Well, on Sunday National Ice Cream Month will officially arrive, which means you can eat ice cream with reckless abandon throughout July (even more reckless abandon than usual) and you’ll have a good excuse for doing so.

National Ice Cream Month is a relatively new “official” celebration, even though most people have been unofficially celebrating ice cream during the hot summer months for more than a century. It all started in 1984, when President Ronald Reagan declared July as National Ice Cream Month and the third Sunday in July as National Ice Cream Day. As many of you may remember, Reagan was famous for his love of jelly beans, so it makes perfect sense that he’d be the president to pay homage to ice cream. (At right is a portrait of the former president made from over 14,000 jelly beans.)

According to the International Dairy Foods Association (IFDA), Reagan signed the proclamation with the request that Americans celebrate ice cream throughout July with “appropriate ceremonies and activities.” We’re not sure what those ceremonies and activities might be, but hopefully they involve a scoop and a large bowl. Actually, who needs a bowl? During National Ice Cream Month, it’s okay to eat the ice cream right out of the container.

Ever wonder how ice cream was made back in the days of our Founding Fathers? Now you can find out. This Saturday, the Mercer Museum in Doylestown, Pa. (just outside Philadelphia) is hosting an event called “18th Century Ice Cream.” According to the announcement, attendees will “learn how to make ice cream the old-fashioned way—from harvesting ice to molding ice cream (…) using original recipes and documented 18th century flavors.”

Unfortunately, they probably won’t be making any Moose Tracks or Rocky Road, but whatever they make will probably be just as delicious. Check out all the details here.

Just a quick reminder that tomorrow night (Wednesday) at 7:30 pm, the Food Network will be airing the ice cream episode of Unwrapped. According to the website, it’s the last time–at least for a while–that the episode will air.

In other news, there’s an 11 question quiz about ice cream over on AOL. Just a warning though, it’s not easy. It’s mostly about the history of ice cream (example: Who invented Rocky Road?). Test your knowledge here and let us know if you were able to beat our intern’s score of 5 out of 11.

The start of National Ice Cream Month is only six days away. To celebrate, we’re going to be posting a new entry EVERY DAY on the Ice Cream Journal. It’s a pretty ambitious task, but we’re ready for it if you are.

Speaking of Ice Cream Month, we’re going to be sending out an e-mail about the celebration and the blog later this week. If you’re not already on our e-mailing list, you can sign up here. You’ll receive occasional updates (about once a month) about new flavors and things that are happening here at the Dairy.

This post originally appeared back in February, but it was such a fun topic, we decided to  post it again. Also, feel free to check out Phil Lempert’s ode to ice cream over on MSNBC.com.

Jessica E. from Browns Summit, NC asks:

After the ice cream is cut in half with the big knife, does the dissected ice cream then get thrown out, or does someone get to eat it?

What a great question! I assume you are referring to the daily cutting of ice cream that is done to check the quality of the ice cream made the day before.

As each new flavor is made, someone marks the first and last “saleable” package made. Saleable would mean that they felt all the ice cream and ingredients were filling the package in proper amounts. The marked containers then travel through the blast freezer and are set aside by the palletizing crew the next day. This is the product that is tested during the “ice cream cutting” process.

It begins by evaluating the outside of the package, removing the cover, and using the double spoon method to taste the product. The package is then cut in half using a very large and sharp knife. It is then evaluated visually to make sure all the inclusions (fudge, pecans, cherries, cookies, cookie dough, etc.) are dispersed evenly. By now the ice cream is almost nearly destroyed, and is disposed of by placing it into a bin labeled “Food Grade Waste.”

But there is a happy end to this story, because the leftover ice cream isn’t just thrown away. The ice cream, along with other remnant ice cream produced that day, is accumulated, diluted with water, and tested for butterfat and total food solids. It is then sent to a nearby farm where it is blended with dry feed and fed to the ever-hungry pigs. Pretty lucky pigs!

Thanks for your question!

Ernie

Just a reminder for those of you with access to the Pennsylvania Cable Network. The station will be airing an episode about the Penn State Creamery (the largest university creamery in the nation) this Sunday at 8 pm according to the PCN website. Here’s a list of PCN cable providers and channels.

If you’ve never seen it, PCN’s show “PCN Tours” is pretty interesting, with their behind-the-scenes looks at factories and manufacturing facilities throughout Pennsylvania. Their tour of the Turkey Hill Dairy aired last week but is scheduled to re-air on July 20. Don’t worry, we’ll post another reminder about it right before then.

Like many teams throughout the Major Leagues, the Phillies donate their time to a program called Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI). RBI was founded in 1989 as a way to inspire kids in south central Los Angeles to play more baseball and has since grown to include programs in 200 cities and 120,000 boys and girls each year.

The Phillies have been RBI supports since 1993 and today hold clinics in more than 20 locations in and around Philadelphia.

We love baseball, so naturally we like the idea of helping kids learn the sport and hopefully develop a love for it as well. That’s why Turkey Hill is also supporting the RBI program. In addition to bring kids closer to baseball, RBI also teaches them life lessons about team work, respect and working hard to achieve personal goals. To help that effort, we’re donating five cents for every container of Phillies Graham Slam Ice Cream sold to the RBI program. We’re also giving $100 for every Phillies win (at the rate they’re going lately, we’ll be writing a lot more $100 checks throughout the season).     

Earlier this spring, the Phillies held an RBI clinic in conjunction with the Cal Ripken Senior Foundation at the Feltonville Boys & Girls Club in Philadelphia. Below is a photo of the kids taking a break with some Graham Slam Ice Cream.

In March, Turkey Hill and our Giant Swirly Cow made an appearance at Adventure Aquarium in Camden, New Jersey to celebrate our ice cream being a new part of the aquarium’s menu.

On June 16 and 17 we’ll be back to help celebrate Father’s Day with a free ice cream party from 12:30 pm to 4:00 pm both days. And yes, we’ll also be bringing our Giant Swirly Cow and we’ll be giving away samples of our new Cherry Duetto.

Below is a coupon for the aquarium, which is also unveiling its new interactive exhibits. Yes, in addition to enjoying some free ice cream with dad, you can also touch sharks, jellyfish, boa constrictors, birds and chinchillas. In case you’re wondering, above is a photo of what appears to be the world’s largest chinchilla getting ready to dig into some Duetto. Normal chinchillas are about the size of a small rabbit.

To help spread the word about Duetto, our public relations team sent out a news release about the new product. It’s standard procedure really, but with each release they’re also sending an official Duetto coffee mug. Only it’s not an ordinary coffee mug.  

The mug is printed with the Duetto logo on one side and a cow on the other, but when you pour hot liquid into it, the cow changes colors from a typical black and white Holstein cow into a red and white Duetto Swirly Cow. As your coffee or tea cools off, the old cow fades back into existence. Check out the video below for a demonstration.  

The transformation happens thanks to the use of a temperature sensitive, thermochromatic ink called leucodye. Thermochromatic inks are also used in mood rings and stick-on aquarium thermometers, but those applications use a more accurate liquid crystal ink.  

We happened to put three of these magic mugs aside and we’re giving them away to three Ice Cream Journal readers chosen at random (readers were chosen from those who left comments in the past month or so). We’re thinking about making a bunch more and adding them to the Turkey Hill store. We’ll keep you posted if that happens.  

Back in December we wrote about how to avoid an ice cream meltdown during those marathon grocery store visits (especially during the summer months). Now the folks over at Miles Kimball are offering the “Cooler Shopping Bag” ($8.99)—an insulated, reusable bag designed to keep the important things like ice cream, steaks, ice cream, fish and ice cream cold and fresh until they are safely at home in your freezer. (We like to use it for ice cream.)

We like this bag so much we’re going to give some away to three randomly selected commenters at the end of this month. We also like it because it eliminates the need for plastic and paper bags, which is good for environment. Is there anything this bag can’t do?