Amanda Miller
Columnist
Lettuce Eat Local
It was just past noon, and though the laws of time don’t apply in standard fashion in the fair, it seemed like a good excuse to start thinking about lunch. Brian and I had been walking around with the kids through the State Fairgrounds for an hour or two — as well as a decent jaunt from our parking spot to the gate of course — and Brian’s time off the farm was ticking away, in synchrony with our attention span at the fair and Kiah’s ability to function before naptime.
It couldn’t have just been chance then, that as we emerged from the pleasant cacophony of the poultry barn, we happened to be facing the Grandstand. I know the Grandstand is the host of many booths as well as events, but for this family, that looming brick wall means one thing: ice cream. The Dairy Bar might be too obvious a choice for a dairy farm family, but there we were anyway. Do we have far too many containers of ice cream, homemade and otherwise, in the freezer at home? Absolutely. Do we still need to get some at the fair, even though we could get “real” fair food like fried alligator or dill dogs or funnel cakes? I think you know the answer to that question.
To be fair, we did have a coupon for free cones thanks to our dairy-farmer presence in AgriLand one afternoon, and we are not the kind of people who can turn down free ice cream.
I’m sure my four-year-old was wallowing through some cognitive dissonance, since earlier that very morning we had discussed how he can’t only eat sweets when he goes places…and here I am, his own mother, giving him an ice cream cone for lunch. It was a scoop of mint chocolate chip, so at least he was eating his greens, right. All’s fair at the fair.
Kiah and I shared a waffle cone of peach soft-serve; surely it counted as a healthy serving of fruit. I can’t tell if I’m more embarrassed or more proud of that being the bulk of our lunch (we had a few fried cheese curds too). Our mantra is always, “Support your local dairy farmers!” so to be people of integrity we have to live it out.
Oh, the kids had also munched through an entire bag of baby carrots as we walked around. Brian noticed, “Wow, they are definitely your kids.” I just smiled and reminded him that I packed the snacks I did on purpose.
Not coincidentally, I packed a bag of sliced carrots for my own snack a few days later when I worked a shift at, you guessed it, the Dairy Bar. For the sake of research purposes, I had to sample the blueberry cheesecake and glitter explosion flavors — both good enough I regretted not trying them again just to make sure. Fortunately, thanks to my selfless service in having that ice cream lunch and sampling, I felt like I had enough experience under my belt to offer good advice through the window as I took customers’ orders.
I also felt a little more validation having fed my kids ice cream for lunch, as the shop opened at 10:00 in the morning, not for no reason. If people were vacillating over their decisions, I always pointed them to the peach soft-serve: you can always get chocolate or vanilla, but peach is a rare option. And one definitely worth choosing!
For any meal of the day.
Blender Peach Soft-Serve
Our family is a bit of a rarity since we actually own a soft-serve machine, but in general it’s more difficult to find soft-serve than “hard” scooped ice cream. It’s a process to use the machine, but my blender is on the counter, so for a quick meal dessert this is the ticket. It is definitely soft-serve so *oh dear* you need to eat it right away.
Prep tips: make note of the prep necessary to freeze the milk-ice-cubes. Keep the peel on if the peaches are nice, for flavor, color, and nutrition.
2 cups whole milk
2 peaches, in chunks
1 tablespoon instant vanilla pudding
maple syrup to taste, start with a small drizzle
dash vanilla
Freeze half the milk in an ice cube tray. Once solid, add to a high-powered blender along with remaining milk, the peaches, pudding, syrup, and vanilla; process until smooth. It should be thick and creamy, but add some ice cubes if it needs to be thicker or some more milk if it won’t blend.
Lettuce Eat Local is a weekly local foods column by Amanda Miller, who lives in rural Reno County on the family dairy farm with her husband and two small children. She seeks to help build connections through food with her community, the earth, and the God who created it all. Send feedback and recipe ideas to [email protected].
