Our Blackberries & Cream flavor is a psychedelic-purple journey. The color alone is enough to draw you in but the flavor we get from cramming so many blackberries into the recipe is unbelievable. This is one of our venerable favorites all year long. Our blackberries are grown for us by Westmoreland Berry Farm in Oak Grove, VA, along the banks of the Rappahannock River. Available June to August.
No fruit is anticipated as much as the Virginia strawberry. She summons the beginning of summer fruit season and is only around for a mere 5 weeks, making it even more special. We start with berries from Westmoreland Berry Farm around Mother’s Day and finish the season in Pennsylvania with Toigo Orchards. We love roasting them and mixing them with fresh cream or making an exquisite sorbetto of strawberries and tarragon. Available May to June.
Our blueberries are grown along the Rappahannock river in Virginia. Westmoreland Berry Farm brings our order to Arlington Farmers’ Market every Saturday and we go to pick our flats every week. We eat them non-stop during the 2 month long season and love to combine them with fresh yogurt or make a sorbetto with lemon-thyme. Available July to August.
Casey and Stacey with Potomac Vegetable Farm grows this particular mint for us on their pristine farmland in Purcellville, VA. The deep earthy mint perfectly cuts through the fat of the milk and cream delivering the quintessential mint flavor that has such a long finish. This is our go-to flavor all summer long and we like to fold in dark chocolate as it falls from the batch freezer.
Our milk and cream plays a front and center role in everything we do. It lays the foundation for our gelato and is what makes our cappuccinos so over-the-top creamy. The Perry family has been tending their 170 acre farm in York, PA since the early 1900’s. The have 250 cows in an enclosed herd, which means they raise all their own replacement cows. They are close to the process from beginning to end, milking and bottling the milk from their own cows, making it impossible to find anything fresher, creamier or more delicious.
Our Lemon-thyme is grown by Potomac Vegetable Farm in Purcellville, VA. The lemon notes which come from this herb is unique and delicate, making it the perfect match for the Virginia blueberries while they are around. Available June to August.
There are probably 20 different varieties of plums available during the 2 month long season. There are also multiple names for the same plum, so, it is sometimes confusing at the markets what exact plum we are getting, we don’t much care because they are all so stellar. We do know our favorite is the sunshine orange Santa Rosa Plum. Her acidity is so sweetly balanced. We like to roast them and combine them with a touch of cardamom & Perrydell cream. Available July to September.
Apricots were one of the first fruits our daughter Pema ate when she was little. No other fruit can compare to the long lasting, smooth but sharp acidity. We love this fruit while its around, which isn’t for too long. We pick them up from Toigo Orchards every Wednesday & Sunday at the local farmers’ markets. Available in July.
Our corn is the sweetest corn around. Mark swears by his Mirai sweet corn variety and I’ll never forget the day he turned us on; it was at the Dupont market and he shucked it fresh and told us to bite into it. I had never eaten raw corn until that day and it was a total revelation. We make a super creamy and sweet corn gelato and combine it with Westmoreland berries. Available in August.
Our berries are grown impeccably by the fine folks at Westmoreland Berry Farm. They are grown along the Rappahannock River in Oak, VA. We get our strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries from them.
Mark Toigo grows our white peaches in Shippensburg, PA. We like to eat them alone at the beginning of the season because of the higher acidity and then later we combine them with Prosecco for the perfect bellini. Available July to September.
Being born in Georgia should say enough about how we feel of this famed fruit. There is nothing like biting into a super ripe peach, skin & all. We spin it on its own or combine it with a couple of different spirits depending on the mood, maybe Southern Comfort or a splash of Bourbon can never do you wrong. We pick them up from Toigo Orchards every week. Available July to September.
The perfumed flavor of the White Nectarine cannot be matched in the fruit world. The crisp sweet fruits are some of our favorites all year long. Sometimes we like to splash on a bit of Sake to compliment their beautiful flavor. We pick them up from either Toigo Orchards or Quaker Valley Orchards, whoever has them at the moment. Their season can be as short as 1 week so we cherish them while they are around. Available in August.
Whenever we want a bit more acidity than what the peach provides we go for the Yellow Nectarine. We like spinning it straight up and it holds up well. Toigo Orchards grows these for us. Available July to September.
Our vanilla beans come from the folks at Singing Dog Vanilla in Eugene, OR. They work with their growers in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia to find the very best organic vanilla, paying the farmers a fair price and sharing a percentage of profits when the final products sell. We have tried most of the vanilla beans available in the market and all pale alongside these plump and juicy vanilla beans.
