Sandy Point Ice Cream

Sandy Point Ice Cream is not a brand you will likely see in Publix or Kroger’s. Sandy Point Ice Cream was produced in small hand cranked ice cream churn on the back steps at my grandmother’s house. And it was never on the spur of the moment but required planning.

The ingredients for the ice cream had to be accumulated, ice cream salt and ice purchased at the ice house and there had to be a lot of cranking, cranking, cranking. The cranking would require a lot of energy on a hot day and produced sweat and made the cranker very thirsty which in turn made the ice cream taste even better. Nothing like homemade ice cream!
So this was a process that fed on itself. The more the cranking and the hotter the day, the better the ice cream would taste! And, it was all consumed at the time of manufacture. No fancy cartons or graphics were required. We had never heard of Haagen-Dazs or Blue Bell. There was some Borden’s and Pet around in town, I think. Refrigeration was in short supply for many years and keeping anything frozen, well that was to come later. Then, we were likely to have nuggets and creamsicles.
Did you know? (Source IDFA Ice Cream Survey)?
• The average American consumes more than 23 pounds of ice cream per year.
• Regular ice cream is the most popular category of frozen desserts and U.S. ice cream companies made more than 898 million gallons of regular ice cream in 2015.
• The production of low-fat ice cream, the second most popular category, increased by 20 million gallons in 2015.
Hard frozen dairy desserts accounted for almost 75 percent of all frozen dairy products made in 2015
• About 1.54 billion gallons of ice cream and related frozen desserts were produced in the U.S. in 2015.
The majority of U.S. ice cream and frozen dessert manufacturers have been in business for more than 50 years and many are still family-owned businesses. The ice cream industry in the United States contributes more than $39.0 billion to the national economy and creates more than 188,000 jobs in communities across the country.
June is the highest production month of the year, but production remains strong through August to satisfy summer demand. Production declines through the end of the year.
Down at Sandy Point, we never calculated the cost of the ice cream, as far as I know. And, no one was aware how much ice cream was being consumed. It was a special treat and would be done when company came to visit or for birthdays, etc. Not every day. And, if peaches were in season, well, that was just added deliciousness, a gallon at the time.

My grandfather loved ice cream and had a habit of stopping at what was Sanders Brothers’ Store on the way back from the farmers market. They sold the paper cups of ice cream with a little wooden spoon and they were about a nickel as I recall. They may have been ten cents. Whichever, they were good. Especially after getting up at about 4:00 AM and spending all day at the market selling peas, butter beans, and tomatoes.

We are never without some ice cream in our freezer and occasionally I buy a plastic bag of the paper cups of Blue Bell Ice Cream up at Publix. Those nickel or dime cups are now about fifty cents when you buy 12 in the bag. They are still good!
We went to Sears a few days back up at the mall. Just outside the entrance to Sears is a Haagen-Dazs space that sells cups of their ice cream. I ordered us two of the nickel cups of butter pecan. Needless to say, I was a little shocked when the guy rang up our two nickel cups and said, “That will be eleven dollars and thirty five cents, please.”

He did say please. I thought that was a nice touch.
I commented that that was pretty pricey for two small cups and he told me I was paying for quality. I am not too sure about that.
Philip Crosby wrote a book about Quality and defined it as “Conformance to requirements.” That book set the stage for the new era in manufacturing and competing on the world stage with the Japanese and others.
If his definition is correct, Blue Bell is “quality” as far as I’m concerned. It conforms to my requirements and I can buy gallon for about what the two small cups of the Haagen-Dazs costs!

Those old hand cranked churns gave way to electric models that plugged in to the wall and whined and hummed and made ice cream but part of the charm was gone. Not as much sweat and work and the ice cream was a little different somehow. At some point, it just wasn’t worth the effort anymore and the churns became junk for the land fill or the antique store. The process for enjoying ice cream had changed for most although the churns are still available. I have not seen one in use lately.
Home made ice cream? That’s funny. That’s the name on the vanilla ice cream I buy at Publix. Homemade Vanilla. Made in some plant in Texas or someplace. Home made, indeed! But, it is good!

As the world continues to change, my grandchildren have probably never seen or tasted ice cream made in a hand cranked churn. And will never miss it. And, they can enjoy as much ice cream as they want from Publix or the Dairy Queen. I guess that will have to do. And their taste buds will never know the difference. I have to go now because my ice cream is melting.

JC© 2018