The Food Column: Penn State Creamery is as good as it gets
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In high school, I attended a summer science program at Penn State University's main campus, and I came home with two new convictions. No. 1: Although I loved my time there, I was destined to be a writer, not a scientist, and No. 2: Penn State Creamery ice cream is The Best.
A couple times a week, we trekked from our dorm to the Creamery. My usual choice was Bittersweet Mint (otherwise known as mint chocolate chip), but sometimes I went for Coconut Chip (coconut ice cream with chocolate chips).
Soon thereafter, Penn State ice cream became a family affair. My brother majored in animal science at Penn State and lived within walking distance of the Creamery for four straight years. I assume only the college-student budget kept him from coming home weighing 400 pounds -- that and the work he did in the Penn State barns. He hooked me on a third favorite flavor, a gooey deliciousness dubbed Death By Chocolate.
Next, my mother, who would eat ice cream for breakfast if she could get away with it, started teaching for Ag in the Classroom, a weeklong summer program at Penn State where Pennsylvania teachers received continuing education credits while learning how to teach their students about agriculture. Every summer, Mom schlepped home several tubs of ice cream on dry ice. The Creamery has made big business of this: So many people want to enjoy the ice cream in their own homes that the Creamery menu board lists pricing for dry-ice packing, and you can even order ice cream shipped to your house from the website (creamery.psu.edu).
So why doesn't Penn State just open up some ice cream shops statewide? It would be easy: They could just locate the shops on the university's satellite campuses.
According to Creamery manager Tom Palchak, who grew up in Trafford and has been with the Creamery for 25 years, Penn State wants to be seen as an industry-builder rather than a competitor.
The Creamery -- a fixture since 1865, when it churned butter for the dorms -- doesn't merely sell ice cream (and, I might add, sour cream and cheese). It also teaches others how to make it.
For 110 years, Penn State has offered an Ice Cream Short Course. Representatives of almost every household-name ice cream company have attended, including Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's in 1974. More recently, so did Jeni Britton Bauer, featured in today's story by China Millman. This year's course had a waiting list of 70.
First Published July 21, 2011 12:00 am
