Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

Dear Mom,

It was a special treat to get homemade vanilla ice cream. It seems like we only had it on Father’s Day or on Dad’s birthday—I guess because it was his favorite. Not sure why we didn’t have it on Mother’s Day or for your birthday. Or for my birthday!

I telephoned Dad’s sister the other day and the subject came up about homemade ice cream. She told me that they only had it in the winter time. She said that grandpa (their dad) wouldn’t pay money for ice in the summer because it was too expensive. Ice was needed for the old-fashioned ice cream maker where you’d place the ice and salt in between the container and the tub that held the mixture. There was a handle that had to be turned by hand, sometimes taking hours before the cream, eggs, sugar and vanilla turned to ice cream. The only time they could get free ice was in the winter when the horse’s trough froze over. I thought that was fascinating. Who would think about having homemade ice cream in the winter?

I remember the hand cranked ice cream maker but I have a modern version that you just plug in and let the electric motor do all the work. But any time I make it I will think of Dad and his siblings running outside getting some ice from the horse’s trough—in the dead of winter.