From cow to cone
OUR STUDENTS | On a quiet spring morning at UD’s farm, the sun slips over the horizon and spreads across the fields, casting dawn’s glow toward the barns where cows slumber. Roused from their night’s rest, they amble obediently toward the milking parlor, taking their places with well-drilled routine as the machines are attached and the pumps switched on.
Soon, their milk will start to flow—gallon after gallon, rich and fresh and full of cream. Within hours, it all will be on its way—to the processing plant, then into the ice cream machine, and ultimately into the cardboard cartons bearing words that have come to symbolize joy inside and outside of campus:
UDairy Creamery Ice Cream—From the Cow to the Cone.
The story of this now-iconic UD product is a tale that reaches far beyond the cows and crops on the farm, shaping the education of hundreds of students and influencing many careers. It’s a story of generous donors who made the Creamery’s retail shop a reality, of professors who use the process as a crucial hands-on teaching tool, of alumni who will forever yearn for another nibble of Delaware River Mud Pie.
It’s also the kind of story with a happy ending, and a beginning that starts with a seed.
by Eric Ruth, AS93
UDAIRY CREAMERY BY THE NUMBERS
Since its birth in 2008, the Creamery has:
• Served more than one million ice cream cones
• Employed more than 300 student workers
• Developed more than 150 different ice cream flavors
• Produced over 250,000 gallons of ice cream
• Handmade over 100,000 waffle cones
• Been supported by 183 donors, who have donated more than $1.9 million to date
To order your own UDairy ice cream visit www.creamery.udel.edu
