Vaca’s Creamery

Monday is the last day for pumpkin soft serve, ube sauce, and all Halloweeny things! Including peanut butter cup topping and n’oreo waffle cones, 2 of our favorite things ever!
When we reopen on Thursday we will have a very exciting new menu… 👀 any guesses on the theme? Hint: it’s not obvious, it’s what Chicago is missing

Thanksgiving preordering is live!
Get your orders in because quantities are limited 🍁

We have some very exciting milk chocolate fudge cake news….
Now a staple at our Lincoln Square shop and yes it is gf and yes it passes the test where gluten lovers say if it tastes gf (no, it does not).

We all really scream for ice cream 👻

Maiden, Mother, Cone 🌒🌕🌘
N’Oreo cones, ube sauce and gold sprinkles this month only! Don’t sleep on it ✨

Two new irresistible ice cream pies:
• Mylk and cookies: a giant chocolate chip cookie as a base, vanilla ice cream and crumbled cookies
• Peanut Butter Cup: chocolate crust, creamy peanut butter ice cream, layer of chocolate

While supplies lasts! Trying to keep both shops stocked, you can check on our website under “order online” ✨

Why would we buy mass produced peanut butter cup chunks when we could spend hours making our own and hurting our shoulders chopping tons of them (just like our N’Oreo cookies, for that matter)??
They are ethically sourced, rustic in shape, and amazing in taste and texture. This month only!
Try it with our housemade chocolate and peanut butter shell for the peanut butter cup sundae of your dreams 🍫🥜

We are obsessed with .foods! They make the most revolutionary sweet treat, a chocolate-like bar that is way more sustainable than chocolate, and still delicious. It just happens to be nutritious too. Come try it in a fun topping this Saturday at our Lincoln Square shop! ✨

A gentle reminder that we are on and with pints and baked treats! You can also get milkshakes and handshakes for now (we’re working on more!)
We are working on keeping our Wicker Park store stocked with more now that it’s cooler out, so keep an eye out for more offerings soon ✨

- Great Pumpkin Cookie, because we didn’t want to make you say Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookie
- Fudgiest Brownies, gf
- Cookies & Cream Rice Krispy Treats
- Candy Bar pint: vanilla, chocolate, peanut butter, peanuts, caramel

Following our collaboration with .bakery this summer when we learned everyone loves this Filipino flavor, this month one of our special toppings is 💜ube sauce💜
This means you can have an ube milkshake or an ube latte! Tastes like a slightly coconutty, creamy vanilla ✨

This is the last weekend for Cheezecake soft serve (both shops) and Apple Cider Donut soft serve (Lincoln Square), and the toppings that go with them (apple pie sauce, apple cider cake)!
Coincidentally, Saturday and Sunday is Apple Fest in Lincoln Square, a huge celebration of apples 🍎 and our wonderful neighborhood! Our indoor Apple Fest vegan market is on Sunday 12-6pm.
For the occasion, we will have a warm apple special sundae at both shops!

How about some freaking Cookies & Cream Rice Krispy Treats??? Made with our housemade N’Oreos and marshmallows 😭💙
Only at Lincoln Square - we had krispy treats at Wicker for a while and they weren’t moving, so let us know if you want these!

Do you remember the Pumpkin S’mores from last year? You can get it again by just subbing the chocolate sauce! Perfectly falley 🍂

The apple cider cake has been one of our most popular toppings ever! And we can see why, they are sooo flavorful and moist 🍎 they will be around only until 10/7!
Yes, gf!

Mark your calendars!
We are having a little vegan market inside our Lincoln Square shop on Sunday 10/6 during Apple Fest, 12-6pm 🍎
We’ll also be announcing some special fall offerings for that weekend 🍂



candles
foods

Pawpaw! Not papaya!
We had a sweet person named Martin bless us with an insane amount of pawpaw fruit, so we spent a good amount of hours to turn them into the most delicious, complex ice cream pint.
Papaw is the largest fruit tree native to North America, and it tastes so tropical you wouldn’t believe. Like a cross between a mango, banana, pineapple and custard. Quantities are super limited! Available today at both shops.

3/3 💖

“We are so appreciative for the opportunity to share some of our rescue stories with the Vaca’s community this week! Thank you to everyone who took time to read and share our posts.

We have one more topic that we’d like to talk about for Farm Animal Awareness Week: small, local farms.

Industrial factory farms are not the only places where animals are exploited.
Small scale farms are often just as menacing. In some cases, the conditions in these small farms are even worse for the animals because there are virtually no regulations protecting the animals on private farms. The marketing terms written on grocery store packaging saying: “Local!” and “Family Farm!” don’t always mean better.

This is the case with Thomas and Teddy. Chicagoland Pig Rescue was able to save these brothers from a “small”, “local”, “family farm.” The reality was a barren plot of land that was filled with dirt, garbage, and metal debris. The pigs had no adequate shelter, most were starving, and all of them were suffering from severe mange. They also tested positive for PRRS, a deadly pig disease.

Thomas and Teddy almost died from their illnesses. It was one of the most traumatic cases we have ever worked on. After months of intensive supportive care, they survived and are now living their best lives as sanctuary residents at Animal Refuge!

Family owned meat farms are NOT places where animals live happy lives.

When we think of beautiful pastures and animals living in nature, we are thinking of SANCTUARIES.
Even in those farms that have better living conditions for the animals, they still experience trauma as they witness their family members taken and shipped off to slaughter. And those animals still have 10+ years of their natural lives stolen from them.

Animal sanctuaries are the only spaces where large breed pigs and other farm animals can live full lives, unexploited! This is why it is so important as vegans and animal lovers to support animal sanctuaries.

To learn more about how to support animal sanctuaries, email us at: [email protected]”

We’ve secretly had Cookies & Cream pies and pints for over a week, and on this possibly last warm day we thought it was time to finally go public. If you need them this weekend, we suggest acting fast!
All gf, all house-made, perfectly nostalgic!

:
“Why did we throw a HALF birthday party for Maple the pig?

Because for large breed pigs, their most significant birthday is their first half birthday. This is because in the food industry most pigs are slaughtered at 6 months old.

Maple’s birthday party celebrated the fact that she will have a life past 6 months. That she will have many birthdays to come... that she will be allowed to grow old.

In the days that followed Maple’s party, we also mourned and held vigil for Maple’s siblings who never made it out of the factory farm and had most likely already been slaughtered.

saved Maple last fall directly from a factory farm.
She was one of eight piglets that we were able to liberate. Once rescued, we rushed the piglets to the vet for emergency medical care. Of the eight piglets, only 4 survived.

Hearing the vet’s detailed prognosis of each piglet, we were absolutely shocked at how sick each baby was. The most significant issues were PRRS (a serious pig illness that affects the lungs) and gruesome bone infections.

We have all seen the images of the horrible living conditions within factory farms. But once you get a glimpse at what is also going on internally with these pigs, the full picture is even more horrifying.

These babies are born into a system that labels them as a product.
Yet, if given a chance, all these babies would be just like Maple: playing with toys, learning to use a litter box, making nests out of blankets, going for walks on a harness, and enjoying so much cuddling!

Maple remained in our foster system for 7 months while she recovered from PRRS. Now she lives at a pig sanctuary in Tennessee called Odd Man Inn. She has a beautiful life as a sanctuary resident with her best friend named Molly Jo.

This is the power of rescue. But we must not stop there.
Humans created the factory farm system, now it’s up to the next generation of humans to dismantle it. It’s up to us.”

Only a few days left until we switch the flavor of our World Famous Grilled Corn Rice Krispy Treats!
They are available at our Lincoln Square shop while supplies last.
And don’t worry, we are STOCKED on apple cider cake topping at both shops 🙌🏼

Cookies & cream shake, babyyy 😎

It’s Farm Animal Awareness Week!
This week's purpose is to raise awareness for the animals who are trapped in factory farms.
Vaca’s Creamery and Chicagoland Pig Rescue are collaborating this week to share some of the rescue work that involves saving pigs from the meat industry.

Today we want to talk about truck jumpers.
“Truck jumper” is a term used for babies who literally jump or fall from transport trucks while they are driving on the expressway.

They are meat industry survivors.

These babies are as young as four weeks old when they are taken from their mothers, loaded onto transport trucks, and taken to “finishing facilities”. The finishing facility is where they are kept and fattened up until they are slaughtered at 6 months old.
Yes, all pork products in stores are the body parts of 6 month old babies.

The babies that escape this fate by falling off of transport trucks are then often stranded on the shoulders of expressways. They rely on the kindness of strangers who pull over, scoop them up, and call for help.

When we get that call, we mobilize immediately. These babies are extremely fragile and often terribly sick. Our protocol is to rush them to the vet as an emergency intake.

Our last truck jumper case was actually 2 piglets, Fiona and Francis, who fell from the same truck. They were both showing signs of being very sick. Once at the vet, it was confirmed that they were both positive for mycoplasma, which is the equivalent of a very serious pneumonia. Left untreated, mycoplasma can start damaging a pig’s joints, organs, and even their brains.

We are haunted at the thought of all the other pigs trapped in those trucks. Those who are left silently suffering in concrete stalls with very serious pig diseases. Those who will never receive medical treatment. Those who will suffer until they eventually are slaughtered.

Once we intake a truck jumper, we automatically know that our vet bills will be in the thousands! Then we will foster them for as long as it takes to find them the perfect forever home. This often takes months of planning and fostering.

Fiona and Francis were no exception. The vet bills were staggering and the fostering was laborious. However, we are thankful everyday that we were able to save these beautiful, innocent souls. They are immeasurably precious to us.

Through fostering these jumpers, we see first hand that they have similar traits to dogs or even human toddlers!
They play with toddler toys, watch cartoons, love to cuddle, go for walks on a harness and leash, and are quickly potty trained.

Often a piglet will climb onto their caretaker and lay on their chest. If given the chance, young piglets lay like this on their mothers to connect with their mother’s heartbeat.

Once you experience a pig connecting with your heartbeat as they cuddle into your chest, you truly understand the depth of a pig's soul.

While in our care, Fiona and Francis also bonded deeply with each other. They became totally inseparable. Where one goes, the other follows. So we knew we had to find them a home where they could live their lives together.

After they healed from mycoplasma in our care, we partnered with our friends at PEAK Sanctuary in Indiana. They generously offered to provide these two survivors with a forever home together.

Now Fiona and Francis spend their days in sanctuary; exploring grassy pastures, splashing in cool wallows, and cuddling together under the warmth of the sun. It’s a life that all pigs deserve but that very few ever get to experience..

This is why we must keep raising awareness for the animals trapped in factory farms.
What we feel in our hearts must manifest into a battle cry to fight against this cruelty.

Here at Chicagoland Pig Rescue, we are committed to being a lifeline to the babies jumping to save their lives... And fighting like hell for those who never got the chance.
Will you join us?

September flavors! Cheezecake soft serve (both shops) and Apple Cider Donut (Lincoln Square), but both shops get apple cider cake topping, apple pie sauce and… housemade N’Oreos!

I said “guess what?” on our stories and a few people taught me the meaning of chicken butt, but the answer was indeed N’Oreos. It only took us 3.5 years to gather the courage to take on this project, but we always knew it was coming. Come and tell us what you think (hint, they’re perfect)!
Yes, all gf 💖

Brazil Day Sundae!
Celebrating our roots on this Brazilian independence day, Saturday, Sunday and Monday only we will have this sweet corn soft serve+guava sauce+cinnamon combo that I’m sure will wow you ❤️🇧🇷

It is indeed the last weekend for Sweet Corn soft serve (both shops) and Blueberry Lemon soft serve (Lincoln Square), as well as the specials that go with them (Midwest Princess sundae, blue moon shell, glitter, olive oil + sea salt)! You have until Monday, then we will be cornless until next August!

Reminder we are now closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Thursday 9/12 will be a new day with new flavors and one extra special surprise 👀