Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail

Technically, this isn’t about gardening. It is about farmers. And ice cream.

But its pretty hard to not want to spread the word when you hear about something called Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail. I mean, come on, its about fresh, homemade ice cream. In fact, it’s like a scavenger hunt with 7 different stops, all providing mmmmmmmm ice cream. Add them up, and they create the nation’s first farm-based ice-cream trail.

Here’s a little blurb from their flyer:

“Maryland has seven dairy farms that offer fresh, delicious on farm ice cream. Together, they make up the newly minted Maryland Ice Cream Trail. Visit each creamery between June 20 and September 7, and you may be named. . . Maryland’s 2012 Ice Cream Trail Blazer!”

Driving around Maryland eating ice cream……sounds like a win-win situation to me. A win for you, a win for the farmers…and who WOULDN’T want to be named Maryland’s 2012 Ice Cream Trail Blazer?

Here are some more instructions about blazing the trail, with a link to the full pamphlet:

How You Can Be a Trail Blazer! As you travel from creamery to creamery this summer, enjoying Maryland’s Best dairy on a cone (or cup), have this Maryland Ice Cream Trail Passport stamped with each creamery’s Official Maryland’s Best Ice Cream Trail Stamp.

Then, mail your completed passport by September 7, 2012 to Maryland’s Best Ice Cream (address in pamphlet).

All completed passports will go into a large, chocolate covered waffle cone. If we pull yours out, you will win a $50 gift certificate to the creamery of your choice. And incredible bragging rights! Enjoy the trail!

Who (or what) influenced you to be “green”?

I’ve often mentioned on this blog why I started being more eco-friendly in my landscape. The primary reasons are: wildlife and my husband.

I have always liked having birds and butterflies in my yard but until I really started doing some research, I didn’t realize that I would attract a lot more of those critters by getting rid of chemicals (although that one seems really obvious now) and planting native plant species.

As for my husband’s role, he has always been very concerned about the environment, primarily because he likes to fish. He is the one that explained the whole groundwater connection to me. How everything that goes into the ground can end up in the local water supplies, etc.

My husband isn’t a scientist or anything. He’s a builder. And a hunter. And a fisherman. Before I met him, I thought I was the great Bambi-loving environmentalist and he was “the enemy – the hunting/fishing/building destroyer of the environment.”

The first time I saw him nurture an ailing plant, or gently release a fish back into a stream, I realized how dumb it was to ever categorize anyone by their habits or their occupation.

Between the influence of hubby and the hummingbirds, once I started to be a “green gardener” I was pretty much hooked.

Our gardens give us so  much joy, juicy food, fragrant herbs, beautiful birds and butterflies, that just want to keep learning more and more ways to keep things “green”.

So, who (or what) helped influence you to make “green” changes to your yard? Who talked you into your first rain barrel? Or taught you the joys of native plants? Or the pleasures of gardening for butterflies? I would love to share some of your answers.