Treat the family to some fresh ice cream by hitting one of the stops on Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail which officially opens its 2017 season May 26.
Now in its fifth year, the trail has become increasingly popular, drawing participants from across the globe.
“The Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail is a great way to encourage Marylanders to get out and visit a real working farm,” said Secretary Joe Bartenfelder. “Maryland is home to many outstanding dairy operations, and I challenge all residents to visit at least one of the trail’s nine stops this summer.”
The Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail is made up of nine Maryland dairies that produce and sell their ice cream directly to consumers. The trail stretches more than 290 miles from Ocean City in the east to Washington County in the west.
The purpose of the trail is to highlight the important contributions of Maryland’s 414 dairy farms which accounted $164 million in sales in 2016; and to increase the public’s general understanding of dairy farming.
On June 13, Bartenfelder will celebrate National Dairy Month and begin his summer-long journey along the trail with stops at Rocky Point Creamery in Frederick County and Woodbourne Creamery at in Mt. Airy.
Aside from Rocky Point and Woodbourne Creamery, Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail includes Broom’s Bloom Dairy (Harford County); Chesapeake Bay Farms (Worcester County – with two locations); Keyes Creamery (Harford County); Kilby Cream (Cecil County); Misty Meadows Farm Creamery (Washington County); South Mountain Creamery (Frederick County); and Prigel Family Creamery (Baltimore County).
Download the Ice Cream Trail Passport at MarylandsBest.net or pickup a printed copy at one of the nine creameries throughout the season. Participants can use the passport to keep track of their progress by answering a specific dairy question and getting a stamp at each creamery on the trail between May 26 and Sept. 25.
Once completed, participants can mail the passport to the Maryland Department of Agriculture where it will be entered in a drawing. One lucky winner will be named the 2017 Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail Blazer. The grand prize package will include a $50 gift certificate to the winner’s favorite creamery; a DVD set of Maryland Public Television’s Maryland Farm and Harvest, a copy of Lucie Snodgrass’ Dishing Up Maryland cookbook; and, of course, ultimate bragging rights! No purchase necessary.
Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail is a joint promotion supported by the Maryland Department of Agriculture and the Mid-Atlantic Dairy Association, the local affiliate of the National Dairy Council. For more details visit the Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail website, at MarylandsBest.net
