Rural Banter

Author: Erica Goodman

The history of ice cream is a contested battleground of myths and mysteries. The earliest origins of one of America's favorite treats can be traced as far back as the 4th century and the Roman emperor Nero, who supposedly ordered ice to be brought down from the mountains and combined with fruit toppings. In China under the Shang Dynasty, King Tang is said to have created an ice and milk concoction. As legend has it, the famous traveler Marco Polo enjoyed the flavorful treat so much on his trip to China that he took the recipe back with him to Italy and the rest of Europe. Colonial confectioners served what is considered the contemporary western-style ice cream at their shops in America's rising cities. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson served it to their guests, as did First Lady and party hostess Dolley Madison.

As real winter weather descends upon us once again, I am reminded of my own youthful belief in the origins of ice cream. In the coldest months farmers keep their livestock mostly inside the barns, yet, as I observed as a child through our living room window, they are sometimes let out to pasture on many a bitter winter day. I felt sorry for the poor animals who braved the cold without a winter parka, as I watched them sauntering along in huddled masses through the snow-covered pasture.

At the age when every sentence is just another question, I would beg my father for an explanation as to why the poor animals had to suffer outside. Cows, like most mammals, he explained, grow an extra thick coat of hair when the temperature starts to drop. I would continue to press him further,"Why can't they live in a warm house like ours?" He smiled the same grin that crossed my father's face every April Fool's Day when he convinced my sisters and I that our pony had suddenly given birth and assured me not to worry. Ice cream, he explained, comes from cows milked at just the right frosty temperature. Without letting the milkers stretch their legs in the snowy pasture, there would be no ice cream, a terrible realization for a young girl. I didn't question if it was hard or soft serve, but just sat there in awe that cows could actually make ice cream.

Well, I grew up and lost my wide-eyed, youthful naiveté and understood that cows that spend a day out in the snow produce no more ice cream than do brown cows make chocolate milk. As to this day, as the wind sends her bitter breath through the naked trees, I still wonder which is better: the claustrophobia of a barn or frostbite suffered from the outdoors. But although an ice cream-producing cow would be quite the catch, it would surely be an uncomfortable position in any weather. Even though cows spend some time in the winter elements, at least they are not suffering through what would surely be a painful milking of rocky road.