Dennis and Nancy Yoder just started a new business—Siesta Key Creamery. The couple started the business because they felt like they had something unique to contribute to the already crowded Siesta Key ice cream industry.

“It’s the richest ice cream in the county,” Dennis Yoder says of the couple’s new endeavor, the Siesta Key Creamery. “We buy the cream with the highest fat content available.”

Dennis and Nancy clearly take pride in their work, and there’s a deeply engrained ethic to what they’re doing. More fat means a creamier treat. Better ingredients makes for better flavors. There are secrets to the process that Dennis would never tell a reporter, no matter how much pressure there might be to make a marketing campaign out of his process.

What you might not expect, however, is that Dennis and Nancy are in their 80s. The founders and original owners of Sarasota’s legendary Big Olaf Creamery, they have a deep history of making frozen confections in our town. And they never truly planned to return to the business.

Originally, Dennis and Nancy agreed to open the shop only as silent partners to a much younger entrepreneur. When that younger partner backed out of their agreement, Dennis and Nancy were left fully invested in the property with no choice but to start making ice cream again.

“It’s not good for my health,” Dennis tells SRQ.The couple is hoping to sell the business, which has been open for less than two months, to an interested partner as soon as possible.