My oldest ice cream memories are centered around my grandparents, so my love of ice cream comes honestly.  My Pop-Pop Parks always used us as an excuse for an ice cream run, be it sundaes, Frosty’s, floats or cones.  Sometimes, he would just show up with a half-gallon.

I remember one night while spending the night at my mom-mom and pop pop’s.  My mom-mom was watching TV and pop-pop was in the kitchen.  I wandered into the kitchen in my favorite footie PJ’s and climbed up on to the seat opposite of him.  He was eating something out of a weird looking bowl.  The bowl was white with flowers on the side.  The thing about this bowl was that it had a handle.  I asked him what he was eating.  He answered “ice cream.”  I said “What kind?”  He replied “Vanilla with nuts.”

I learned later he was eating his favorite kind, Butter Pecan.  He asked if I wanted some and I, of course, said yes.  From that point on I always noticed when he ate ice cream at home he always ate it in that weird bowl.  He was an ice cream lover all his life and passed that love of ice cream on to me.  When he died and my mom, my aunt and my uncles were cleaning out the house I got pick out some things I could keep.  I picked that weird bowl.  Now, when I eat ice cream I always eat it in that bowl and remember my pop pop.

Another memory that sticks out in my mind is one of my Grandma Watson’s.  I was not the best student in my youth.  I didn’t like to do my homework. My parents tried everything under the sun to get me to do it. One day when I was over my grandparent’s house, my grandma struck a deal with me. She would buy me anything I wanted, but I would have to do my homework every day for a month.  I agreed to the deal.

I worked very hard that month to do all of my homework.  At the end of the month I took a good report from my teacher to my grandmother.  I was so excited, and I knew just what I wanted, my own half-gallon of ice cream.  I was the oldest of three children so I rarely got anything I didn’t have to share.  My grandma Watson took me and I picked out a half gallon of chocolate ice cream.  I got home and had a bowl right away.  Later that day I wanted more.  This time though I just ate it out of the carton.  I ate the rest in one sitting.  One whole half-gallon of chocolate ice cream was done in one day!  Unfortunately, that cured my taste for chocolate ice cream, however that does not stop me from eating my favorite flavors: French Vanilla or Fudge Ripple!

We’re interrupting our reader-written blog entry schedule to share some exciting news with you here on the Ice Cream Journal. Today, at around 10:30 a.m., Turkey Hill held a special ground breaking event to officially mark the start of construction of a brand new Lancaster County attraction called the Turkey Hill Experience. (That’s an artist’s rendering of the future Turkey Hill Experience above.)

The Turkey Hill Experience is a project several years in the making and we’re all VERY excited about it. It will be based in Columbia, right here in Lancaster County, and will feature 26,000 square feet of interactive exhibits, a café and retail space and will pay homage to Turkey Hill’s history while highlighting its ice cream and iced tea-making processes. Visitors will also learn about Lancaster County’s heritage and farming traditions in the Mid Atlantic region.

One of the cooler features of the Turkey Hill Experience will be an exhibit that allows visitors to experience what it’s like to be a Turkey Hill Dairy ice cream maker for a day, including the opportunity to create his or her very own ice cream flavor!

If all goes according to plan, the Turkey Hill Experience will open its doors to the public in the spring of 2011.

What’s cool about the Turkey Hill Experience is that it will be housed in an historic silk mill that has been renovated after being empty for more than 25 years. As many of you know, preserving the history and culture of Lancaster County is very important to Turkey Hill, which is what makes this new location so fitting for us.

We’ll post more about the history of the silk mill in an upcoming blog entry and we’ll also post construction updates at least once a month here on the Ice Cream Journal. For now, below is a video of the banner being unveiled at today’s big event. Also, if you live in the central Pennsylvania/Lancaster area, be sure to watch your local news tonight because all four local TV networks (WGAL, WHTM, WPMT and WHP) came out to today’s event to capture the story for the evening news!

Meet I.C. … The Alien in search of ice cream.

As we all know, Turkey Hill ice cream is out of this world. And I.C. the Alien is in search of the best ice cream on planet Earth. I.C. rides around the galaxy in a sprinkle-powered waffle dish, searching out the most delicious frozen treats. He has recently come across Turkey Hill Ice Cream while hovering over Lancaster County and decided that it’s his new favorite.

I.C. is sherbet pink and has four arms (he can hold more ice cream that way). His two large eyes allow him to spot ice cream dairies from far away, and two green antennae help him search out frozen treats all over the universe.  Always on board his waffle dish ship is an ice cream scoop and giant spoon along with ice cream toppings of all kinds, from fudge sauce to caramel to space-mallows. It’s always good to be prepared.

I.C. has been circling over Turkey Hill quite a lot lately and has collected a wide variety of Turkey Hill Ice Cream. He stocked up the waffle ship with Dynamic Duos, Premium Ice Cream (including Phillies Graham Slam), lots of Duetto, containers of Stuff’d stuff, ice cream sandwiches, Italian ice and all kinds of other frozen Turkey Hill treats. I.C was sure to stock up on all sorts of flavors and he’s sure to keep stopping by for the Limited Edition flavors of the future too, so be sure to get yours before he beams them all up to the waffle dish!

What are three flavors of ice cream I could eat for the rest of my life? That’s a tough call since I enjoy exploring the strange and usual flavors offered up in the supermarket freezer. I’d try tuna fish and lettuce ice cream if anyone tempted me with a spoonful. Isolating three flavors is inspiring a mental fit that can only be calmed with a bowl of Moose Tracks.

My first pick is the mixing of vanilla, peanut butter cups and Moose Tracks Fudge. Being a longtime fan of Bullwinkle makes this a natural addition to my stomach. The genius professors at Wossamotta U must have reserched this combination. It’s not just one of those hipster flavors. It’s a blend that just says, “Why weren’t you in my life all those years ago?”

While Egg Nog ice cream is a seasonal offering, it lets my tastebuds know that the holidays have arrived. Guests will argue for days about the taste of egg nog when offered a cup. However a scoop of Egg Nog ice cream makes it a silent night with everyone too busy licking to pontificate. If you want to know why you never got a pony under the Christmas tree, the answer is that you left Santa stupid cookies and milk instead of a bowl of Egg Nog ice cream. You might get a Kentucky Derby winner gift wrapped if you put out a quart for St. Nick to share with Vixen and Donner. The ulimtate benefit of Egg Nog ice cream is if it melts, you got a chilled egg nog leftover.

Remember that elementary school game about what three wishes would you ask from a genie? The smart answer for wish number three is “three more wishes.” My original third ice cream choice was merely going to be strawberry. It has always been my favorite since childhood. A good strawberry combines the smooth joy with a little crunch from the strawberries. But I wasn’t just going to settle for one final flavor when I could get “three wishes” by demanding Neapolitan ice cream. This was the greatest thing to come out of Naples besides Enrico Caruso. Growing as part of three brothers, the flavor was the great compromise used by my mother. I liked strawberry. My middle brother was all about chocolate. We stuck my youngest brother with the vanilla. Neither of us crossed the flavor border in the carton for fear of seeing our G.I. Joes beheaded.

Even after all these years and no longer worrying about my brothers revenge, I rarely scoop across all three flavors at once. Maybe there’s some therapy treatment to over come this phobia. But why waste time on that when I’ve got better things to do like go for a second bowl?

Turkey Hill wasn’t always the well-known producer of ice cream, frozen yogurt and other yummy dairy confections. The company, like many other American success stories, had very humble beginnings. It all started back in the 1930s when Armor Frey, a farmer in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, began selling bottles of milk to his neighbors. This was no high-tech operation; he sold the milk out of the back of his car.

As his route grew, this side venture turned into Frey’s main source of income. Years later, in 1947, Frey’s three sons, Glenn, Emerson and Charles, bought their father’s business. The customers were all still in the area, so the boys were able to milk the cows and deliver a farm-fresh product to people’s homes quite easily. Turned out that this was actually a pretty lucrative business; the boys earned enough to provide for their growing families.

The dairy thrived and in 1980, the Frey brothers decided to try their luck making ice cream. It wasn’t long before Turkey Hill ice cream became a local favorite in Lancaster County stores. The following year saw Turkey Hill popping up in Philadelphia shops and quickly became a favorite in the City of Brotherly Love.

And the rest, as they say, is ice cream history.

I recently had the opportunity to interview Turkey Hill’s resident Einstein of Ice Cream, Ernie Pinckney.

Q. IS IT TRUE THAT YOU GREW UP ON A DAIRY FARM? YOU’RE NOT LACTOSE-INTOLERANT, ARE YOU?

Thankfully, I’m not. That would not be good for a professional ice cream maker and tester!

Q.  WHAT ARE YOUR DAY-TO-DAY DUTIES AT TURKEY HILL?

My daily duties vary, but overall I’m in charge of overseeing the ice cream and iced tea operations on the floor. That includes making sure the ice cream meets the high quality standards of Turkey Hill. I check that by tasting various batches and also by cutting containers of ice cream open with my big ice cream chopping knife and looking inside to make sure all the goodies are spaced out the way they should be.

Overall it’s a really fun job and I’m very thankful that I get to do it on a daily basis!

Q. IF YOU DIDN’T WORK AT TURKEY HILL, WHAT CAN YOU ENVISION YOURSELF  DOING INSTEAD?

I’d probably be farming. Like you mentioned, I grew up on a dairy farm and I enjoyed the experience. In many ways, working with Turkey Hill, which uses dairy products from farms in the Lancaster County area, allows me to keep in touch with my farming roots.

Q. DO YOU ENJOY PRODUCTS FROM OTHER MANUFACTURERS, OR ARE YOU STRICTLY A TURKEY HILL KIND OF GUY?

I’m definitely a Turkey Hill kind of guy. My freezer at home is always stocked with at least three or four flavors. I do keep tabs on what the competition is doing, though, just as I’m sure they keep tabs on what we’re doing!

Q. I’M SURE YOU’VE BEEN ASKED A MILLION TIMES TO NAME YOUR FAVORITE FLAVOR. SO THIS WILL BE A MILLION AND ONE! WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FLAVOR? ALSO, HAVE YOU TRIED ANY OF THOSE “OUT THERE” ICE CREAM FLAVORS SUCH AS SMOKED SALMON OR SQUID INK?

I do get that question a lot, but that’s because it’s a good question! If I had to choose one, I’d have to choose vanilla ice cream. It might sound unusual considering all the wonderful flavors at my disposal, but I like vanilla because it’s the essence of so many ice cream flavors and it allows me to taste all the dairy ingredients that go into it.

If you’re looking for a more adventurous flavor, I also enjoy butter pecan and our Light Recipe Extreme Cookies n’ Cream. Oh, and also our newest Limited Edition flavor, Double Dunker. I’ve been eating a lot of that one lately!

As for the “out there” flavors, I do like to try some unusual flavors when I can. I mainly find those at small, out-of-the-way ice cream stands, but it’s never anything like that smoked salmon or squid ink. Usually it’s flavors like bubble gum or buttered popcorn. Although I like to think of myself as an adventurous guy, especially when it comes to food, so I’d probably try a smoked salmon ice cream if I had the chance.

Q. WHAT STEPS DOES TURKEY HILL TAKE BEFORE A NEW FLAVOR HITS THE MARKET? DO YOU HAVE FOCUS GROUPS COME IN FOR TASTINGS OR DO SURVEYS OF SOME SORT?

We are always keeping track of what’s hot and trendy, but Turkey Hill has been around for over 75 years, so we also keep in mind the things that have made us so successful. The first step is to create flavor ideas, which can range from a twist on an old standard, like Chunky Peanut Butter, or something brand new, like Movie Night. Then our R&D team whips up some special batches of these test flavors for our taste testing team to try. The taste-testing team (say that three times fast!) includes people from all of Turkey Hill’s different departments. If one of those test flavors gets a good reception, it will become one of our flavors for the following year.

Q. DO YOU PERSONALLY ASSIGN NAMES TO THE NEW FLAVORS, OR IS IT A GROUP EFFORT?

I can’t take credit for all the names, I’m not that creative! The creation of names for our ice cream is definitely a group effort. When we are sampling a brand new flavor we have a fun session where we are all encouraged to be as creative as possible and suggest as many names as possible. During that meeting we narrow the name suggestions down to a few good selections and then we vote, and the most popular name wins. It’s a very democratic process here at Turkey Hill, and sometimes the name you want wins and sometimes it doesn’t. With the exception of actually eating ice cream, creating the names is my favorite thing to do! And, just so you know, my favorite ice cream name is Double Dunker, that name is almost as good as the ice cream tastes.

Q. HAVE YOU HAD ANY KOOKY REQUESTS FROM CUSTOMERS SUCH AS, “CAN YOU SHIP A FEW PINTS OF PARTY CAKE OUT TO MY VACATION HOME IN BORA BORA?”

All the time! But the good news is, we can ship a few pints of Party Cake to anyone in the United States! We have a shipping option on our website, which comes in handy for people who grew up with Turkey Hill ice cream or iced tea but moved away to an area that doesn’t sell our products. It costs a little to ship it in dry ice and everything, but I like to think that it’s well worth the cost!

Q. DOES TURKEY HILL OFFER A FACTORY TOUR?

Unfortunately, we don’t. The Dairy isn’t set up for public tours, which is a shame, because giving tours to special guests (which we do every now and then) is one of my favorite things to do. It’s always a lot of fun to hear their comments when they taste the ice cream fresh off the line or step into the freezing cold deep freezer for the first time.

Q. THERE IS A LOT OF NEW TECHNOLOGY OUT IN THE MARKETPLACE. THE FIELD OF MOLECULAR GASTRONOMY IS GROWING; USING LIQUID NITROGEN IS NO LONGER LOOKED AT AS A CRAZY TRICK BEING DONE IN A LAB. THERE ARE NEWFANGLED VENDING MACHINES OUT THERE UTILIZING THIS NEW TECHNOLOGY. WHERE DO YOU SEE ICE CREAM GOING? IS TURKEY HILL GOING TO RIDE THIS TECHNOLOGICAL WAVE OR STAY TRUE TO ITS ORIGINS AND REMAIN THE QUIET LITTLE FAMILY COMPANY IT HAS BEEN FOR SO MANY YEARS?

I keep an eye on the technology of the ice cream industry, but for the most part, you’re right. Turkey Hill is very proud of its humble Lancaster County roots and we’re going to do what we can to stay very close to the laid-back, old-fashioned ideals that got us this far. That’s not to say that we won’t get a little crazy now and then and invent some new flavors that turn the ice cream world upside down!

Q. SO HOW DO I GET A JOB AT TURKEY HILL?

That’s the best question of them all! We’re always looking for some new faces around here. There’s a “current openings” section on our website which you’re free to check out. Hopefully there’s something on there that you like. And no, my job isn’t going to be up for grabs for a long, long time!!

Okay, so I was hiking in Pennsylvania one day when I stumbled upon the Turkey Hill Farms.  It’s a very curious place and I witnessed some very interesting phenomenons.  At first I thought it was because I had been in the sun too long.  Then I thought it was because I hadn’t had my daily intake of Turkey Hill ice cream.  But alas, it was neither!  I actually saw cows flying over the pastures!  With huge grins no less!  Well, I just had to research this further.  As I cautiously approached one of the cows, she actually blushed a little when I asked her to explain this beautiful place.

“It started several years ago when one of our resident turkeys begged us for help,” explained the cow.  “It was late October and she knew what was about to happen to her and her fellow turkeys.”  (To keep this light, we won’tgo into the horrors turkeys endure in November)  “So she brought us her young son and asked if we could hide him at least until all the major holidays were over,” continued the cow. “One look at him and the answer was obvious!”

“Of course we will!” chimed all the cows.

The turkey’s son had a look of regalness and compassion they had never seen before.  When he spread his feathers an even bigger surprise awaited the cows.  Every other feather was white!  “He is almost like us!” they exclaimed.  “Although we are white and black spots, he has brown and white feathers!”

The cows spent many hours deliberating over the  perfect name for such a special turkey.  Finally they had all agreed and asked the turkey what he thought of his new name.  “I love it!  But don’t you think it is a little long for me?” said the special turkey.  Knowing how often times things have a way of working all by themselves, the cows decided to let his name play out and see what happens.  So the daily routine for the cows continued…with some changes.

Every morning before the cows left to pasture, the turkey met them and gave them all a heartfelt pep talk.  “Remember, you are all here to do a special job and help make the best ice cream ever,” said the turkey. “Each and everyone one of you make a  positive contribution.  So never be sad and always help each other.”

This made the cows realize how much they all needed each other and began bonding like never before.

Upon their return from the pasture the turkey was once again there to greet them.  “Hello, my friends!  Did you have a beautiful day in the pasture?”  They all agreed it was a wonderful day.  “Come and tell me all about your adventures.”

Each and every day the stories got bigger and wilder.  Till one day one of the cows asked Thaddeus Henry (yes, indeed, that is the name they all agreed on), “T. H. have you bestowed special powers on us?  We could never fly before you came to us.  We could never talk before you arrived and our ice cream has gotten even better than we thought possible!”

“No my good friends you always had these wonderful abilities,” said Thaddeus Henry. “You just needed someone to show you that  you had the confidence to accomplish them!  It was my way of thanking you for saving my life.”

“And so my good friend that is how Thaddeus Henry — AKA T. H. — became the official mascot for Turkey Hill!” explained the flying cow.

Wow, I was so speechless the only thing I could do was thank the cow, head to the nearest grocery store, buy my favorite flavor, Turkey Hill’s Chocolate Peanut Butter, go home and eat it in one sitting!

Ice cream is good after everything, but especially good after hot sausage sandwiches loaded with peppers, onions and red sauce washed down with beer during a Pittsburgh Steelers football game. Or pizza and beer or well, fill in the blank yourself with your favorite team and meal!

Football fans everywhere may be firing up their grills for summer but, down deep, they know it’s just dress rehearsal for the new football season just months away. Whether the team is Philadelphia, Baltimore, San Francisco, Miami , Chicago or Pittsburgh, grills at stadium parking lots, backyard patios or kitchens will be steaming with tasty grub.

And freezers will be loaded with Turkey Hill fan favorites, especially with sports flavors, but an expansion of those flavors needs to happen. Pittsburgh fans, already spoiled with six Super Bowl rings, want still more, more, ah, s’mores!!

I challenge super flavor wizard Ernie to gather his graham crackers, marshmellows, chocolate chunks and a bucket of half vanilla and half chocolate ice cream to create a new Sports Flavor: Pittsburgh Steelers S’Mores!

Today’s entry, however, comes from Mary B. of St. Marys, PA. In it, Mary recalls an early childhood ice cream memory involving some of the best ice cream you’ll ever taste — homemade ice cream.

My parent’s house had a great back porch!  It was always the site of the ice cream creation.  Anyone who was lucky enough to be at our house on those summer evenings was always welcome to join in the work and the subsequent rewards.  We used my grandfather’s one quart machine and a great deal of preparation and ceremony went into assembling the necessary ingredients, making the custard, combining just the right amount of salt and ice in the bucket, and turning the crank.  We weren’t very adventurous, as vanilla was the only flavor we ever made, but to me and those who shared the final product it was pure gold!

I am a 64 year old grandmother who has been baby sitting grandchildren for 17 years. They were raised on Turkey Hill ice cream from when they were little and each one has their own flavor that they like. I always have my freezer stocked with, no lie, at least 12 different flavors. When anyone comes to my house, they can’t believe it.

On Sunday when everyone gets together I have a special four section bowl where  I place all the flavors I have. I put them in large scoops and we all get to try the different flavors. When I do that for company, it gets them to sample flavors that they never had and they think that is great. I must go through my ice cream in a matter of two weeks time. No matter how much we eat, there is always room for Turkey Hill Ice Cream in my home!