Tom came home from the Farmers’ Market last week with a bag full of South Carolina peaches. I should edit that statement to say they were absolutely delicious peaches!! We are finishing off the last two this morning. Peaches seem to sing summer to me. We have on occasion made a peach cobbler but mostly we just eat them fresh.
Growing up I can remember that peaches often meant making homemade ice cream in an old crank ice cream freezer. My mother was a champion at mixing up the diced fresh peaches with milk and sugar; then we would pour the mixture into the metal container, position it carefully in the wooden bucket, pack around it with ice and rock salt and begin the cranking. My brother and I loved taking turns cranking until we got close to the end and it became very, very hard to crank. My mother usually took over at that point.
I don’t remember my dad being a part of this ice cream making adventure, but that might be a failure on the part of my memory. I do remember the wooden bucket was a pale green and that the freezer had seen a good deal of use. I haven’t a clue as to what happened to that old crank-style freezer. I do remember my grandparents loved enjoying that freshly made peach ice cream when they came to Raleigh from Wendell for a summer day’s visit. Even though it always gave us those infamous frontal lobe headaches from eating something so icy cold too quickly, it was worth it!
My grandmother especially loved ice cream. I remember going for Sunday afternoon drives and we would find a drug store with a soda fountain open so we could always get a cone of ice cream. My grandmother loved the fruit flavors—peach or lemon. I always stuck with what I knew as a child as “chocolate revel” which was a marbled version of vanilla and chocolate. My brother was always a straight chocolate man, at least as a little boy.
When I was growing up in Raleigh we lived right down the street from a small shopping center that had a Colonial Grocery Store and a drug store, Northside Pharmacy. Sometimes we would go there for a cone of ice cream. I think the owner- pharmacist’s name was Mr. Elmore. I can still see the counter of the soda fountain and the posted list of flavors. There were no where near the flavor choices of today but I can remember having to ponder if I was going to stick with chocolate revel or if I was going to go for butter pecan. Big choices!
My mother sometimes bought ice cream to keep in our refrigerator’s freezer but we were not a family that bought premium brand ice cream. I don’t even know if there were premium brands back in the early 1950’s, but my mother favored the on-sale ice MILK instead of ice cream and yes, there is a definite taste difference. It wasn’t about calories or fat content; for her, it was a matter of budget. It was always the Neapolitan style—or Choc-Van-Straw as we called it. The Choc and the Van went quickly. The Straw was always the last to be eaten. I must say for years and years I hated strawberry ice cream. My sister vehemently hates it to this very day, as does my husband. He shares that he would totally freak out (even now) if even a sliver of strawberry touched his choc-van.
Many years later I was shocked when our granddaughter (only about 4 years old at the time) told me her favorite flavor was strawberry. Strawberry? What? I never knew that strawberry was anyone’s favorite?!?! But then—because my granddaughter is a very wise being—I had to try strawberry again. A really good (not an ice milk) strawberry ice cream. My granddaughter was absolutely right—it was delicious. Still not my favorite (any variety of coffee ice cream makes the top of my hit parade) but truly a contender.
I know there are people that can’t eat ice cream or choose not to eat ice cream but I think it is a big favorite with most people around the world. I remember with delight eating amazingly delicious ice cream when I was in Wales.
In Vermont we ate more creemees (think of those as luxury soft serve ice cream), especially maple creemees. After a long morning at the Cathedral, the best treat was arriving home, changing out of my church clothes and driving with Tom down to Ferrisburg to a little place called Cookie Love for a maple creemee. The lines were long but the wait was worth it.
We have enjoyed trips to Acushnet Creamery and Oxford Creamery when we visit our daughter and her family in Massachusetts. You know when a state freely utilizes the word “creamery” that they are going to have delicious ice cream. They do. They absolutely do. I still check out the daily flavors at Acushnet on FaceBook.
My mother loved the Peanut Butter and Chocolate from Baskin-Robbins. It was her everlasting favorite. She actually loved the combination of peanut butter and chocolate (think Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups) in any format.
My Dad preferred his ice cream in a milk shake and in his last years he would sometimes choose a milk shake as his lunch meal. I did not think this was properly nutritious for him, but my mother followed the dietary guidelines of “he can have whatever he wants at his age.” It was strange that my husband, right after his hip replacement surgery, when I came to see him as he was moved from the recovery room to his regular hospital room, asked , “Do you think you could go out and get me a milk shake?” There must be some unknown healing power there. I did go and get him a milk shake and he recovered super fast and super well. Maybe the surgeon gets some credit too.
My brother introduced us to Graeter’s Ice Cream from Cincinnati. Oh so, delicious. You can’t live in Vermont and not have a heart for Ben & Jerry’s. My sister tells me of her favorite place in Raleigh, named Two Roosters, that mixes up special exotic flavors each month. Some of them sound borderline strange but she assures me they are quite wonderful.
You have to love Talenti in its cute little reusable jars. We are a fan of their gelato layers.
We have a friend here at Deerfield that has two scoops of ice cream every day as his lunch dessert—ordered by his doctor (I am serious) to help him with both calcium and keeping his weight up. Alas, that is not my problem or my doctor’s advice!
I remember one tearful and overtired grandson lamenting loudly that he had never ever, ever had a banana split and how wrong that was and how could his parents have deprived him of this. Fortunately, it was an easily remedied problem not long after his melt down (pun intended) and I think he discovered that banana splits might be overrated. But he is no longer deprived! Interestingly, his summer job is at Coldstone Creamery. I am not sure if he is now the creator of banana splits.
Here in Asheville we enjoy a little place called Sunshine Sammies. They make their own ice cream and make homemade ice cream sandwiches too. They are downtown in what was once an old gas station; it’s good they are not right next door as the temptation would be way too great especially that we now fall into my mother’s designated category of “at his/her age.”
I think my mother was right though. It is okay to enjoy the things we truly enjoy. We need to delight in these treats rather than scold ourselves about then. None of us probably want to eat ice cream three times a day (feel free to disagree with me), but for most of us, it is a fun, delicious treat that most of us have loved since childhood and love as grown ups, too!
I’d love to know your favorite flavor of ice cream and the place you had the best ice cream you can ever remember…
My very favorite ice cream is and always has been strawberry nothing on it. If I had to choose a number two flavor it would be an extra rich vanilla. No chocolate. There are several great ice cream places that sell delicious ice cream but one of my favorite is Kilwins in downtown Asheville. They also have chocolates and fudge.
I love all kinds of fancy ice cream, but McDonald's hot fudge sundaes remind me of driving to California right after college. Perfect in their simplicity! I love a place in New Bedford called Dairy Maid--really great soft serve, piled high in a cake cone! And of course we have to pay homage to the frappe--a New England staple, not to be confused with the New England version of a milkshake, which has no ice cream in it!