Summertime Is Homemade Ice Cream Time

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LEFT: White Mountain, the Cadillac of ice cream freezers. RIGHT: Richmond Cedar Works, a sturdy, economical hand-cranker.
LEFT: White Mountain, the Cadillac of ice cream freezers. RIGHT: Richmond Cedar Works, a sturdy, economical hand-cranker.
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Who needs a spoon, anyway? Where homemade ice cream is concerned, you can get closer to the essence of the thing with your bare hands.
Who needs a spoon, anyway? Where homemade ice cream is concerned, you can get closer to the essence of the thing with your bare hands.

Summer–with its sweltering temperatures and long, lazy evenings–is the perfect time for an old-fashioned ice cream party. And, since you’d probably prefer to avoid all the “stiffeners” and preservatives that are routinely dumped into the store-bought frozen confection, you ought to consider dusting off your old hand-turned freezer (or buying yourself a new one) and cranking out a natural, delicious treat for the whole family to enjoy.

Homemade ice cream isn’t nearly as hard to make as folks who’ve never tried it might expect. In fact, it’s downright easy–and fun–to get a picnic-full of people involved in cranking and freezing the mixture. Later, when the creamy dessert is finished, you’ll experience the satisfaction of sidestepping the technological age and making a completely natural product with nothing more than healthful ingredients and good ol’ muscle power … and you’ll savor an unforgettable taste treat as the chilly delight slides down your throat!

Choosing a Freezer

The first step in fixing home-churned ice cream is to buy a good, dependable freezer (if you don’t have one on hand) from among the few models that are still commercially available. So, to help you make your choice, MOTHER EARTH NEWS took a look at two representative brands–one made by White Mountain and the other by Richmond Cedar Works.

Both of these machines have tubs made of wood, which is a better material than plastic for this purpose … since timber is a superior insulator and will better contain the cold–produced by the melting ice–inside the freezer.

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