SWEET, SWEET SUMMERTIME ON THE FARM!

Welcome back, friends! I hope your summer nights have been bug-free and sunset-beautiful! Fun fact about our family…we LOVE ice cream…almost as much as being together. 😉 Kidding! But seriously, Sunday nights are tradition around here. It’s the perfect night for a good board game, a bonfire and homemade ice cream.

I blame my love of ice cream on my childhood. My grandfather worked for the Penn State Creamy, which, if you’ve never been, is the largest university creamy in the United States! He used to bring used five-gallon drums of ice cream as a treat when I was a kid. If you’ve never had the opportunity to experience PSU ice cream…you’ve missed a little piece of paradise. I found out recently that the creamery uses about 4.5 million pounds of milk annually, around half of which comes from a cow herd at the University’s Dairy Production Research Center. The rest of the milk comes from independent milk producers right in the area. Delicious AND local!

Photo by Something Original at English Wikipedia

Here’s another fun fact for ya: they sell 750,00 hand dipped ice cream cones per year and have over 100 flavors…can we say yum? It’s beyond amazing and YES, I’m a little Penn State proud. It’s my alma mater and part of my heritage! Don’t tell anyone, but my sister and I were once known to eat ice cream for breakfast when we were growing up…

Image by Susanne Jutzeler, suju fotografie from Pixabay

Summer on the farm is so beautiful. One of the reasons my husband and I bought a farm is because we wanted to teach our kids the value of hard work and lending a helping hand. There’s something magical that happens when you begin to work with your children on a project. Oh, sure, there might be a little (!) complaining at first, because the jobs aren’t always their favorite, but working together forces you to work on communicating. Sometimes the only way to successfully finish a job with another person is to communicate about the best way to get the job done.

Image by Free-Photos, from Pixabay

As a family we’ve tried really hard to turn off the devices and interact with each other! These days screens seem to take up so much of our lives, and I fear so many kids and even adults are losing the art of interaction and the sheer simplicity of finding enjoyment in life, living. Summer is the perfect time to set limits for your children and even yourselves. We as a family have set some screen time boundaries this summer, and it feels so good. We all should listen more, talk to each other, and share what we’re learning on a regular basis. The art of face-to-face communication is so important in this virtual world. 😊

Okay, stepping off my soap box…thanks for listening folks! LOL. Back to the ICE CREAM…

So many of you asked for my recipe for the ice cream and homemade peanut butter fudge topping, so here it is:

Background photo by Brenda Godinez on Unsplash

We have a White Mountain freezer and absolutely love it!

After you’ve put the ice cream down in the bucket, put ice all around the sides of the freezer and then add rock salt to the top. After that then you plug it in and check periodically according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Background photo by Brenda Godinez on Unsplash

For the fudge, depending on how strong of a peanut butter taste you want you can add more or less of the creamy goodness. It can also be reheated for another night of indulgence...

Thanks for reading! What are YOUR summer night traditions? Or summer resolutions? Anyone else trying to limit screen time, and get outside & move a little more? If you tried this recipe, let me know in the comments or on Instagram, @MapleCreekMarket. Have a blessed day!

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