RESULTS ARE IN: 4th of July – Ice Cream & Pie!

On Sunday we had approximately 75 folks who shared their 4th of July with us at Bee Heaven Farm. We got to sample ice creams and sorbets from 3 of our local ice cream producers  – ranging from commercial ice cream, to a custom small-batch goat’s milk ice cream, to a ‘homemade’ producer. Common to all is that they’re all Redland farmers, and they all use local ingredients (Redland-grown fruit) for their creations. However, they differ significantly in their techniques and their added ‘touches’, and it was great fun to sample and compare/contrast them.

Here’s the flavors we sampled.

Ratings and comment cards

from Gaby’s Farm:

•  Mamey Sapote Dearest 
•  Luscious Lychee Sorbet 
•  Me Gusta Guava 
•  Crème de Canistel

from Hani’s Mediterranean Organics, goat’s milk:

• Dreamy Mamey
• Spicy Limey
• Richie Litchi 

and from Robert at Possum Trot Tropical Fruit Nursery: 

• Lychee Ice Cream
• Ceylon Peach Ice Cream
• White Sapote Sorbet  

Flavors were rated on a scale from 1 to 10, wtih 1=bad, 4=mediocre, 7=good, 10=oustanding.  I added the points awarded to each flavor, and divided by the number of votes for that flavor.  Not everyone voted for everything, presumably because they didn’t taste those flavors.

The most popular and consistently liked ice cream was  Gaby’s Mamey Sapote flavor (with no ratings below 4). Next in popularity was her Guava ice cream, but here people’s tastes begin to vary wildly, with ratings of 10 as well as of 1.  The least popular flavor was Hani’s spiced Lime (folks thought it too sour or too bitter), followed by Robert’s White Sapote sorbet (which had the ‘typical’ white sapote fruit’s aftertaste). However, even those two averaged beter than mediocre, and they each garnished some 10’s. The remaining flavors all averaged in the good+ range.

 From the 55 cards turned it, here’s the computed ratings:

FLAVOR	Gaby’s	Hani’s	Possum’s
Mamey	8.6	7.4
Lychee	7.8	7.1	7.5
White Sapote			6.0
Peach			7.2
Lime		5.5
Canistel	7.5
Guava	8.3

We also had two types of pies, mango and muntingia (aka cotton candy fruit). The mango pie used both ripe and unripe mango; the result was a slightly tart pie which reminded at least one person of apple pie. The muntingia pie was a ‘chess pie’ base with the berries added. Chess pies are an old southern tradition. The filling is egg-based, with butter and a touch of milk (or cream or buttermilk).

For refreshements I made two single-ingredient teas – a lemongrass and an allspice tea.  The lemongrass tea had nothing added, but I sweetened the allspice tea with a bit of agave syrup and honey – jsut enough to take the edge off. Both were well-received.

All in all, it was a great event. The rain held off until the last half-hour, and then it was not much more than a drizzle. Everyone had a good time, and left with their fill of ice cream. Some folks bought extra ice cream or fruit to take home, and a couple of people bought some of the pies too!

This event was sponsored by Whole Foods Market. Thanks, Russ!