10-13-2025 4:50am

Ice Cream Tour of Local Dairies Proves a Sweet Challenge

Lesley Misko Editor

by Michael Strzelecki

I’ve always associated the smell of cow manure with eating tasty ice cream.

Growing up in Boyertown, our family would often drive to Hoffman’s Dairy for cones. It was located on County Line Road, north of town. They served homemade ice cream from a stand immediately next to the pen of milk-producing cows. I recall getting an ice cream that was bright green (presumably mint chocolate chip) - probably more for the color than the taste. I also recall eating the cones beside the cows, their “farm smells” wafting across my senses.

Hoffman’s wasn’t the only dairy farm we would visit in my youth. Suloman’s Dairy, in Gilbertsville, was our choice when we wanted to change things up. Or K-Milk Dairy Farm to stroll around the pond.. For pure volume, we would venture to Longacre’s Dairy for garbage sundaes (was it 10 scoops of ice cream or 12 in a garbage sundae?). Especially after particularly tough soccer practices. Sunday leisure drives often included a stop at Meadowbrook Farms, outside of Pottstown. There were others.

Most of these childhood dairy farms have vanished. Some were sold for tract housing, others shuttered up during a family generational changeover. Others were probably bought out by larger - and more corporate - farming operations.

Indeed, the dairy farm situation in Pennsylvania has been quite dynamic over the past 25 years. In 2000 there were about 8,700 dairy farms in Pennsylvania; today there are about 4,800. However, the actual cow herd has only decreased slightly, from 500,000 to 460,000 over that time. And milk production has almost doubled - from 4.36 billion pounds produced in 2000 to 9.9 billion pounds last year.

With the dairy farm scene in such turmoil, it was time to assess the homemade ice cream scene in the Boyertown area. I assembled my usual coterie of culinary pundits. My wife Kelly is considered by some to be an ice cream connoisseur, but her penchant for only coffee-based ice creams sometimes clouds her judgments of other flavors. Her motto is “there’s always room for ice cream since it merely fills the interstitial space around the other food.” Todd Kuszyk and Jane Stahl are our foot soldiers in the field. They are both advocates of supporting small, local businesses, and both are very partial to keeping tabs on the local ice cream market.

Our plan was straightforward: we researched the best homemade ice cream places in the general Boyertown area and hit up seven of them in one day. We wanted to taste ice creams from different producers. So, for instance, we only went to one place that served Longacre’s ice cream. And we decided to cast about for different and unusual flavors. Keep the taste buds guessing.

We began by heading north from town, on a bluebird clear morning. Our first destination was the Homemade Creamery, in East Greenville. The building is non-descript white, one you may drive by without noticing, but it comes with a backstory.

Jack Hetherington always dreamt of opening an ice cream parlor, but for years he never propelled his idea forward. When his father passed away in 2020, he decided to turn dreams into reality. He began researching ice cream production and exploring possible locations for his new business. He ran fundraisers and dealt with the financial obligations of starting your own business. In July of 2022, he quit his job and opened Homemade Creamery. Three months later, Jack passed away unexpectedly. The parlor continues to operate in Jack’s honor as a community venture.

Abbie was our server at Homemade Creamery. She had a wide, country smile and a natural conversational ability. She was helpful in sorting through the various flavors. There was a loud noise coming from a room behind the counter. She apologized, saying it was the homemade ice cream maker putting the final touches on a small batch of Espresso ice cream. Kelly went into a Pavlovian drool.

Abbie told us that we could get a flight of six different flavors for taste testing purposes. We threw our net wide when choosing flavors. Describing ice cream is an art form, even for the most skilled of wordsmiths. For the readers, I pledge to not use the words “rich,” “creamy,” or “cold” anywhere in this article. We all know that homemade ice cream is rich and creamy and cold, and using these words as descriptors adds little knowledge to the product.

We found Homemade Creamery’s flavors to all be on point. In general, the ice cream seemed lighter and with a heightened flavor level. Jane “oohed” and “aahed” over the Peach Cobbler ice cream. “This is exemplary,” she said. “All of the flavors. Everything is so fresh and real.”

We had spoon battles over the Verry Berry and the Fudge Brownie. I leveraged my position in the scrum to use most of my calories on the Moo-Mint. The dark chocolate chunks in the moo-mint were smaller in size, but greater in number, than chunks in other premium ice creams. This made for a sharper flavor and more consistency across the bites. We decided that Homemade Creamery’s ice cream was perfectly refreshing as a late morning snack.

“I love that there was no fake aftertaste,” remarked Kelly.

Abbie explained to us that they use no dyes or preservatives in making their ice cream. “Our ice cream is pure with natural ingredients,” she proudly proclaimed.

This brings us to a very important point while evaluating homemade ice cream - the heightened use of preservatives. I used to be a fan of Breyers ice cream, back when it was all natural. Its vanilla had only four ingredients - milk, cream, sugar, and vanilla beans. The purity and simplicity made it my go-to. Sometime around 2006, Breyer’s began adding emulsifiers and non-natural ingredients to its ice cream. They began using corn syrup instead of sugar. They started incorporating mono-diglycerides, guar gum, and carrageenan (a form of seaweed) into the product to improve and sustain the ice cream’s texture, extend the shelf life, and deter the formation of ice crystals. Some Breyers flavors are no longer even considered ice cream, but rather are labeled “frozen dairy dessert,” since they do not have the requisite 10-percent milk-fat. I am by no means a foodie, but change in taste and texture was apparent and I moved on to other ice cream brands.

The Creamery, on the campus of Penn State University, in State College, went the same route. Other commercial hand-dipped ice creams have always tasted a bit “artificial” to me (sorry, Baskin Robbins). Awareness of the artificial tastes in ice cream was on my mind this day, but never became a factor.

With our ice cream senses aroused, we wandered down increasingly suburban roads to our second stop - Bruster’s Real Ice Cream, in Limerick. With the demise of the local dairy farm industry, Bruster’s is the new wave of homemade ice cream. It’s a chain franchise with over 200 locations but the ice cream is made daily in each of the individual shops. Not ma-and-pa, but still pretty darned good. For full disclosure, we have a Bruster’s near my home in Baltimore, and Kelly and I are regular denizens there.

On this particular day, a school group was hosting a car wash in the parking lot of Bruster’s, and marketing the event with lots of placards, cheers, and hyper-kinetic screaming. Amongst the chaos, we opted for more non-traditional flavors. Jane declared that she knew the ice cream was pure and tasty when she had her first bit of the Banana Cream Pie flavor.

The Grand Central Station ice cream, with chunks of graham cracker, was heavy and tasty - always one of my personal favorites. The Cinnamon ice cream confused my taste buds. They were ready for the sweet but had to re-calibrate to accommodate the warm and woody spice of the Cinnamon. The two pair well. Oreo Express held its ground deftly, and was probably the crowd favorite. We declared Bruster’s to be a place worthy of return visits. In our sugar stupor, we also made a small donation to the car wash fundraiser.

Next, we ventured into nearby Royerford for a stop at Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream, a local favorite since 1945. Handel’s has the same business model as Bruster’s - 120 locations spread across 11 states, but all ice cream made in-house. What Handel’s is known for is their variety and uniqueness of flavors. They offer 48 flavors daily, and have 140 flavors that they rotate through seasonally.

The servers were business-like and quick - skilled at keeping the lines moving. We used the opportunity to taste atypical flavors. We threw ourselves into the Creamsicle, Iced Animal Crackers, Key Lime Pie, and Chocolate Raspberry Truffle flavors. Early spoons went quickly for the Creamsicle and tastes were met with elated yums. The sun was at its apex, we were sitting in the sun, and the refreshing qualities of the Creamsicle pleasantly swept across our taste buds. We shared a moment of rejoicing.

The problem with experimenting with non-traditional flavors is that they are more likely to be hit or miss. I greatly enjoyed the graham crust chunks in the Key Lime Pie. We agreed that the Iced Animal Crackers ice cream could not compete with the more formidable choices, but was probably meant for kids anyway. And the dark chocolate in the Truffle ice cream was near perfection, but the Raspberry failed to make much of an appearance. With all of the unusual flavors to choose from, we decided that a future visit was warranted.

The day moved into early afternoon. Our collective appetites for ice cream were waning under the strain of three creamery feasts. We recharged with a nice drive to Birdsboro. Scoupe deVille is, upon first blush, all about the atmosphere. It’s chock full of oldie roadside nostalgia. Stoplights, an old gas pump, pictures of old cars, a guitar-strumming life-size Elvis in the corner. Beach Boys music was streaming across the eating area.

I am always a bit skeptical of the food at places that place such a premium on appearances. My skepticism was unfounded. We found Scoupe deVille to have some of the tastiest flavors of the day. We focused on the Peanut Butter Oreo, Salted Caramel Pretzel, and Black Cherry. The portions were huge, but each flavor was praise-worthy.

Jane declared the ice cream to be particularly flavorful. Todd called the Peanut Butter Oreo exemplary and Kelly seemed drawn to the Salted Caramel.

Melanie was the manager of Scoupe deVille. When she heard about our ice cream exploration, she wandered to our table to investigate. “My dad used to be in the milk business,” she said. “He was like a milk connoisseur.” She explained that the family decided to turn their milk expertise into ice cream perfection. She mentioned that Scoupe deVille’s flagship parlor is in Limerick, and that the Birdsboro shop is a more recent addition.

“All of our ice cream is made in the small red shed behind our parking lot,” she added.

When I asked Melanie which was her favorite in-house flavor, she disappeared in the back and reappeared with small cups of a variety she wanted us to try. “This is my favorite,” she explained, pushing a cup towards each of us. It was Tandy Cake-flavored ice cream, replicating the old Tastycake Tandy Cakes I used to binge eat as a kid.

The flavor won the day for me. I’m just unsure whether it was the flavor itself or nostalgia pulling a sleight-of-hand on my taste buds.

Melanie also hinted that what makes the ice cream at Scoupe deVille so flavorful is the high cream content. “We are at 16-percent cream,” she proudly offered. It was interesting how just tiny increments of milk fat cause such a sharp enhancement of flavor.

Fully sated, we moved on to our fifth ice cream stop. Jen and Jessie’s Creamery is located just outside the tiny enclave of Oley. It’s a long-time ice cream provider in the Oley area whose community role became even more vital when the Oley Turnpike Dairy shut its doors in 2022.

Jen and Jessie’s is operated by Jennifer Ritschard, a food science major from Penn State University. Her parents originally opened the shop in 2004, but retired and passed the business on to her. Jennifer puts her degree to use, creating unique flavors that are hard to say no to. Bordeaux Cherry, Pumpkin, Pumpkin Cheesecake, Caramel Apple, and Monkey Bones (banana ice cream with chocolate, graham cracker chunks, and peanut butter). Things that a food science major would conjure up.

Jennier works with Leiby’s Dairy, in Tamaqua, for her ice cream supply. Leiby’s is a well-known ice cream dairy whose products seem to pop up at other ice cream stands around the region. They love working with ice cream artisans to craft off-beat flavors.

Our taste team focused on the Pumpkin ice cream, a recommendation from our two silly servers who clearly loved their jobs. “Very interesting flavors, I could plow through a lot of this,” remarked Todd, acting as if this wasn’t his fifth ice cream of the day.

“The spices are perfect,” added Kelly. The Grand Slam flavor was tasteful but very heavy for our topped-off bellies.

Jennifer is successfully trying to instill a vibe where families can come and hang out for a spell. The inside parlor was roomy with lots of tables. There was ample outdoor space for kids running off their sugar high, including a playground. Note that Jen and Jessie’s is a seasonal parlor not open in winter.

Five ice creams down and two to go. We decided to call an audible. Remember Kelly’s ice cream adage? There is always room for ice cream since it just fills in the interstitial space of your stomach? We determined it not to be true. What happens when you run out of interstitial space! We were tapping out. We decided to forgo our sixth stop, a farmer’s market in Fleetwood, and use our last remaining tolerance for sugar and cream for Boyertown’s hometown producer - Longacre’s Modern Dairy, Inc.

Homemade ice cream in the immediate Boyertown area begins and ends with Longacre’s. The ice cream is produced at a dairy farm near Bally, and they have an ice cream parlor on the premises. But they also supply the ice cream for Boyertown’s various other ice cream shops in town.

To sample Longacre’s ice cream, we decided to visit the Peppermint Stick Candy Store and Ice Cream Parlor, which recently opened on Philadelphia Avenue, in the heart of town. The Peppermint Stick purposefully resembles a 1940s ice cream parlor. Rachael Kehler owns the Peppermint Stick, along with her husband, Gene.

“Everyone expects a 50’s vibe for ice cream parlors,” Rachael once told Jane during an interview. “Lots of Coca Cola, black and white square floor tiles, gleaming, highly polished stools. But for me, I wanted folks to go back a bit further in time. My favorite decade is the 40’s. It’s the decade where women got their independence - working in factories, for example. Everyone was helping each other for the country.”

“I just didn’t want what everyone expected,” she added. “And I’ve found that people get excited remembering the past.”

Indeed, the Peppermint Stick was clearly developed in painstaking detail. The dark woodwork for the counter and bar area is hand-crafted and ornate, the memorabilia hanging on the wall, era-appropriate. The servers don authentic soda-fountain outfits. Even the menu is developed to evoke the 1940s.

But let’s talk ice cream. Since I’ve been eating Longacre’s ice cream my entire life, there was no need for further tasting. We know it’s a quality confection, loaded with flavors. I decided to put Longacre’s to the ultimate ice cream test. I ordered the vanilla.

Vanilla ice cream presents the quintessential test of production. The ice cream flavor is hanging out there exposed and vulnerable. No hiding behind chunks of brownie or flavor bursts of cookie dough or fruit fold-ins. It’s like throwback ice cream - reduced to just a few basic ingredients.

Longacre’s vanilla ice cream was exquisite. So pure and raw in flavor with the right amount of vanilla bean. It was the perfect bowl of ice cream to end our journey.

When planning this ice cream adventure, our primary reservation was the notion that all homemade ice creams taste similar. Ice cream is ice cream. It would be tough to differentiate between the ice creams from different manufacturers. We could not have been more wrong. When eating so much ice cream back-to-back, subtle differences become obvious. You realize the difference between similar flavors from different producers - the level of flavoring, the heaviness of the ice cream, the aftertastes.

Our goal was never to find the “best ice cream” in the area. Homemade ice cream is one of those foods that is generally tasty and fulfilling anywhere you go. You rarely walk away from an ice cream parlor complaining about a bad cone or negative experience. It’s happiness in a cup or cone.

We ended the day heartened to know that the Boyertown ice cream scene remains healthy and vibrant, with many options available and lots of interesting atmospheres.

*Mike Strzelecki is a freelance travel and outdoor writer, and 1981 graduate of Boyertown Area Senior High School. He writes from his house in Baltimore, Maryland. In his spare time, he joins his wife on adventures around the country observing and photographing birds.