Elizabeth B. from Acushnet, Mass. (favorite flavor Vanilla Bean) offers this two-parter:

HI ERNIE,

HOW MUCH DOES A TURKEY HILL WINROSS TRUCK COST AND ON WHICH PARKWAY DID THE GIANT COW GET STUCK?

The Winross Truck costs $39.95. You can find that and many other Turkey Hill-related items on the “Turkey Hill Gear” page of our website.

For the second part of your question, in July of 1995, while traveling on the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn, New York our Giant Cow was being towed by one of our Turkey Hill trucks when it got stuck in an underpass (she is, after all, a GIANT cow). It sounds funny now, but she caused a bit of a traffic jam and even drew some attention from the police who arrived on the scene to help get her back on the road.Feel free to check the full story here, and thanks for your question!

- Ernie

Seriously, what happened to him? Now that it’s officially Spring, we thought we’d ask. Some of us were also wondering why it’s always the Ice Cream MAN and never the Ice Cream WOMAN, but we’ll save that discussion for another day.

Most people over the age of 30 remembers hearing the sound of the ice cream man’s melodic and slightly off-key chimes as the truck turned the corner and drove slowly down the street on a hot summer day. The sound of the truck approaching (you didn’t even need to see it) would send kids scrambling into their houses for some change from mom and dad. Just a few quarters were all you needed. Sadly, memories like that are becoming rare for today’s generation.

We’ll tackle the “Mystery of the Disappearing Ice Cream Man” in another post, but for now, we wanted to take you on a trip down memory lane with these Ice Cream Man jingles we found on a blog by Jersey City radio station, WFMU. If they sound familiar, it’s because most of the songs are adaptations of other songs, but with ice cream themed titles. Enjoy!

“Lips Stained Blue”

“Push Up Pop Malfunction”

“Creamsicle of My Dreamsicle”

“Soft Serve Sleepytime”

“Pink Panther Pops = Awesome”

If you’re curious, here’s a link to a blog posting about why Ice Cream Man music sounds the way it does. And don’t forget to thank and support your local Ice Cream Man next time you see him. Of course, that’s if you’re lucky to live in an area that still HAS an Ice Cream Man.

The art of making ice cream didn’t start in big factories — it started at home. Many people still enjoy homemade ice cream, which is why there’s no shortage of machines designed to help you whip up your very own batch of Super Dooper Chocolate Fudge Chunk.

Some are expensive and some aren’t, but the Ice Cream Ball from L.L. Bean has been getting a lot of buzz lately, mainly for its unique and easy-to-use design. You can also find them on Amazon.com in a variety of colors and sizes.

We love this thing for several reasons, but mostly because it’s fun, which is a feature a lot of at-home ice cream machines lack. Like the website says, all you need to do is “fill the bottom of this durable, lightweight Lexan plastic ball with ice and rock salt, add ice cream ingredients to the top and just shake, pass or roll the ball around your campsite.” Twenty minutes later, you’ve got ice cream!

We liked this thing so much, we bought a few of them to give away as commenter prizes this month. Hopefully you like it too. If anyone has ever used one of these things (we’re going to put one to the test in an upcoming post), let us know how everything came out.

Just imagine, making and enjoying ice cream while camping. This could be the greatest thing to happen to fireside desserts since the mountain pie maker!

John B. writes:

On some of your ice cream boxes it says “Philadelphia Style Ice Cream.” What is “Philadelphia Style” and what are the other “styles?”

Good question, John. Philadelphia is an influential city in ice cream history, so it’s no surprise that they have a “style” of ice cream named after them.

Traditionally, Philadelphia style ice creams are milk and cream-based mixtures which contain no eggs. This means the ice cream is less rich, but it has a more intense flavor. The style is also known for using pure, natural ingredients and some Philadelphia Style ice cream mixtures are also cooked before they are frozen. Of course, all of this is in contrast to “French Style” ice cream which uses eggs and is sometimes also referred to as a custard.

The popular Philadelphia Style vanilla version is known for having real specks of vanilla bean distributed throughout the ice cream. Even though vanilla is the style’s most common variety, Turkey Hill actually makes an entire line of flavors under our All Natural Recipe line which are made in the traditional Philadelphia style.

Thanks for your question!

Ernie

RELATED SIDENOTE: It’s said that Thomas Jefferson himself was such a fan of vanilla ice cream, that while living in Philadelphia in 1791 he became alarmed at the city’s lack of vanilla flavoring. In response, he wrote to an American envoy of troops in France and asked them to ship vanilla beans back to the city so that he could continue to indulge in his favorite treat.

On St. Patrick’s Day weekend, the hippopotamus will no longer be the largest animal on display at Adventure Aquarium in Camden, New Jersey. That’s because we’re stopping by with our Giant Swirly Cow to celebrate the fact that our ice cream has been added to the Aquarium’s menu.

Our appearance is also part of the Aquarium’s month-long “Button’s Birthday Bash,” which celebrates the tenth birthday of Button, one of the hippos in the West African River Experience.

The Giant Swirly Cow will arrive on Saturday, March 17 and some Turkey Hill staff members will be there all weekend, giving away free samples of Duetto. We always love taking our Giant Cows to new places, especially fun places like Adventure Aquarium on the Camden Waterfront. If you’re in the area that weekend, feel free to stop by and say hello…and get a sample or two of Duetto, of course. Print out and bring in the coupon below and save up to $15 dollars on Aquarium admission! Oh, and despite what the picture above might suggest, DO NOT feed your ice cream to the hippos. As good as Duetto may taste, they’d much prefer a big mouthful of grass or their big special vegetarian birthday cake!

(NOTE: If you do plan to visit us at the aquarium, this coupon is good through April 1, so if you can’t make it this weekend, maybe you can use it some other time soon.)

Whew! Things are very busy over here at the Dairy. Duetto is in the midst of a full-scale launch and we’re also gearing up for what looks to be one of our most active years yet. That’s why we didn’t announce last month’s Ice Cream Journal comment winners. Sorry about that. Here’s our January AND February winners:

JANUARY (Each receive two packages of freeze dried “Astronaut Ice Cream”):

• Mary Anne K. from Croydon, PA
• Patricia B. from Hughesville, MD
• Pam B. from Orland Park, IL

FEBRUARY (Each receive a copy of the book “Everybody Loves Ice Cream: The Whole Scoop on America’s Favorite Treat”):

• Patricia S. from Bellmore, NY
• Richard B. from Dumfries, VA
• Janice C. from Hainesport, NJ

As always, these winners were chosen completely at random from all the comments we received on the Ice Cream Journal during each month. Next month’s prizes will be two of these amazing inventions, which we’ll talk more about in an entry later this month. We like hearing from you, so keep those comments coming. Try leaving one now…it’s surprisingly easy!

We’ve begun working with our advertising agency on a TV commercial that will be used to promote Duetto. Turkey Hill doesn’t do a lot of television advertising (mostly radio, billboards and print ads), so this is pretty exciting for everyone involved in the project.

From start to finish, the process of making a 30-second TV spot can actually take several months. Right now, we’ve just completed the storyboard for the commercial. The storyboard is sort of like a comic strip and it’s used to help plan and visualize all of the different shots that will be used in the commercial. They’re also used to plan sequences in movies. Below is slide number one (out of 11).

The commercial will be shot right here in Lancaster County and is scheduled to begin taping in mid-April. Of course, there are other steps in there too, like scouting different locations, finding our actors, composing music and the whole post-production editing process. We’ll keep you posted on all the details, just in case you’re in the area and want to watch us in action!

Not long ago we got an e-mail from 79-year-old Augie S. from Hamilton, New Jersey. We loved his story so much that we asked him if we could share it here on our blog and he happily obliged. And so, we present the Ice Cream Journal’s first guest blogger, Augie S.:

I would like to tell a little story related to ice cream.

I am 79 years old, and when I was about 12 years old, I had a part-time job in a movie theatre (the Luna Theater in Brooklyn, New York), which my older cousins were in charge of. My job was to walk up and down the aisle during the movies saying, “I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!” Then people would raise their hand and I would sell it to them.

Today, people would yell if someone would sell anything in that manner in a movie theater. I laugh whenever I think of those days!

Thank you so much for your story, Augie. According to one website we found, the Luna Theater opened in 1914 and closed in 1952.

We like to think of which movies might have been playing when Augie walked the aisles back in 1940. Maybe The Grapes of Wrath or that year’s Oscar winner, Rebecca (a thriller by Alfred Hitchcock). They could have also shown the previous year’s The Wizard of Oz or Gone with the Wind. Either way, we’re sure Augie and his frozen treats were a welcome sight. It’s too bad more theaters don’t sell ice cream these days!