Bring us your citrus, figs, loquats, or other backyard fruit, and we’ll turn it into small batch gelato or sorbet for you.

At Gelateria Uli, we love using local ingredients. Every day, our case is full of flavors made with local produce from Southern California farms. Even our pistachios are local. 

So when my brother-in-law last year asked me to turn a bucket full of his backyard loquats into sorbet, of course I got excited. These little mini stone-fruits, which thrive all over Los Angeles and often go to waste (or to the birds), make incredible sorbet. 

Then, we did this again for some friends with a bounty of Meyer Lemons. That's when I realized, why not do this for anyone? So, that's what I'm doing with the Backyard Fruit Project. You bring us your backyard fruit, and we’ll make you a big batch of delicious gelato or sorbet using your homegrown ingredient. We’ll give it to you in one big tub, to keep in your freezer for a reliable treat you can keep coming back to for weeks. Or, we’ll pint it, and you’ll have a dozen lovely gifts to share with friends and family. All you have to do is bring us your fruit. We have details on our website about minimum quantities, and some tips for when to harvest certain fruits.

All flavors yield about 12 pints of gelato or sorbet, and we require X pounds of fruit to make a batch. 

Each batch costs $80, which you pay upon delivery of the fruit at our Downtown location at 541 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA in the Spring Arcade building. You can drop off your fruit during normal business hours, M-Thurs., noon-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 11 a.m.-11 p.m., or Sunday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m.

Important: Not all fruit is created, or grown, equally. If your citrus is bitter, or watery, it won't make incredible gelato, and we'd rather not try. Also, it's important that the fruit is not under-ripe. We're more likely to be able to work with soft, bruised, over-ripe fruit than under-ripe. But try to pick it right around when you want to eat it. We reserve the right to decline to work with your fruit if experience tells us it won't result in a delicious end product.