Another Scoop from Walpole (Not Enough to Induce Brain-freeze)

Conversations with Dave about the quality of Walpole Creamery ice cream and how he fits into the New England dairy tradition leave me with a surprisingly warm feeling after sampling second and third scoops of ginger and vanilla ice cream. Despite attending the same ice cream school at Penn with Ben & Jerry, Dave and his partner at Walpole, NH are decidedly and perhaps for the best neither Ben nor Jerry in any regard. As Dave eats low fat yogurt--possibly helping to avoid the triple-cream coronary bypass surgery Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry underwent in recent years--he talks to me about avoiding large chain store distribution except for two local Pricechoppers and the use of synthetic preservatives to prolong the shelf life of his products. These are obviously not the routes Ben and Jerry took with their candy filled ice cream flavors available everywhere from Pricechoppers to Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco where I'm from and on the opposite side of the country from their factory. Though his choice to avoid preservatives means the shelf-life of Walpole ice cream only extends four months instead of a year (Frankly, if you are choosing to retain a pint of ice cream for longer than four months, you, the consumer, are in error. Year-long ice cream expiration dates parallel in absurdity the serving suggestions for girl scout cookies which are fantastically a measly two cookies.), Dave chooses to stick with all natural ingredients.

Dave, his choices (another commendable choice is the use of his partner's Holstein cows instead of the buttery Jersey cows often used for the high-butterfat content in their milk and their resemblance to big buttery scoops of caramel flavored ice cream because they are what his partner raises), and the adorable scoop shop girls passing out the ice cream all add to the rich local flavor of New England's dairy tradition and the delicious ice cream he sells locally and proudly.