Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail Opens for 2016!

Secretary and Deputy kick-off season at trail’s newest addition

ANNAPOLIS, MD – Maryland Agriculture Secretary Joe Bartenfelder and Deputy Secretary Jim Eichhorst officially opened the 2016 Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail today with a visit to Woodbourne Creamery at Rock Hill Orchard in Mt. Airy. The trail opens just in time for Memorial Day weekend and the start of National Dairy Month in June, giving Marylanders a perfect opportunity to visit one of its nine stops.

“The Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail is a great way to encourage Marylanders to get out and visit a real working farm,” said Secretary Bartenfelder. “Maryland is home to many outstanding dairy operations, and I challenge all residents to visit at least one of the trail’s nine stops this summer.”

The Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail is made up of nine dairy farms across the state that produce and sell ice cream directly to consumers. The trail stretches more than 290 miles from Ocean City in the east to Washington County in the west. The purpose of the trail is to highlight the important contributions of Maryland’s 463 dairy farms which accounted for $173 million in sales in 2015; and to increase the public’s general understanding of dairy farming.

Friday’s kick-off event was hosted at Woodbourne Creamery at Rock Hill Orchard in Mt. Airy (Montgomery). Woodbourne Creamery is the trail’s newest addition, and Montgomery County’s first all new dairy facility in 60 years. John and Mary Fendrick purchased Rock Hill Orchard in 2010, and began building Woodbourne Creamery shortly thereafter. The cows at Woodbourne Creamery are able to graze freely at all times, and the farm features a robotic voluntary milking system which allows the cows to be milked when they want. Visit the Woodbourne Creamery’s website for more information.

The Ice Cream Trail Passport is now available for download on the Maryland’s Best website, or at any of the nine creameries. Participants should use the passport to keep track of their progress by answering a specific dairy question and getting a stamp at each creamery on the trail between May 20 and September 23. Once completed, participants can mail the passport to the Maryland Department of Agriculture where it will be entered in a drawing. One lucky winner will be named the 2016 Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail Blazer. The grand prize package will include a $50 gift certificate to the winner’s favorite creamery; a DVD set of Maryland Public Television’s Maryland Farm and Harvest, a copy of Lucie Snodgrass’ Dishing Up Maryland cookbook; and, of course, ultimate bragging rights! No purchase necessary.

Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail is a joint promotion supported by the Maryland Department of Agriculture and the Mid-Atlantic Dairy Association, the local affiliate of the National Dairy Council.  Learn more about dairy farming and why “Your Milk Comes from a Good Place” at www.dairyspot.com.

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