Ice cream in the rain

For those of you who missed last Saturday’s “Ultimate Ice Cream Social on top of Blackford Hill”, we understand… It was raining… a lot. But it was still amazing fun.

As great as this picture is, it doesn’t do the event total justice (see more photos here). We had four White Mountains cranking simultaneously, churning out a full range of flavours: chocolate gelato, mint ice cream, raspberry sorbet, and a big 6-quart batch of classic vanilla ice cream.

We invited everyone up to the top of Blackford Hill for what was billed as the “greatest frozen dessert that will ever touch your tongue.” Now, that is a tall claim, but we had some testimonials that should speak for themselves.

With the storm clouds rolling in and thunder echoing throughout the sky, we had a limited turnout – probably only 15 to 20 folks dedicated enough for ice cream cranking in the rain.

Yet, a mother and her three young children happened upon our motley crew of crankers and were rather curious. A young girl approached my machine and looked in inquisitively.

“Ice cream,” I said quietly.

She ran back to her mother. “They’re making ice cream!”

Her mother was incredulous as I tried to explain the seriousness of the insane activity they were witnessing.
Still, she allowed the children to join in. When we served them bowls of mint and chocolate ice creams they were delighted.

One kid exclaimed: “This is the best ice cream in the whole world!”

Another kid one-upped the first: “This is the best day of my life!”