MAGGIE KEITH: In this episode of The Farmer and The Foodie, we dedicated everything to making amazing ice cream.

And you cannot have amazing ice cream without fantastic dairy products.

So, we started out in Western Kentucky, at JD's Country Milk, where we got some milk some cows ourselves.

Then we followed their amazing product to Louisville Cream, a fantastic small batch ice cream shop, and then we finished off everything making homemade ice cream at my house with our kiddos.

I'm Maggie Keith and I'm the Farmer.

LINDSEY McCLAVE: And I'm Lindsey McClave and I am the Foodie.

[♪♪♪] MAGGIE: We decided to go visit JD Country Milk.

I had actually never milked a cow before.

And being someone who really loves cows, it was fun to be able to get so up close and personal with the cows, and to see them being loved and cared for.

And talking to Willis reminded me of why I love talking to generational farmers, I love learning from farmers who have been farming for a long time, and farming well and farming smart.

He was innovative.

At first, he was a little hesitant and looking at me like, "do you really know what you're talking about?"

But then he really opened up and I feel like Willis and I are good buddies now.

[♪♪♪] Well, thank you so much for having us out, Willis.

So, can you tell us about where we are?

Where are we in Kentucky?

We are in Logan County.

We're just about five miles off the Tennessee line.

It's a fairly large county.

It's got quite a few dairies in this county, less every year.

I can tell your cows are happy.

They come up to you, they'll let you pet them, they'll lick you, they'll snuggle you.

So, why do you think your cows are so happy?

Well, several reasons.

I think they are on a good diet.

We feed them straight alfalfa mixed with grain.

And I think there's ingredients in alfalfa for dairy that otherwise can't quite be duplicated.

I know there's a lot of other nutritionists that can mix up something very similar, but when I bottle milk, I'm concerned about the flavor and the smell.

And, to me, I get the best smell and the best flavor when I have alfalfa as their diet.

So, it's the main diet for them.

- And they like it.

- Yeah, it's great.

It's high in protein, right?

High in protein, digestibility is good.

So, you get a good milk-fat ratio?

We do.

We run over 4%.

Of course, we're Jersey, so we run in 4.5-5%, depending on the time of the year -- summertime less, wintertime more.

MAGGIE: So, tell me about your herd.

It is mostly Jersey?

WILLIS: It is.

We have 65 Jerseys, and I think there might be 8 or 10 Holsteins.

I used to be all Holstein, and for a Holstein man to milk Jersey is kind of like going backwards.

I like them.

They are inquisitive, they are nosy.

You walk up to them, they like to be petted.

And then if you come out here, they'll get up come see what's going on.

Holsteins are more lazy.

But Holsteins give more milk, less fat, and I like my fat.

So, you're a small dairy, and that's really rare to see these days.

So, what gives you hope?

And how do you sustain your business?

For us, it's merely the fact that we're putting into a bottle and selling direct to the consumer.

Now, other small farmers, there's a price point where the milk is too cheap, they just literally can't buy feed and operate and function and pay bills and things.

And it also depends on how much debt they carry.

So, the less debt, the better they can weather a down market, or a storm, or whatever you want to call it.

But unless there's more ways to generate income from the cows, I just don't see on the long term that the small farmers are going to be able to survive.

I just don't see it.

If we weren't bottling milk, I wouldn't be milking cows.

But we are milking cows because we bottle milk and we get satisfaction out of seeing a happy customer.

And a lot of our milk goes to stores but we still get a lot of emails in and comments from people and that kind of thing.

There is still an interaction with us and the customer.

MAGGIE: So, it takes a lot of work to bottle your own milk and a lot of equipment.

So, do you think that's a system that could work for other farms for us to get back to supporting small dairy farms?

Well, there's what, five or six of them in Kentucky now that are doing it.

Okay.

And I don't know what their circumstances are necessarily.

My milk in glass mainly goes for high-end stores.

So, can you tell me about why your milk is better?

Like, is it the flavor?

Obviously, the cows are happy, I'd say that's number one.

But what about the flavor?

What's the difference?

When you have non-homogenized size milk, you basically need to have it in glass.

I know other guys have it in plastic, but the problem with plastic is the cream will stick to the top of the jar and it won't go back into the milk, and then you have a rancid smell and it smells like the milk's bad.

MAGGIE: Yes.

WILLIS: Whereas in glass, if you shake the jar, the cream will be washed off the glass and it will all be back into the milk and you'll never know it.

So, there is an advantage in glass for that very point.

And it's just the experience of glass.

You know, taking your jar back and getting another fresh jar.

And we take that jar back, we're not adding to the landfills, and we're saving the earth maybe.

- Yeah.

- That kind of thing.

But I think Jersey cows and alfalfa hay and non-fermented feeds -- we don't feed any fermented feeds to our cows.

And one reason I learned that is because the European cheesemakers want no fermented feed for their cows and the cheese has a better quality to it.

So, there's a difference in that.

So, I got to think, well, maybe there'd be difference in my milk.

But I think my cows withstand the heat in the summertime a lot better because of the non-fermented feeds.

It's more expensive, I agree, and it's a bigger challenge to have alfalfa here at all times, but so far, we've been able to get that mastered.

How is your cream so good?

Well, it's just cream.

It's real cream, yeah.

So, it's 40% fat, that's the standard for cream.

There's other companies that make cream and then add carrageenan for a thickener but we don't do any of that.

It's just straight cream.

We make a lot of chocolate milk.

MAGGIE: Okay.

And what makes that so special?

WILLIS: Well, we don't use any high fructose corn syrup, we use pure cane sugar.

And we use an expensive cocoa, aroma with pure vanilla.

So, it's not just your syrup dumped in the milk and stirred up.

I spend a long time to make it.

And it's non-homogenized.

MAGGIE: Okay.

WILLIS: I worked three, four months to make it.

But everybody said, "you have to homogenize it, it's got to be homogenized.

There's no way you'll keep it if you don't."

I figured out a way to do it so it don't have to be.

So, what is homogenized?

Homogenization breaks the fat, simulates everything so it's all the same.

And then there's no separation.

Yes.

But I figured out a way to do it without doing that.

So, you shake it up?

Well, you can, but...

I have farmers ask me how I do it and I tell them, "can you keep a secret?"

And they say, "yeah", and I say, "well, I can too".

[♪♪♪] MAGGIE: So, we got to take a tour of JD's Country Milk, and they do everything there -- from the milking to the bottling.

And they are known for their glass bottle program.

So, I really appreciate that it feels very much indicative of their family farm.

Everything is in these glass bottles, and they make from whole milk to their skim milk, to chocolate milk, which is one of their best sellers, to their heavy cream.

So, we watched all of that being processed.

And then Stella, Willis's granddaughter, one of the stars of the farm, took us over to where the cows were actually being milked and we got to have some hands-on milking experience, which was definitely an experience.

[♪♪♪] [indistinct conversation] [indistinct conversation] [laughter, cheering] [♪♪♪] MAGGIE: After we left JD's Country Milk, we headed back to Louisville and decided to visit Louisville Cream, a small batch ice cream shop.

So, Darryl is the owner and ice cream maker of Louisville Cream.

He uses JD Country Milk products to craft his small batch ice cream, and I will challenge you to find anyone more passionate about making ice cream than Darryl.

Yeah, when you hear Louisville Cream and you hear small batch, you really do recognize that when you go back to his kitchen.

He is not only small batch in the sense that everything is handmade, and hand packaged, but also the creativity that goes into it, and the innovation in every single batch of ice cream is well thought out and intentional.

We are so thrilled.

Just walking in, right away, you smell like waffle cones and just all sorts of sweetness.

And this is where it's all made, right?

Yeah.

We have a small kitchen, but we churn out a lot of ice cream.

Like this machine can churn out about three gallons at a time, which is not a lot.

[laughter] It sounds like it is but it's not.

LINDSAY: Yeah.

But that allows you to be very creative.

And that's one of the things that we have always really loved about coming to visit your shop is you never know what you're going to get.

Your ice cream creations are so unique and I can't wait to learn more about how you're inspired.

Yeah, definitely.

Because it's so small, we have like a lot of turn-over with flavors.

So, we're always like coming up with something new.

MAGGIE: So, how do you make the ice cream?

You said JD provides you this amazing pure dairy base, and from there, you infuse it with whatever flavors and then...?

DARRYL: Yeah.

So, for instance, this is biscuit ice cream.

We baked biscuits, and then we took like brown butter and like based the top, and then we take the biscuits and let them steep in the cream, and then burn it all up and make biscuit ice cream.

And this will have like apple butter in it at some point later.

But yeah, I like to do that a lot.

It's really fun to, I don't know, think of like, how can you make the ice cream itself taste like something interesting or unusual.

I remember like one of the first flavors I had made when I was making ice cream out of my house was like a toast and jam flavor.

I just like made a bunch of toast and sat it in cream to see what happens.

It turns out it makes the cream taste like toast.

So, you add your sweetener, and then does it sit further or do you add the sweetener right before it's time to churn?

So, I'll have it sit further.

And I think ice cream always runs better after it like blooms for a day, you know, set it in the fridge for like 24 hours.

The flavors will help kind of cling on to the cream, the fat, and it'll just help it bloom.

So, all the flavors will just be way more pronounced if you just like let it sit for a minute.

Before I like churn it, I'll immersion blend it again, just to kind of make sure everything's good, and let it run.

[♪♪♪] Okay, so we're at the front of the shop where everyone gets to come and choose their flavors.

How many flavors do you have on your menu at any given time?

I usually have like 14 flavors at a time, and two of those are usually vegan -- they are always vegan, one is usually a sorbet, depending.

- But yeah.

- That's really nice.

We always have vanilla, chocolate, and caramel, but those have changed recently in terms of like our vanilla went from like vanilla bean to French vanilla.

And our caramel went from like a salted caramel, it's a brown sugar caramel right now.

So, we'll like tweak it a little bit for fun, but we always have vanilla, chocolate, and caramel.

Let's say you want to make chocolate ice cream, I would make like a chocolate sauce, and then I would add that to the cream on glaze base separately.

And only because I like to control each individual component, and it allows you to like you can put a ton of chocolate in the sauce without worrying about ruining your mix as far as like adding too much sweetener, or too much fat, or anything else.

If you're going to make a strawberry ice cream, you said you like strawberry, we talked about roasting the fruit -- always roast the fruit of any kind -- but then make the strawberry compote or sauce separately from your ice cream base, and then add them together so you can really control it and dial it in.

And then I guess you're just making sure each component is exactly what you want it to be so you can do that flavor tasting.

So, what's your favorite ice cream?

It usually changes because we switch it up here so much.

Right now, it's probably toasted marshmallow cookies and cream.

We also have like the biscuits and apple butter.

That ice cream, like, finished is really amazing.

MAGGIE: I can't wait to try the finished product.

Is the apple butter on top or incorporated in?

- It's swirled, yeah.

- Okay.

So, the way you talk about ice cream, I have to think you were a little boy just dreaming of owning your own ice cream shop someday.

Is that true?

- Yeah, for sure.

I was, definitely.

In high school, I used to joke about opening a shop called Float Your Boat, and it would be like an old school, like soda shop kind of place.

But like over the years, I just kept making ice cream as like a hobby.

And then I got really, really into it.

I don't know, I think I was having like a crisis of some sort because I just got obsessive about making ice cream.

And at a party, someone asked if I would cater their wedding, and then that kind of turned into another wedding.

But yeah, it just kind of slowly on accident turned into something real.

And here we are.

So, Louisville Cream, this is your brick and mortar.

When did you open the shop?

I opened in 2016, in June.

And before that, we were around for three years as like a cart.

We did like farmers markets and a lot of catering and events around the city.

So, why did you choose JD's Country Milk?

It's really creamy.

It's grass-fed.

When I was like making the ice cream out of my house, I was like buying a ton of glass bottles.

But then as it like turned into a business, I had to like figure out how to get a lot of it.

So, I just stalked Willis for a while.

I got his cell phone number through like some nefarious means, [laughter] I just called him over and over again until he finally answered and we like formed a relationship.

And now we're good buddies.

Yeah, he speaks fondly of you too.

I know.

He's a great guy.

- I think it's a win-win.

- Yeah, for sure.

Tell me about where you come up with these ideas.

Are you like out to dinner and you're eating something and you're like, this should be an ice cream?

- Sometimes, yeah.

- [laughter] Sometimes, I'll eat something awesome and I'm trying to figure out what are the components of it you could make into an ice cream.

Well, it sounds like when you have such a solid base like you get from JD's got that part in place, so then it's just how do you make that shine and make each...

It's like a blank canvas, really.

It's just kind of like if you have like a really nice canvas, then you can kind of get across what you want on that.

Yeah.

So, one of your canvases is a banana split that I understand you break out a torch for.

I'm going to make a caramelized banana split.

We sprinkle sugar and then torch the banana to crystallize and caramelize all the sugars, and it creates this kind of like candy shell right on top.

And as you add the ice cream, the ice cream starts to like melt against the candy shell.

And all the things together, like the crunch from the sugar, and like the heat from the hot fudge, and the coldness of the ice cream, it all really works really nicely together.

We should just dig right in it.

- Yeah.

- Thank you so much, Darryl.

- Yeah, thank you.

- For sure.

- What a treat!

- Thank you, guys, for coming.

Definitely get the banana.

Yeah, definitely make sure you get the banana.

Mmmm...

So good.

That whipped cream is incredible.

- I know.

- Wow!

The banana is so...

I got a little tiny crunch.

Yeah.

But nothing is like excessively sweet, which I appreciate.

Yeah.

This is a sweet treat, but also, it's not just like sugar, sugar, sugar.

There's a lot of complexity here.

[♪♪♪] Well, I don't know about you, but I've really been looking forward to getting in the kitchen to make some ice cream.

I know.

You are the ice cream master, I must say.

No, no, no.

All of that goes to Darryl, without question, at Louisville Cream.

But I think he would agree, in large part, his mastery comes thanks to JD's Country Milk.

- Yes.

- And the biggest thing I took away from Darryl at the shop, because I have been making ice cream at home for a long time and it is so much fun, and one of the things that I love the most about it is you see, literally that these are our ingredients, these simple ingredients will create amazing ice cream.

And so, what he imparted to me was he comes up with these really interesting, fun, funky flavors, but the biggest deal is to make sure each element - is perfect on its own.

- Yes.

So, you can eat his chocolate syrup, and it's phenomenal -- the best chocolate syrup you've ever had.

So, that was what I took away.

And I don't even want to dream that I can ever be as creative as he is when it comes to his flavors, like biscuit ice cream and all of those fun things, but I sort of hearken back to my favorite ice cream growing up was always strawberry chocolate chip.

- Oooh, very specific.

- Yes, exactly.

So, I thought we would take advantage of fresh strawberries and make some of that ice cream tonight.

Yeah.

So, what I've got going is just a pound of just hulled and minced up strawberries -- you were so nice to mince those for me -- and they are on a pot on the stove with about two tablespoons of sorghum.

It's got this earthy nature to it, so it's definitely sweet and it's going to break the strawberries down, but it's going to lend to like a unique element and flavor too.

That has just been simmering over there on the stove, and I've also got our milk and our cream.

So, that's the key to the good ice cream.

And so, on the stove I've got a half and half, which is half cream, half milk.

Yes, we learned a lot about that.

Yeah.

And you can't buy half and half and that is totally fine.

I often just have the cream and the milk from JD, so I literally just go half and half.

So, I'm warming my half and half on the stove and I'm warming that because I've got about eight to nine egg yolks in here.

Whoa!

These are from local chickens, so sometimes they are bigger than others, so I usually throw in that ninth egg yolk based on how big the other yolks have been.

But I need to cook them.

So, we are going to cook this ice cream, but the goal is to not have scrambled egg ice cream.

We're going to temper the half and half into the eggs, and we're going to beat some sugar in here too, slowly bring the temperature up, then get them back on the stove, cook it fully, and then it'll be time for the freezing and all of that.

So, to begin, we've got our egg yolks, we're just going to add a cup of sugar into the mix.

- Fabulous.

- Yes.

And then I've got my stand mixer here.

I'm just going to throw the bowl on and close it up.

And we'll just get this [whirring] start kind of low.

It's getting creamy!

Yeah, so I just want the sugar to be fully incorporated, and you will see the color will change.

It gets kind of, yeah, like creamy.

Yeah.

Like sugar and egg yolks and deliciousness.

It's good stuff.

So, we're going to give it just a little bit more.

Alright.

So, now, we're going to crank that back on high again in a minute because we're going to add the half and half, but I'm going to just bring that over.

I like to do it in a measuring cup.

I think that's the easiest way to add it in.

So, I'm going to grab...

So, it literally cooks in the stand mixer, not on the stove.

Well, it will also cook on the stove.

Oh, wow, okay.

Double time.

Yep.

So, it's going to cook.

So, what we're doing here is we're going to temper the egg.

So, when it goes on the stove, we're going to have to whisk constantly the whole time, because if you let it sit, no matter how tempered the eggs are, they are going to want to scramble.

So, I'm going to go ahead and turn this back up real high, and then I'm going to add just a little bit at first.

And I'll let that get incorporated.

And then I can add a little bit more and a little bit more as so to slowly bring the temperature up so the eggs aren't like scrambled.

Yes.

They're like, okay, stay creamy.

Definitely the way to go.

Alright.

So, once you get most of it in there, you can start adding a lot more.

Okay.

I try to be really cautious at the beginning because there's nothing more frustrating than churning out your finished ice cream mix and having it be like all curdled.

Yeah.

[♪♪♪] Okay, so we have cooked our ice cream base.

So, I'm going to bring that over here.

You did an excellent job.

But like I said, we're going to have our failsafe here with my Shinwah.

And we're going to push it through.

And you can see how nice and thick it is.

Yes, oh!

And not a single scrambled egg.

- No.

You did fantastic.

- [Maggie laughs] So, then we're just going to take this and as you push it through... And so this is where you can add all of your flavor bases.

Okay.

So, this makes a nice, like hearty batch of ice cream.

And so, I'm actually going to split this in half and make half of it our strawberry chunk and then save the rest.

Ideally, you want this to cool.

Now, I think industrial kitchens have like ice cream makers where this can go straight in.

That's definitely not what we have here at home.

It needs to cool fully for like 24 hours.

I'd give it at least 48 hours in the fridge to make sure it gets nice and-- - That's great.

I love that.

- Yeah.

And that gives me a chance to refreeze my ice cream bowls.

So, lucky for us, I have a batch of the strawberry ice cream that's been hanging out already, and it's ready to spin and get nice and cold.

And I mentioned earlier, my favorite growing up was strawberry chocolate chip.

Now, is it chocolate chip or chocolate chunk?

Well, I think we need to go chocolate chunk because that's what's so fun is to have those big chunks.

So, I have some really yummy chocolate bars that I like to like bang and just break into big chunks.

And I thought that could be something fun - for the kids to help us with.

- Oh, I'd love that.

[clattering] [♪♪♪] Okay, so this is our sorghum strawberry ice cream base that has been in the fridge for a couple of days now.

And all we're going to do is put it here in our ice cream bowl, which is very, very, very, very cold from the freezer, it's going to churn, and it'll take maybe 10-12 minutes.

It's all about eye.

You just look, you can see the consistency.

And at the very, very end we're going to add these amazing chocolate chunks that you, Miles, helped make into a perfect chunky consistency.

And we're going to add those in and it will be time to enjoy our ice cream.

- Oh, I can't wait!

- Alright.

- Okay.

- [whirring] Here we go.

MAGGIE: Ain't that cool?

So, it's going to grow a little bit too, Miles, as it gets colder and it starts to really churn and become thicker and creamier.

And it will only get better in the freezer.

[laughter] [♪♪♪] This is a treat but it's made of all the good stuff.

Yeah.

And you all mashed the chocolate.

Yeah, good job.

Do you taste your chocolate chunks you crushed up?

Do you all like it?

Who likes it?

Say, "me!"

- Mee!

- Me!

Elle, do you like it?

Say, "me!"

[laughter] - Meee!

- Me.

Me too.

Me too.

Hands raised.

- Wooo!!

- Wayne, do you like?

Do you like it?

- Raise your hands.

- Yeahh!!

Here's to ice cream parties.

Ice cream parties, heck, yeah.

More of those.

- Cheers.

- Cheers.

[chuckling] - Cheers.

- Cheers.

[♪♪♪]