A love affair with ice cream

The Star has been doing an amazing job of trying to educate it's consumers. This article deserves a re-print because it is specific about various ice cream makers and the fact much of the ice cream out there is NOT made from cream. I am positive many consumers will be shocked and the dairy industry had better be prepared for their next question: "So where does it come from?"-CG

Husband and wife team Martin deGroot and Ineke Booy operate a dairy farm, as well as an organic ice cream bar, near Elora, west of Guelph.

A love affair with ice cream

June 27, 2007

TheStar.com -We seem to associate it with good times, so it's no mystery why we love the creamy stuff

Katherine Elphick Special to the Star

When it comes to ice cream, Doug Goff is always "on the lookout for weird and wonderful" flavours.

"If there's a strange one on the list, I'm the guy who will try it," says Goff, a University of Guelph professor of food science who specializes in dairy, specifically, in ice cream.

Bizarre entries to his flavour inventory range from salmon and lobster to jalapeño pepper.
Sampling could be considered research for the ice cream expert. He's penned a textbook, published various studies on ice cream and taught courses on the subject for 20 years.

With such credentials, it seems only fitting to ask this ice cream guru: Why do we have a love affair with the stuff?

"It's a fun, social product, and people associate it with good times like vacations, family outings and birthday parties," Goff says. "It also satisfies a great number of taste needs and craving sensations. It's creamy, smooth, sweet and cold – and it comes in a wide variety of flavours."
Canadian per capita consumption is about 10 litres per year, but in the U.S., it's 22 litres per year.

Ontario is the hub of ice cream manufacturing in Canada, Goff says, with about 90 per cent of the national production. The three biggest players in Canada's market are Chapman's, Nestlé and Unilever, which has brands such as Breyers.

But there are smaller, independent manufacturers, often attached to dairies, throughout the province, such as Kawartha Dairy in Bobcaygeon, northeast of Toronto. Once exclusive to cottage country, the dairy's popular brand is now available across central Ontario.

Despite its expanding market, Kawartha Dairy's vice-president and general manager Blake Frazer says its premium quality hasn't been compromised.

"We still make ice cream the old-fashioned way," says Frazer, whose marketing strategy recognizes that cottagers might need that Kawartha fix during the off-season. "If you look at the ingredients, the first two items are fresh milk and fresh cream."

On hot summer days, customers can wait up to 30 minutes for an exceptionally creamy cone.
Other company-owned retail outlets are located in Minden, Bancroft, Lindsay, Uxbridge and Huntsville. This year, the company will churn out about 2 million litres of ice cream.

While Kawartha Dairy is sticking to old-fashioned methods of production, a growing number of manufacturers are abandoning the popular milk and cream formula. Several are now using mixes or, imported butteroil-sugar blends. Nearly half the butterfat used in ice cream comes from imported blends, according to industry estimates. In short, it's a substitute for Canadian-based dairy fat, an issue that angers some Ontario dairy farmers.

"The larger players are doing this for cost savings," says Frazer from his office overlooking the dairy, which has been owned by the Crowe family for 70 years.

A good cone can still be found at Mapleton's Organic Dairy near Elora, west of Guelph.

Traditional favourites and specialty flavours, including dandelion, are offered at this scooping shop, located on a 240-hectare dairy farm. Mapleton's products are also sold at health food stores and higher-end supermarkets.

"My wife's really creative," says Martin deGroot, who owns and operates the farm and dairy with his wife, Ineke Booy. "She's always coming up with new flavours."

Mapleton's processes its own milk (from 70 resident cattle) into certified organic premium ice cream, frozen and fresh yogurt.

"Our products really are farm fresh," says deGroot, while relaxing at the dairy's ice cream café and organic grocery store. Dressed like a scientist, in a white lab coat and hair net (he just finished making a batch of cappuccino ice cream), he stresses the importance of bringing people to the farm.

"It's a great way to reduce food miles," he explains. "The more we can sell off the farm, the better it is for the environment."

Ice cream aficionados should also check out Steen's Dairy in Erin, northwest of Toronto.
"We're a real old-fashioned kind of place," says Marie Maltby, 68, who has been the manager of the dairy bar for 31 years. "It's like stepping back in time when you come here."

The 60-year-old dairy bar features 16 bar stools where customers can indulge in a dish of handmade ice cream. The Steen family also runs the on-site dairy, which processes organic milk.
"Our ice cream is very creamy," says Maltby, who readily admits to doing lots of quality control. But the dairy bar is most famous for its homemade milkshakes.

Regular customer Robert Turnbull agrees. "The chocolate milkshakes are fantastic," he says, while waiting for his order. "They just have that small-town dairy taste, and nothing else can match it."

Maltby says that the best part about ice cream is its universal appeal. "You're never too old to enjoy it."

Katherine Elphick is a Barrie-area writer and recipe developer.