{"id":28260,"date":"2024-06-06T05:00:33","date_gmt":"2024-06-06T09:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/?p=28260"},"modified":"2024-06-05T10:10:57","modified_gmt":"2024-06-05T14:10:57","slug":"marylands-best-kicks-off-the-ice-cream-trail-in-2024-with-new-prizes-and-locations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2024\/06\/06\/marylands-best-kicks-off-the-ice-cream-trail-in-2024-with-new-prizes-and-locations\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland\u2019s Best Kicks-Off the Ice Cream Trail in 2024 with New Prizes and Locations!"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANNAPOLIS, MD (June 6, 2024)<\/strong>\u2014\u00a0 The Maryland Department of Agriculture\u2019s Maryland\u2019s Best program<\/strong> has kicked off the 2024 Maryland\u2019s Best Ice Cream Trail<\/strong> <\/a>with new additions to the trail, new prizes for participants and of course ice cream! Now in its twelfth year<\/strong>, the Ice Cream Trail is designed to promote the state\u2019s dairy industry and has become increasingly popular, drawing participants from across the state and the region. Maryland Department of Agriculture Secretary Kevin Atticks<\/strong> and team members from the Maryland\u2019s Best program celebrated this year\u2019s trail with an event at Prigel Family Creamery<\/strong> in Baltimore County<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s exciting to see the return of the Maryland’s Best ice cream trail for the 2024 summer season,\u201d said Maryland Department of Agriculture Secretary Kevin Atticks<\/strong>. \u201cOn-farm creameries allow dairy farms to be more profitable – and it\u2019s delicious! All Marylanders should take the time to visit one of the twelve stops.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The 2024 Ice Cream Trail features twelve on-farm creameries across Maryland that produce and sell their ice cream directly to consumers. The trail stretches more than 145 miles from Washington County to Kent County and encourages the public to learn more about dairy farming and the important contributions of Maryland\u2019s nearly 300 dairy farms. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture 2023 Census of Agriculture, dairy farms produced 101,910,631.39 gallons of milk in 2022!<\/span><\/p>\n

This year, Maryland\u2019s Best Ice Cream \u2018Trailblazers\u2019<\/strong> are asked to snap a photo or selfie at each of the 12 participating creameries and submit them via email to icecream.trail1@maryland.gov<\/a> once they have completed the trail. All participants are also encouraged to share their progress on social media by tagging Maryland\u2019s Best (@mdsbest, @mdsbestag) and the location at which they are visiting. Each week a photo that was posted online and tagged will be selected to win a limited edition ice cream cone squishy!<\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, the Maryland Department of Agriculture<\/strong> partnered with the Department of Natural Resources<\/strong> and located nearby trails at each of the creamery locations. Consumers are encouraged to get out and hike before or after their ice cream treat! Consumers who post an additional picture of their hike and tag @MarylandDNR, will receive a second entry each week to win the ice cream squishy. Details on the hikes can be found at the Maryland\u2019s Best<\/a> website.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the best ways to enjoy ice cream is to earn it by completing a hike through one of Maryland\u2019s state parks or forests,\u201d said Department of Natural Resources Secretary Josh Kurtz<\/strong>. \u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019ve identified a dozen hiking trails near these great-tasting creameries so residents and visitors can experience Maryland\u2019s beautiful natural places before enjoying farm-fresh ice cream. So get out there and explore the state while also trying each one of these Maryland creameries.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The 2024 Ice Cream Trail on-farm creameries include: Prigel Family Creamery<\/a> (Baltimore County), Deliteful Dairy<\/a> (Washington County), Happy Cow Creamery<\/a> (Frederick County), Moo Cow Creamery<\/a> (Frederick County), South Mountain Creamery<\/a> (Frederick County), Rocky Point Creamery<\/a> (Frederick County), Broom\u2019s Bloom Dairy<\/a> (Harford County), Lockbriar Farms<\/a> (Kent County), Keyes Creamery<\/a> (Harford County), Woodbourne Creamery at Rock Hill Orchard<\/a> (Montgomery County), Misty Meadow Farm Creamery<\/a> (Washington County), and Chesapeake Bay Farms<\/a> (Worcester County).<\/span><\/p>\n

All completed email submissions for all 12 locations will receive a \u201c2024 Maryland\u2019s Best Ice Cream Trailblazer\u201d certificate, and one lucky winner will receive a $50 gift certificate to the on-farm creamery of their choice, a copy of the children\u2019s book \u201cTales of the Dairy Godmother: Chuck\u2019s Ice Cream Wish,\u201d and the 2024 Maryland\u2019s Best Ice Cream Champion Trailblazer trophy. Anyone who also completes all 11 hikes coordinated with the creameries will also be entered to win an annual parks pass. More information is available at Maryland\u2019s Best<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Maryland\u2019s Best Ice Cream Trail\u2019s 2024 season officially began on May 23 and will run through September 5.<\/span><\/p>\n

To learn more about the critical role dairy farming has in Maryland and the Northeast, please visit americandairy.com<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ANNAPOLIS, MD (June 6, 2024)\u2014\u00a0 The Maryland Department of Agriculture\u2019s Maryland\u2019s Best program has kicked off the 2024 Maryland\u2019s Best Ice Cream Trail with new additions to the trail, new prizes for participants and of course ice cream! Now in its twelfth year, the Ice Cream Trail is designed to promote the state\u2019s dairy industry  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":222,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/222"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28260"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28262,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28260\/revisions\/28262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}