01 Freeze-Frame

Last week I picked up a new favorite toy with sleek lines, simple parts and a chilly center. It does not require electricity, just the frozen cylinder and approximately 20 minutes of watching, churning, tasting (rough job) until you come up with a chilly mass of tasty goodness – the Donvier Ice Cream Maker. My childhood memories of ice cream making are dominated by fetching ice and sprinkling rock salt until I was distracted towards a new activity. This new toy offers a frozen cylinder which replaces the rock salt chore and simply requires a churn a few times, every few minutes.
We have a local artisanal organic ice cream maker, oWow Cow Creamery in Ottsville (pronounced either “oh Wow” for delicioso or “ow ow” for painfully good), whose flavors are exceptional and inspiring. In their true form, I sought out the ultimate local, fresh, quality, ingredients which we all know, makes all the difference.

I planned to create an herbal strawberry ice cream for weekend activities. All of the ingredients were locally accessible: I picked the last batch at Penn Vermont Saturday morning, went to my chicken coop for my eggs (one aracauna blue and one buff orpington brown if we are being specific), stopped at Kimberton Whole Foods for the Kimberton Dairy raw milk and heavy cream, organic sugar, honey from Marsh Gibbons (thanks Yvonne & Kevin), and picked tarragon and sweet woodruff from The Kitchen Potager (thank you Robin and Marlene for inspiring the anise and vanilla herbal flavors).
I had the kitchen to myself, World Cup was starting…
Hull quart+ of Penn Vermont strawberries and add 1/4 c sugar and T Marsh Gibbons Honey, 2 T chopped tarragon and 1 T toasted chopped sweet woodruff, set aside in refrigerator.
In large bowl, whip two eggs gradually adding 3/4 c sugar. By the time you get to the end of the sugar, you have a thick custard. Gradually whip in 1 c milk followed by 2 c heavy cream and t vanilla. When berries are chilled for 1 hour, add the cream and egg mixture and chill again for at least one hour. When you are closer to serving, add your berry custard mix into the ice cream maker, in this case a Donvier sorbetiere, and churn 3-4 times every 3-4 minutes for approximately 20 minutes. Et Voila! Three cheers for everyone on the kitchen team and 3 cheers for Argentina!
The lightweight electricity-free simplicity of the new Donvier toy allowed us to carry the ice cream “en process” to our friends for dinner. We were treated to their “fresh catch” seafood dinner and gourmet treats. As the sun set, we slurped the spoonfuls of sunny strawberry flavors while enjoying front row seating for the lightning bug glittery entertainment display. The recipe worked well but my new gadget is not capable of freezing the moment. We will simply have to freeze again!

With this year’s season being two weeks ahead of time, I was so thrilled to catch the last of the strawberry season at Manoff Market Gardens, Solebury and Penn Vermont, route 113! Last Tuesday night, I picked up my friend Yvonne and rushed to see Amy at Manoff Market Garden to see what we could find. When I arrived last year, the watered down season brought tears to farmers’ eyes as rain washed out the crops, literally. In contrast last week, it was such a joy to hear that it was the best season in 10 years. The loads of dry sunny weather with just the right amount of rain brought back the thrill of PYO; perfectly ripe red strawberries with flavors packed with juicy sunshine! Amy mentioned that all of their varieties were ripe at the same time – jewel, cabot, earliglow, and late glow…oh my!

The selection we picked for the Ottsville Farmers Market tasting was ideal, a small selection of the shrek-like Cabot, juicy jewel for dipping and displaying, as well as canning choices of sweet tart flavor packed early and late glow to preserve the 2010 season as long as possible. As market patrons tasted the varieties, it was wonderful to hear the exclamations “that is what a strawberry is supposed to taste like!”. Penn Vermont had such a successful season that they were closed for a few days during the week until there were more berries. Luckily, I was able to visit on Saturday and was the LAST person to walk off the farm with strawberries for the season! This year we enjoyed the berries for World Cup and will need to have Raspberries and cream for Wimbledon!

Hale the helper

Can you taste the sunshine?

Get them while they last!