The Apple Crisp arrives at Kimball Farm!

A sign of the times.  It started a week early (I thought it starts off on Labor Day Weekend, but, yea, I had it anyways, with Gingersnap Molasses ice cream.

It was just a bitter sweet moment, when this double edge sundae comes in...The best sundae that capitalizes on "autumn", yet a signal that the season's closure is around the corner.

Well, at least the Country store is opened after the closure of the ice cream stand and all it's activities, but the message to you: If you like Kimball Farm's ice cream, start your petitions to Kimball family to start serving ice cream year round now.  I know about window service, but at least tell them to move the ice cream into the country store from Columbus Day till St. Patrick's Day.  Maybe people should also start to petition Rota Springs Ice Cream to at least keep cranking out a few flavers during the late fall/winter season.

Perhaps true ice cream fans will look at hours at Bedford Farms and tell Kimballs that they can add more jobs by maybe having windows service on Fridays through Sundays.  My feelings: From Columbus Day till Thanksgiving, continue window service on Friday after noon (like 3pm to 9pm), Saturdays and Sundays 10am to 9pm.  Mondays through Thursdays could have Ice Cream served at the country store.

Now, I could just order this Apple Crisp to go and grab myself some Rota Spring Farm's Indian Pudding and make the best of two worlds...

All I have to say is: Look at the picture, drool, and start petitioning Kimball Farms and Rota Springs Farms to keep cranking out ice cream all winter long...  Long live Kimballs...

Rota Springs Farm: The Triple Berry Crisp

It seems that it's my love with Rota Springs Farm during the last few weeks lately, and that this place, although it's just screaming for a lounge area and a mini golf course so that this place ought to be designed to stay here for a few hours and take a rest and look at the cows and the goats for a while, while sometimes, I can order up a supersized 6-scoop banana split, like in the fall where I can order up a pumpkin, apple pie, hopefully a sweet potato flavered ice cream, as well as a maple walnut, a butter pecan, and lastly, indian pudding.

Hopefully, there will be an additional sign below that that says: "MINIATURE GOLF!"

Yea, Every time I go here, I just think to this self like: "This place NEEDS a miniature golf to complete this ice cream stand.  But on the other hand, it's a young ice cream stand with some more stuff here, and they do sell subs, and even chili, as well as meatballs.  Maybe if they start selling spaghetti with meatballs, and a few other stuff here, hell, we can have something that compares to the grill and seafood shack at Kimball Farms, but on another flare.

Well, anyways, this time, I ordered a chili bowl for a small lunch today.

It's an average size bowl, with some meat and tomato chunks in it.  It's a little spicy, but it's a pretty good chili they serve here.

Now, knowing that I had my banana split here before, and my two scoop cones of Maine Blueberry and Indian Pudding, the same thing that WeAllScreamForIceCream had on his first visit towards Rota Springs, this time I went with the specialty ice cream sundae: a triple Berry crisp with indian pudding ice cream.

 

It sure does taste like a combination of summer and fall, a great dessert for the end of the summer and the beginning of fall.  I do believe, because the bottom was hot enough to melt the Indian Pudding ice cream above it, it seems like the ice cream above it was loose like a bowl upside down over a liquid, that just moves every time you stick a spoon in it.  It's actually a mixture of Blueberries, black raspberries, and strawberries (Well, I don't remember) with the crisps in it.  I do believe that in September, they will offer apple crisp.  I may get that, with indian pudding ice cream.  Maybe they may have indian pudding itself come this fall, so why not have that, WITH indian pudding ice cream.

 

But speaking of fall, yea, it's a double edge sword.  I usually take vacation in October, because it's not humid at that time, and you get all the foliage.  But on the downside, all these great ice cream stands shut down.  Oh, well, at least in late October you still get Bedford Farms (Bedford shops opens till the second weekend of December), Rota Springs (Open till the second week of November), and Great Brook Farms (Till perhaps Halloween).  The other, well, so so news is that Rota Springs is open during my time off, so I can still go there.  But we can all demand those Ice Cream stands to remain open for just a bit longer, at least till after thanksgiving, or perhaps after New Years, for like weekends.  Maybe when the second week of November comes in, I can order a few quarts of Indian Pudding.

Another Trip to Rota Springs Farm

On a day I lucked out, as far as the weather is concerened, after a walk at a park today, I decided to take another trip to Rota Springs Farm today.  This ice cream place, known for it's famous Indian Pudding, is currently one of the top four picks, along with Kimball Farms, Great Brook Farm, and Bedford Farms.

Boy, I tell you, this place, though it recently got an addition for the country store, is screaming for more expansions.  This place dearly needs a miniature golf course, since it's already getting attention by a lot of people.  It doesn't have the traffic that Kimball Farms has, but that's because it's only been arround for about 10 to 15 years.  But the rural location, along with the cows grazing as you eat your food here makes a great place for lunch, as well as ice cream.

The only problem is that it is located far away from a interstate highway, making this place a chore to go to.  You go off of 495, and try to follow route 62, but even that you have to deal with turns, red lights, and yes, a four-way stop sign.

Anyways, my lunch today was a ham and cheese sub with everything on it.  Again, it was a good size sub with lots of ham in it.  The everything on top of it was an average thing...lettuce, tomato, mayo, unions, pickles, whatever.

But instead of a Banana Split (I already had a banana split the night before), I ordered what the guy at WeAllScreamForIceCream ordered...a sugar cone with Indian Pudding and Main Wild Blueburry.

Sure enough, the difference between my version and his version is that they flip flopped the ice cream with the Indian Pudding on top of the Blueburry!  As soon I lay my mouth on the indian pudding, it seems that the ice cream WANTS to be a fall seasonal flaver, but I choose to resist the need, and instead have that every time I go to Rota Springs Farm, wheather it's March or November.  Hell, Maybe one day they may have Indian Pudding soft serve.

As I was eating the ice cream, this thing melted, as of, when I went down to the blueburry, it was dripping all over my hand!  At that point, I was licking the BOTTOM to play the game of "fight the dripping before my clothes get soiled"  I don't know why, but it wasn't that hot out.  Imagine if I ordered a 3-scoop ice cream cone...I would be covered in ice cream before I finished that thing.

Anyways, I picked up a pint of indian pudding before I left this place.

Mad Willie's Ice Cream

Surprisingly, the people at WeAllScreamForIceCream hasn't covered this stand as of yet, and while this place is really local to where I live, I got the chance to stop by here for a banana split after a dinner out and a week's worth of working.  Oh, hum.  2 jobs, and finally the weekend.  The other thing about this is that it's located in a busy area, right near the Framingham Center, where Red Pepper and Centre Pizza is.

For those who go to Centre Pizza and finished up the pizza, I'm sure that people arn't going to miss this ice cream place, if they are craving for dessert.

It's also amazing that they have like 60 flavers of soft serve while only about 25 flavers of hard scooped ice cream.  Usually, ice cream stands have more hard serve flavers then soft serve.  However, some flavers do stand out, like German Chocolate Cake, Cake Batter, and Death By Chocolate, which are the flavers I ordered for my banana split.

It's quite the right size as well, not too big, not too small.  but I was so surprised that the Cake Batter ice cream is actually yellow in color.

In my opinion, it's no Kimballs or Rota Springs, but it's pretty good ice cream.

They also have stuff for lunch, including lobster rolls and hot dogs as well, as well as shakes, frapps, and smoothies.

The Laughing Kookaburra at Kimball Farms, and the Fall Flavors Arrives!

Oh, let me see.  I gourged on ice cream this weekend, from the six-scoop banana split to the fall banana split over this weekend.  Now, I just have to get back on track this monday and start being healthy.  I tell you, the weather this weekend was a feel more like the carribean than being in Westford Massachusetts.  Maybe that someone went back from the carribean and brought the weather with him, but man, It was oppressive as s__t during the past weekend.

Anyways, I decided to go to Kimball to see what things are going on.

As usual, I went on the bumper boats, and then had a burger and rested for a bit tonight.  As I walked around, I noticed that there is a new thing, which is, amazingly, the Laughing Kookaburra!  Although he was shy at this time, it was amazing that this animal, responsible for the jungle laughing animal SFX, would arrive at this farm.

From there, I went to the ice cream stand to order a banana split.  But to my amazement, they had the pumpkin and gingersnap molasses!  YAY!  I actually talked to them, and they say that it's two of the most popular flavors at Kimballs.  So, for my banana split, I ordered Pumpkin, Gingersnap Molasses, and Butter Pecan as my ice cream flavors.  What a great early day to start the fall season...Oh, way, it's still August 12th?  But somehow, fall is my best season around.  Too bad that Kimballs don't serve ice cream past columbas day, with the exception of selling the leftovers.  But on the other hand, Rota Springs sells ice cream till mid November.  But here it is: The Fall-type Banana Split!

Yea.  It is a double edge sword.  My best flavors of Kimballs, but also, a bitter sweet end to the 2012 season.  Only 8 weeks left.  I just can't believe that time has flown right by.  At least, during the last few weeks, I can enjoy my apple crisp.  But also, at least, Rota Springs Farm is open for a few more weeks after this place closes.  And I will always order my last Banana Split on Columbus Day.

Just keep begging Kimball to keep selling Ice Cream till at least after New Years Day.  Oh, by the way, did you know King Richard Faire opens up in three weeks?  That's another biggy!

 

Rota Springs Farm: (The Six-scoop Banana Split)

This is the Ice Cream place that was favorited by We All Scream for Ice Cream, a blogger from Wordpress, doing Ice Cream tours and usually orders a cone, while I do the banana splits. That person usually orders a cone with Indian Pudding as one of the flavors.

(PHOTO FROM WEALLSCREAMFORICECREAM.WORDPRESS.COM)

Well, my experience on this hot and humid Saturday after a trip to Douglas State Forest, starts off with a meatball sub, then looking around at the goats, and finally, my six (get this, 6 flavor, banana split).

I then ordered a meatball sub, in which they have it from 11:30pm to 6:30.  It was a good size sub, with good size meatballs.  I also had a lemonade, since I was so thirsty from that air that felt like the carribean.  I mean seriously.  The forest I went to felt more like I was in a tropical rainforest.

After I ate the sub, I peaked at the goats they have there.  One of the goat seams to pop out of the others.  It so seams to have these gray ears pop out of the black color.

Anyways, after pearing at the goat, I ordered the banana split.  Of the six flavors, I ordered: Milky Way, Chocolate Peanutbutter Cookiedough, Pineapple Coconut, New York Cheesecake, Chocolate Chip Crunch, and lastly, the Weallscreamforicecream favorate: Indian Pudding.  It was a good size banana split, possibly bigger then the one served at Kimball Farms.  Basically, it's three by a stack of two.  The indian pudding was the last flavor that went, which was on the botton.  It was a pretty interesting flavor.  I thought about ordering a pint or a quart of that, but I would wait until the last days they are opened.

Actually, the indian pudding was on the botton with the chocolate peanutbutter cookiedough sitting on top of the popular flavor.

Anyways, will Rota Spring farm expand and compete with Kimball Farm?  Only time will tell, but they do offer somethings similar.  They also have a country store, but it's not like Kimball, although they do sell soaps, cookies, and plenty of vegtables.

Well, anyways, they offer a three-scoop small, but also a kiddie 2-scoop banana double.

Now, let's tell WeAllScreamforIceCream, and petition Rota Springs Farm to open all year round, and perhaps expand further.  I do believe that this, along with Bedford Farms and Great Brook Farm, could spell serious competition to Kimball Farm.

Dairy Queen needs an upgrade...bad.

The evolution of the fro-yo craze and the self serve concept has now put Dairy Queen in this situation.

Especially the ice-cream-only places which ocasionally serves hot dogs (and perhaps sometimes hamburgers), this business model is getting real old.  Sure they've got blizzards, but the blizz of the month deal of them makes me think that their business is still stuck in the 80s.  Basically, it's some different type of blizzards, sundaes, cones, banana splits, and brownie sundaes, with only one flavor of ice cream...vanilla.  SOME areas offer chocolate, but that's it.  Mom and pop stores sell MANY flavers of soft serve ice cream.  I mean, many ice cream stands around can offer something that's more premium than the DQ's blizzards and sundaes.  Kimball farms in my area serves 50 different flavers of hard scooped ice cream, and I can customize my own banana split by choosing three flavers of ice cream and my own toppings.  So, why Dairy Queen with only one (maybe two) base flavors of ice cream?  I don't know, but the emergance of the frozen yogurt where consumers can go up to the machine and dispense themselves their own yogurt (though, I may still go to TCBY and get a shiver or a banana split there, even though TCBY is going to the self-serve route).

But one thing I do admit that if Dairy Queen decides to go to the self serve route and widen up the base flavers of ice cream (at least add chocolate, coffee, and strawberry to the widely used vanilla ice cream) and mix in your own toppings, they could keep the classic treats there as a full serve, so that the new generation can create their own sundaes, while the older generation who are used to the blizzards can still have the blizzards.

So, of course, my design is this: a self serve part containing a chocolate, vanilla, coffee, strawberry, and even two seasonal flavers of ice cream, along with the topings, dips, and hot fudge.  Add a mixing, so that customers can fill up a blizzard cup with the ice creams and the ingrediants they one and create their own blizzards!  Yo-ho, how about my very own white chocolate chip reverse blizzard, or a banana split blizzard...  Also, have hard scooped ice cream.  I know that Dairy Queen doesn't want to include hard scooped ice cream, but they need to add it.  TCBY has been doing hard scooped frozen yogurt SINCE THE BEGINNING, and it's certainally going to kill Dairy Queen if Dairy Queen doesn't start serving hard scooped ice cream.

While they have the self serve ice cream, they can retain the full-serve counter, so that long time Dairy Queen customers can still have the favorite blizzards or the hot fudge sundaes they had.  The burgers, fries, and hot foods can also be served at the front counter.  However, the counter can be used to weigh the self serve cups that customers get and be paid by the ounce.

Is this going to also make McDonald's, KFC, and other fast food places obsolete?  perhaps, but the self serve frozen yogurt craze is starting to make Dairy Queen look old and crusty and need of a transformation.