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The fondest memories I have of my childhood involve ice cream.

Weekend nights at home with my parents - dessert was usually ice cream in one of a myriad of incarnations (ice cream floats, ice cream cake, ice cream sundaes, ice cream sandwiches). Summer days at my grandparents’ farm – various flavours of ice cream were always waiting for the children in the freezer after long hot afternoons in the pool (of course they had more than one freezer – so you had to know just where to look). Long drives up north to my parents’ cottage – we’d stop in Bobcaygeon and get what…? You guessed it: ice cream.

I’m actually shocked that I have all my teeth and I don’t weigh 300 pounds thanks to a regular diet of ice cream as a child! I suppose even then I did know my limits…and although from the above description it does sound as though I ate ice cream in place of three meals a day I assure you I did not. It is just that special occasions and trips tend to stand out in your mind…particularly the trips and events that were punctuated with ice cream.

Family trips north to the cottage were by far the most pleasurable expeditions of my childhood and youth – knowing that near the end of a two and a half hour drive there was that treat of succulent, delicious, marvelous ice cream awaiting me kept all of us – including my parents! - going. Those trips could have been much more arduous – the carsickness, the complaints, the “are we there yet, mummy?” cries from the backseat must have driven my parents up the wall. I am sure that every time we went they must have vowed it was the last time they would trudge me, my brother, my two sisters, a few friends and a couple of cousins all that way there in the same car. They must have had ear plugs or at the very least lots and lots of really fantastic hallucinogens.

Then the car will roll to a stop on a gravel driveway and us kids would begin to stir. From under blankets, pillows and “barf bags” we would emerge, blinking at the sunlight. My parents would get out and stretch their legs, urging us to get out of the car and do the same. No, we hadn’t arrived at our destination – rather we had simply arrived. Bobcaygeon was only about 30 minutes from the cottage and it was there that we would stop, take pee breaks and indulge in the definitive ingredient of the entire trip: Kawartha Dairy Ice Cream.

“Made the old fashioned way with fresh milk and fresh cream. These are the first two ingredients in our ingredient list – compare this to other ice creams…No butter or imported butter oil. Only the freshest of milk and cream” With flavours ranging from ‘Vanilla’, ‘Chocolate’ and ‘Strawberry’ to ‘Sugar Shack Maple, ‘Chocolate Peanut Butter’ and ‘Death by Chocolate’, this is truly the best, most delicious ice cream that Ontario has to offer.

Really, how much better can ice cream be?

This ice cream is the confection of my childhood. It is the memory that springs to mind on warm summer nights and cool autumn afternoons at the cottage. It is what I think of when someone asks me what my favourite dessert was as a child. It is the quintessential delicacy of the Kawarthas – and if you are from anywhere in Ontario you know it! For these reasons and many more I choose Kawartha Dairy Ice Cream for my addition to the Taste Everything Awards. I give them the award for "Ice Cream I Wouldn't Hesitate to Beg My Husband to Drive 2 ½ Hours Out of the City For"...but thank goodness there are a variety of shops that sell Kawartha Dairy ice cream closer to home these days.


Today marks day two of the 2nd annual edition of the Taste Everything Independent Food Festival and Awards and I am privileged and flattered to be a member of the jury for the second year in a row. These truly unique and interesting awards are as diverse as the food bloggers who are creating them, as well as the people who are perusing them. Each award is, as you can see by reading them, an expression of an individual “foodie’s” own flavor, fervor and/or fascination. As a group, they are able to depict a captivating and delectable representation of what is truly excellent today in the world of food and drink.

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