Connecticut’s ice cream is the cherry on top of centuries of dairy farming history
Connecticut is “one of the luckiest states” when it comes to classic ice cream, according to a Food & Wine magazine writer who recently canvassed the country searching for the best scoops in the United States.
David Landsel, who chose Bantam-based
Arethusa Farm as Connecticut’s best, said the decision was a tough call, noting the
Nutmeg State’s “small-town mom-and-pop operations” as well as “destination-worthy farmstead creameries.”
Connecticut has no shortage of these farmstead creameries, many of which reside on farms that have been in local families for several generations. Ferris Acres established its creamery in 2003, but the Newtown farm’s operations date back to 1864. Rich Farm in Oxford launched its ice cream shop in 1994, but the dairy farm originated five generations prior. Tulmeadow Farm Store, which has also been scooping ice cream in West Simsbury since 1994, can trace its roots back to 1768.
Dairy farming in Connecticut dates back to the colony’s founding in 1633, as European settlers brought cows to their new home. According to a historical timeline compiled on The Farmers’ Cow website, cheese and butter were sold in cities and towns in the early 1800s, but milk, being highly perishable, was a seasonal offering from April to November. That changed as technological innovations advanced, bringing in electricity, vacuum milking machines, steam-powered tractors, refrigeration and pasteurization.
The dairy industry is a “very important sector” in the agricultural community, said Bryan Hurlburt, the commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Agriculture, because of how it’s connected to every other agricultural sector.
“We liken them to be the anchor stores at a mall or a shopping plaza,” he said. “They consume a lot of land and equipment and labor and feed and supporting products, and so the benefit of having a robust dairy industry in the state trickles down to all of the different agriculture sectors, regardless of what they’re producing.”
A product like ice cream is often more profitable for a farm than just milk, Hurlburt said, so that helps fuel the ability for a dairy farm to stay in existence.
The dairy program at the University of Connecticut dates back to 1881 when it was the Storrs Agricultural School, said Ethan Haggerty, area manager of the campus’s UC Cafes and the UConn Dairy Bar. A creamery was established in the early 1900s, but the university didn’t sell any products from its creamery until 1953 when the UConn Dairy Bar store opened.
The Dairy Bar is now an iconic stop on campus, selling ice cream and cheeses crafted with milk from the Department of Animal Science’s milking cows.
“The ice cream is made like it was back in the ‘50s; it’s pretty much the same equipment. That’s part of the process of making such a high-quality product. We’re not doing rapid production,” Haggerty said. “The creamery does a full 24-hour pasteurization process, which in a big plant takes minutes. So we get all this extra high-quality ice cream, high butterfat content, good caramelized sugar that leaves it with that silky touch to it.”
The creamery produces about 50,000 gallons of ice cream each year. The Dairy Bar, which fully reopened its building this spring after being closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, is a popular stop for students and visitors to campus; Haggerty estimates about three quarters of customers are locals or school groups on field trips to the animal barns. The Dairy Bar’s ice cream truck also does brisk business at Rentschler Field football games.
Arethusa Farm Dairy in Bantam, now a premium Connecticut dairy brand, started with the goal of saving open farmland. Manolo Blahnik executives George Malkemus and Anthony Yurgaitis bought the Bantam farm in 1999, and then became interested in establishing their own dairy herd and bought purebred registered Holsteins, Jerseys and Brown Swiss cows.
“We wanted to save a farm and have a great herd of cows,” said Yurgaitis. “We had to come up with alternative ways of earning money, so we started thinking of opening our own dairy and that led into ice cream and cheese making ... It was all new to us. We, of course, made some mistakes along the way, and we didn’t give up. We kept going, and pursuing trying to really keep that farm going.”
Two decades later, Arethusa produces coveted “old fashioned” ice cream, milk, butter, fine cheeses, yogurt and holiday eggnog. Its Bantam dairy shop is next door to its full-service restaurant, Arethusa al tavolo, and across the street from its bakery Arethusa a mano. A scoop shop in New Haven by the Yale campus features ice cream with freshlymade waffle cones and Arethusa’s full line of dairy products and a West Hartford cafe opened in 2020 with coffee, pastries, breakfast and lunch sandwiches, salads and ice cream.
Yurgaitis said the Food & Wine honor “means a great deal” to him and his staff.
“It’s great to be recognized. We weren’t expecting it,” he said. “It helps motivate the staff. They work very hard and this recognition helps us keep the standards going.”
The former fashion executives’ modern-day success — with traditional and seasonal flavors like peach in the summer, maple walnut and pumpkin in the fall and peppermint around the holidays — is a result of a generations-old business model that started on Connecticut’s farms.
“You’ve got to be innovative in agriculture to stay relevant and stay in business,” Hurlburt said. “And so finding these other ways to capture that dollar are important. I think that’s what drove those original ice cream stands to realize there’s a business model there, and consumers want it.”
“THE ICE CREAM IS MADE LIKE IT WAS BACK IN THE ‘50S; IT’S PRETTY MUCH THE SAME EQUIPMENT. THAT’S PART OF THE PROCESS OF MAKING SUCH A HIGH-QUALITY PRODUCT. WE’RE NOT DOING RAPID PRODUCTION,” — ETHAN HAGGERTY