great. As a kid, I think they just like

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the idea of rainbow so that things like that are super successful.

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Oh, you know what? One of the experiments we did have way

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back when, when we first started at the Bentonville Farmers Market, back where the harps

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was still standing, was actually the prosciutto melon popsicle. Oh,

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yeah. So, yeah, there was no

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dairy involved, so we were, you know, coloring within the lines. But I think that

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was maybe a bit progressive. Like, leave the prosciutto melon

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alone. Don't convert it into a pop.

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But yeah, on the peach that is currently in our honeydew

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peach, which is a seasonal offering. They're from the local

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farm in Lowell with vesant peaches. So, yeah,

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get it before I eat them all. Okay. That's funny because, you know, I've been

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to some. There's a really great ice cream spot in San Francisco

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that I go to called Buy Right Creamery. And Buy Right

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makes a lavender bacon ice cream

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that when you hear it, you're like, it kind of offends your sensibilities.

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You're like, this should not work in any way, shape or form

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until you've eaten it. And you're like, holy crap, I

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can't believe they married lavender and bacon. And it tastes the way

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that it does. And they actually make several, like, off the

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wall flavors where you're like, these flavor profiles should not.

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They should not be in the same room together yet. They are.

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Yeah, they are. And so it's like, you know, so sometimes you have to kind

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of. You have a happy accident. Right. And you're like, oh, my gosh, we discovered

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something that really works. Yeah. We made a candied bacon ice. Sorry.

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We made a candied bacon ice cream before and we were kind of

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put it in with her. We have one that's really popular. It's a brown sugar.

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Vanilla. Yeah. Lately take out the white sugar, put in dark brown sugar, and it's

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amazing. Oh, my God. I gave away a recipe. That's okay. That's

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okay. But the whole point is like, yeah, it's amazing when you come up with

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different flavors and things like that. So you talk about the candied bacon. That. That

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to me just sounds divine. Yeah. Yeah, that's really good. And I

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have to give a shout out because by rights, one of my favorite, favorite,

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favorite, favorite ice cream spots in the whole wide world. And if anytime I'm in

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San Francisco, I make the ride over by Dolores park to come check it out.

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And so, you know, as somebody that lived there for six years, it's always

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nice to get back there. But we all have those places that we just like,

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oh, this is so good. So. But no, I really appreciate you guys

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sharing that last question that I have for you. And this is really

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for that aspiring entrepreneur that might be listening. I just

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want you to give them a word of encouragement or advice or

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guidance that you think would be really helpful, especially for

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somebody that either is thinking about relocating in a northwest

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Arkansas and set up shop here, which we've had many people on this

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podcast tell their story about what that looks like for them, or

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it's somebody that's already here and they're saying, you know what, maybe I work

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for one of the big. I always say the big three, but I. Because you

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can figure it out there. But I mean, I work for one of the big

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companies. And I've really always wanted to go out on my own and do

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something like that, which is something that you've done. And what advice

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would you give to that individual? Whether somebody coming here or

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somebody already here? Sure. What I would suggest them to do

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is if they have that desire and that passion, then definitely follow through with it.

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You can always try it out in some of the smaller markets. There are definitely

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programs that are available. Funny enough for when we came up with

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Pedal Park, I was actually going through the winter cohort with

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E4 all the Eperrall program. And basically that kind

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of helped me kind of re familiarize myself with some of the

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concepts and help me figure out how to do the marketing and things like

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that. So there's also things like programs like Startup Junkie. There's

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a few other business incubators which asb, tdc. Thank you. The

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asbtdc. Yes, you could do that. I mean, yeah. Startup

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junkie. AFIC@MCO. Yeah. Is brand new,

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beautiful facility. If you don't have your own kitchen, it's a place where

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you can go and try something out. Yeah, you know, that's the other cool thing

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is that 10 years ago we didn't have nearly as many kitchens as we have

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now, where it's like if somebody has an idea like specifically on the

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food side of things, like, you know, you could spin up a quick ghost kitchen

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in some of these certified commercial kitchens that are around here and test out your

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idea, put it up, you know, stand it up on the weekend and see what

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you can get. And if there's some, you know, I mean, you don't have to

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go out and buy a whole facility until you know that

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there is a market for it. And I think that's the challenge that sometimes people

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struggle with. They put the cart before the horse and there's. I think

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nowadays there are plenty of opportunities for you to just to get a.

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Put a taste test out there to see what the market will say, because the

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market will let you know, they either like it or they don't like it. And

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you guys know this all too well, right? Yeah. You know, it's funny you mentioned

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that because one of the things that we thought about way back in the day

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and if you look around here, not exactly a huge amount of room, but you

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know, the fact that there are commercial kitchen spaces that are now available for rent.

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So as we talked about, like with afig, there's also Stephanie Kirkpatrick

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with Bartleby. Bartleby's Yeah, Stephanie's great. She's another provider to the co op. And

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she's another, I was going to say she's a provider to the co op and

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she actually has space up in, I think up off Elm Street. She actually has

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a kitchen up there that you can rent space for. So, I mean, there, there's

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lots, lots of places where before you could not rent space and

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so you weren't able to do that. So you kind of, you would try it

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out in your home. Yeah. Which is still a great place to do. And there's

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the cottage industry law, which helps you out. If you want to do, you

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know, cookies and cakes and things like that, you can always reach out to, you

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know, places. The Fayetteville Farmers Market, Bendaville Farmers Market, Bella Vista,

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Siloam Springs, all those different farmers markets. There's an opportunity for you

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as a home baker or even, you know, trying out to do like mushroom farming.

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You know, there's lots of different things that you can do to actually kind of

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get out into committee and try out and see. So we see what works. Yeah,

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exactly. I've thought about mushroom farming actually, because I love mushrooms. Yeah, I would

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love to. Fat Top Farms. Oh, yeah, no, down the street. Yeah,

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there's a few others, but Fat Top is. They're really good. I've actually been trying

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to get these guys on the podcast and we've just never been able to get

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our schedules together. But I have to get Zach on the podcast.

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I know, Yeah, I know who Zach. Is and he's a good guy. We have

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talked and we just, again, it's just whether it was the pandemic or something else,

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but that story will be told at some point in time. So they have a

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really good one. But, you know, as I've talked to all I'm friends because looks

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like I don't miss a meal here, as you can see. But I have

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befriended a lot of the best chefs in the area and they all speak very

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highly of Fat Tom and Amanam and. But I really like, I just like

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mushrooms. And, you know, now it's so much easier to kind of mushroom

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farm and set it up for yourself. So I'm thinking about dabbling my toe

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in it, just trying it out, you know, making some pink oyster mushrooms and some

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others. We'll offer you a pop up spot at Pedal Park. Okay, well, there you

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go. There you go. Nothing but mushrooms. So. Yeah. So

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I appreciate that. Well, listen, I, you know, Lynn, Mike, I really

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appreciate you guys taking time out of your schedule, inviting you here

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into the nerve center where it all happens. For

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anybody listening, what's the best way for them to get in contact with you? Give

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us your website, we'll put all of this stuff in the show notes. But I

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want to make sure that people know how to reach you and know how to

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find this location here in Farmington. Sure. Our address here

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is 169 West Main Street Farmington, AR

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72730. Our website is

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www.pedalpark as P E D A L

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P A r k n w a dot com or

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www.petalpops.com. and it's P E D A L P O

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P S dot com. Yeah. And I saw you make a distinction about

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Pops and Popsicle. Is there any reason for that?

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Yes, that's one of the things. So way back in the day

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when we originally trying to figure out our name for Petal Pops

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versus all natural fruit Popsicles. Popsicles is a

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brand name owned by Unilever. That's what I thought. Yeah, that's what I thought. Yeah.

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So there's so it's crazy because the ice cream

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is available. So back in the day we used to say, hey,

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Xerox me this or hand me a Kleenex. You know, all of those things are

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trademark names, so you can't actually use those. So that's why you see things like

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Petal Pops or Johnny Pops or Good Pops

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or. Or the King of Pops or the King of Pops. Yeah,

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so this is there. But you know, we understand people have asked us

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recently, they like the idea of Puddle Pops and people reach out and say, hey,

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can I use your name? I know it's trademarked, but can I use your name?

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And we know politely decline, but yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, I'm telling

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you. I mean, I got, I registered I am Northwest Arkansas a while back

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and thankfully shout out to Wright Lindsey Jennings for helping me with that.

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But you know, you get something that you think is good that might have,

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you know, some legs to it, you might want to hold on to it. So

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you know for sure. But Lynn Wong, Mike Thompson, thank you guys both so

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much for joining me. They are the proprietors of Petal

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Pops and Petal Park, NWA.com and I really

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want to encourage you to come down here and check them out. Let them know

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that you heard about it first here on the I Am Northwest Arkansas podcast. If

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that's the truth, if you already knew about it, then I'm just telling you something

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that you already knew about. But if you didn't let them know that you heard

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about it first here on the podcast and we would really appreciate it. And we

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appreciate you guys for joining us today. Thank you so much. Thank you,

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Randy. I appreciate it. Absolutely. Well, there you have it, folks. Another episode of the

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I Am Northwest Arkansas Podcast. To learn more about us, please

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visit us@I amnorthwest arkansas.com Remember,

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our podcast comes out every Monday, rain or shine. You

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can also find us on every major podcasting platform, including YouTube,

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Spotify, Apple, and you know, you can download the podcast

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and listen to it on your run, on your walk, as you're washing the dishes.

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Whatever you're doing, you can listen to the podcast. We would really appreciate it.

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I'm Randy Wilburn, your host, and we will see you next week with another

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new episode of the I Am Northwest Arkansas

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Podcast. Peace.

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We hope you enjoyed this episode of I Am Northwest

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Arkansas. Check us out each and every week, available

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anywhere that great podcasts can be found. For show

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notes or more information on become a guest, visit

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IM Northwest Arkansas. Com. We'll

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see you next week on IM Northwest

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Arkansas.

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