Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail Opens for 2017!

Trail season opens May 26; Secretary’s kickoff event scheduled for June 13

Credit: Edwin Remsberg

ANNAPOLIS, MD – The Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail will officially open its 2017 season on May 26. Now in its fifth year, the trail has become increasingly popular, drawing participants from across the globe. Secretary Joe Bartenfelder will make his first stops on the trail on June 13 in celebration of National Dairy Month.

“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 Maryland dairies that produce and sell their 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 414 dairy farms which accounted $164 million in sales in 2016; and to increase the public’s general understanding of dairy farming.

On June 13, Secretary Bartenfelder will celebrate National Dairy Month and begin his summer-long journey along the trail with stops at Rocky Point Creamery in Tuscarora (Frederick) and Woodbourne Creamery at Rock Hill Orchards in Mt. Airy (Montgomery).

The Ice Cream Trail Passport is available for download at MarylandsBest.net. Printed copies will also be available at each of the nine creameries throughout the season. 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 26 and September 25.

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 2017 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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