Treat the family to some fresh ice cream by hitting one of the stops on Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail which is officially open for its 2018 season.
Now in its sixth year, the trail has become increasingly popular, drawing participants from across the globe.
“Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail is a great way to encourage Marylanders to get out and visit a real working farm,” remarked Secretary Joe Bartenfelder, who will be visiting the creameries himself this summer. “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 387 dairy farms which accounted $169 million in sales in 2017; and to increase the public’s general understanding of dairy farming.
Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail includes Rocky Point and Woodbourne Creamery, 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 pick up 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 June 1 and Sept. 25.
Once completed, participants can mail the passport to the Maryland Department of Agriculture by September 30 where it will be entered in a drawing. One lucky winner will be named the 2018 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