Ice Cream Days in Dickinson Square

Article from the RTHS newsletter, September, 2009

Ice cream days in Dickinson Square are one of the activities put on for kids on several Sundays during the summer (generally on milling days). The event takes place on the lawn of the Dickinson house and is hosted by Sandy Trueman.

Having ice cream in the old days was not as simple as putting down some money at the grocery store. The pleasure had to be earned with a certain amount of labour. At Dickinson house the kids get to experience it all on the way to the treat at the end.

The first job is to make crushed ice from an ice box size block of ice using a mallet. Boy that ice is hard! Then its load the ingredients into the ice cream maker and place the crushed ice and salt around the inner pail. Is that it? No way! Then it’s get on the crank until either your arms drop off or the ice cream is frozen. It’s good to have lots of help for this part of the job.

Finally, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. After all that work, boy does the ice cream taste good.