Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail Returns for 2020 Season

ANNAPOLIS, MD—As the state continues its progress on the Maryland Strong: Roadmap to Recovery, the Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) has announced that the 2020 Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail will open on Friday, July 10, and will run through September 26. Now in its eighth year, the Ice Cream Trail is designed to promote the state’s dairy industry, and has become increasingly popular, drawing participants from across the state and beyond.

“While our state continues to carefully reopen, I am excited to see the return of Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail,” said Governor Larry Hogan. “Dairy farmers are an integral part of our state’s agricultural industry. This promotion is a great way to support hard working family farms while continuing to follow guidance on social distancing and face coverings.”

To minimize person-to-person contact, the department has discontinued its printed Ice Cream Trail passports. Instead, MDA is asking Trailblazers to collect a photo or selfie at each of the 10 creameries. Once participants have collected all of their photos, they can submit them with their name and contact information via email to icecream.trail1@maryland.gov. Participants are encouraged to share their progress on social media using #MDIceCreamTrail.

All completed email submissions will receive a “2020 Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trailblazer” certificate. One lucky winner will receive a $50 gift certificate to the creamery of their choice and DVD copies of the MPT original series, “Maryland Farm & Harvest.” More information is available at MarylandsBest.net.

“The Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail is a great way to promote the hard work of our dairy farmers while encouraging families to get a first-hand look at the farms that produce our food and fiber while keeping in mind social distancing and best practices to mitigate COVID-19,” said Agriculture Secretary Joe Bartenfelder.

The 2020 Ice Cream Trail has expanded to 10 on-farm dairies with the addition of Nice Farms Creamery in Caroline County. The trail includes creameries across the state that produce and sell their ice cream directly to consumers. The trail stretched more than 290 miles from Washington County in the west to Worcester County in the east. The purpose of the trail is to increase the public’s understanding of dairy farming and to highlight the important contributions of Maryland’s 389 dairy farms, which according to the USDA’s 2017 Census of Agriculture accounted for more than $174 million in sales in 2017.

The 2020 Ice Cream Trail on-farm creameries include: Prigel Family Creamery (Baltimore), Nice Farms Creamery (Caroline), Kilby Cream (Cecil), South Mountain Creamery (Frederick), Rocky Point Creamery (Frederick), Broom’s Bloom Dairy (Harford), Keyes Creamery (Harford), Woodbourne Creamery at Rock Hill Orchard (Montgomery), Misty Meadow Farm Creamery (Washington), and Chesapeake Bay Farms (Worcester).

Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail is a joint promotion supported by MDA and the American Dairy Association North East. To learn more about dairy farming and the critical role it plays in our region, please visit americandairy.com.

###

Follow the Maryland Department of Agriculture on Twitter @MdAgDept