Here come the day trippers

April:  At last the sun has come out, the grass is growing & the sky is blue whilst  Easter has come & gone like a politician chasing a floating voter. I think therefore, it is fairly safe to say, the 'Season' is upon us.  The season that sees empty country roads reduced to a snaking crawl of nose to tail traffic, the season that finds all roads lead to the coast, the season that sees our ice cream vans trundling up and down the Yorkshire Coast restocking beach side kiosks, farm shops, gardens & tourist attractions. 

Yes, we have survived Easter, the Caravan Club 5 pitch certified site was, well to be blunt about it, more akin to a swamp than beautifully manicured lawns.  Thanks to the pretty aweful winter weather consisting of snow & rain, the ground was, & up until just now, been well & truly water-logged. The forecast for the Bank Holiday was, as is so often the case, broadcasting heavy rain.  Did we get this? No.  I do get so very angry when l hear the BBC weatherman telling us that 'this weekend the weather is not going to be good........' and then we get sunshine.  We got sunshine for the Easter break.  Caravans who had parked on the winter hard standing pitches fearing the worse,were able to move onto the gravel trackway in the rally field. 

So what about the ice cream parlour? Well, it was MANIC, so very, very busy.  All the staff managed really well.  Coffees, ice cream sundaes, cakes & lunches being served with not to long a wait for the customers.  We have remained busy all through last week, customer numbers being similar to those of August.  We were not alone in being hyper-busy, our customers based along the coast have had a similar experience, Hippy Shake at Whitby sold out of ice cream as did the Beach Hut in Sandsend. This is unheard of at this time of year.  Sunday we had the car park filled with the rumble of 32 Mazda MX5, c/o the Yorkshire Ridings MX5 Club. 

So as l come to my closing paragraph, what happens next & where are  we heading to? Well for a start,Tesco [Yorkshire] have had their first delivery of our more unusual flavours which, according to the data, are flying out as fast as the stuff goes into the freezer, so that's pretty encouraging news, must be doing something right, whilst on the farm we are trying to fit in fencing so that the heifers, which are coming over from the farm at Harpham, wont go for a leaisurely stroll along the cliff top! So have l forgotten anything? Hmn, the new investment is a very large white board sat beside me, on which all this week's deliveries are written up on in bright red plus things that are happening or need chasing up or what time is tea.And so on that note, l can hear the kettle boiling away on the aga so had better go and pour some hot water into the tea pot and pass around some cups of Yorkshire Tea.

Task: take ice cream to Oslo

For 2 days now l have waited for the hedge planters to re-appear. They have done so at 17.00 this evening. It will be dark soon and there are a final 50 shrubs to plant plus the fencing, [sheep netting with two rows of barbed wire on top attached to wooden stakes], 3 wooden gates, 2 owl boxes AND those small bird boxes. Perhaps l am just dim, tomorrow would have been fine. farmer hastily drew a map of where the final shrubs were to go, leaving me idiot proof instructions of the exact siting of the dratted plants.


Farmer is away. He left Monday at the crack of dawn heading for Oslo via Humberside / Amsterdam to a Trade exhibition that is being held in the British Embassy. So not only did he have to get himself actually there, despite me having checked him in online, but also 14 500ml tubs of ice cream in a variety of mouth watering flavours. So we have had fun for the past week, testing how long ice cream will stay frozen in an electric freezer container that will only be plugged in on the hour's drive to the airport from here! I will not mention the word stress or mad in this post!

The traveler has rung twice, first to say he had arrived in Schipol and again on his arrival in Oslo where, incidentally there was 2 feet of freshly fallen snow. oh, and he rang this morning asking me to email a price list as he couldn't find his copy. He returns tomorrow so that means l have no car and Harry has brought home an 09 Golf TDI courtesy car which has the full works, leather seats climate control, this goes back to the VW Garage in Hull tomorrow, and it smells Wonderful, l had almost forgotten what a brand new car smelt like. So that leaves me in a bit of a pickle. The Regional Food Group are doing a network / meet the buyer at Bishop Burton College tomorrow evening and l am down to attend, but it's too far to walk, there is no bus or train and Harry is chairing the Young Farmers meeting tomorrow evening, so you see my problem. Life is such fun.

Calories and nesting boxes

It is amazing that no matter what the weather is doing and no matter how cold or miserable it is outside, people like to eat ice cream. Cones, ice cream sodas or sundaes, it makes not one iota of difference, they just need ice cream. I wonder why? Is it a treat, a feel good little something that helps lift the gloom of a manky day? Or is it a case or 'sod the diet, let me at those calories'. What ever the reason, if it makes people happy then, blow the diet or health police!

We are now in the final throws of the school Easter holidays, so are seeing an influx of small people being taken out for the day by grandparents. It is an interesting point that most children are better behaved when out with Gran than with parents. l am not saying that all family groups are badly behaved, but that some are. Nothing is worse than little johnny racing around pretending to be a transformer whilst parents sit sipping coffee.

So here we are then. April. Sun shinning, light westerly breeze, dare l say it, a slight rise in air temperature? The grass has not really started moving [growing] yet, looks like a late turn out? The bird boxes have all got new residents, blue tits and house sparrows, there are a couple of pairs of oyster catchers on the hill top fields, staking out territory. These are noisy birds, shrieking when disturbed. At this time of year, we have to restrict the dogs from certain areas as these are prime nesting sites for things like mallard and waders.

Living here, on the coast, we are a bit limited as to which direction to head for on days out. Fortunately for us, there is plenty of dramatic scenery within an hour's drive. To the north, and probablely first choice, [except on weekends], is Whitby. The most leisurely route is through Forge Valley, then the twisty turny road up to Silpho, on via Hackness, hitting the main Scarborough to Whitby road just south of Boggle Hole, across the moors, past Hawsker until the ruined abbey of St Hilda's stands out on the skyline, where land meets sea, looking to all and sundry like the bleached ribs of some long dead whale.

Whitby is a little bit of all sorts. There are a scattering of amusement arcades, a plethora of fish and chip restaurants, long sweeping piers taking you out into the north sea, historic lanes and alleyways, ruined abbeys, ancient churches, 199 steps plus the Grand Turk moored alongside the quay. All to much!

Ice cream, glorious ice cream

Every year at the end of January, ice cream manufacturers from the huge multinational to the small artisan producer, pack their bags and head off for the the ice cream show to end all ice cream shows, the Big One, the International Artisan Ice Cream, Patisserie & Confectionery Exhibition held in Rimini.

l must just say that we have only been once before and don't attend every year, but this year whilst Management stays put, the lads have braved the roadworks on the A1, scrabbled for seats on the Ryanair flight to Forli all in the name of ice cream!

The Italians, as well as designing wonderful shoes & handbags, are also thought to be the world leaders in ice cream. Every street has its own gelato selling a mouth watering array of brightly coloured*** & wonderfully decorated ices & sorbets. So then it's hardly surprising that the main exhibition for all thinks ice creamy is held in Italy.

All the main flavour suppliers will be there as will be stands displaying nothing but glassware, for ice cream sundaes, fixtures and fitting, to make your ice cream parlour look the bes knees, cones, machinery, packaging. Everything you can think of do do with ice cream will be there!

Ice cream recipes are very interesting, you can make a batch using nothing more than water or milk. a 'ready mix' powder and loads of added air. Here we use gallons of fresh milk, double cream, very little added air [our ice cream feels heavy compared to cheaper ice cream] & definitely do not use anything artificial, we prefer to use locally grown fruits wherever possible but failing that we do buy in flavours, things like chocolate & amerana cherry for example.

So l am looking forward to hearing all about the Ice Cream Trip on the Boys return and l really hope that the range of natural flavours has been increased!
The Italians do like to add plenty of E120 & E110!***