The "Making of LDub's Delight" Story

The Turkey Hill Experience Building in Columbia, PA

It was an ordinary day.  Grandson Caden and I are sampling the ice cream which we just made at the Turkey Hill Experience in Columbia, PA.  It was in 1897 that the Ashley & Bailey Silk Mill was founded in the city of Columbia which is located along the Susquehanna River.  

We were greeted by this colorful cow upon entering.

It eventually was sold and the company that bought the business also closed.  The huge building sat vacant for many years until 2011 when Turkey Hill Dairy from Lancaster County, PA opened The Turkey Hill Experience, a 17,000 square foot attraction that describes how Turkey Hill makes and develops their ice tea products and ice cream.  

Caden sits in a Turkey Hill Dairy truck.

Turkey Hill Dairy traces it founding to 1931 when a farmer began selling bottled milk to neighbors and eventually started a milk delivery route.  In 1954 the company began making ice cream and now is sharing with the rest of the world how they mass product their products.  Well, Caden and I made a visit to see for ourselves how they make their products and then try our hands at making our own flavor of ice cream.  The #1 flavor of ice cream in the world is vanilla, but for Turkey Hill, their best seller is Butter Pecan.  I bought my tickets online a few days before so we checked in and headed up the stairs in the old warehouse to view display panels telling of the history of the Susquehanna River Valley.  

These are sticky-notes that visitors can
post telling their home location. You can
see here New York; Frankfurt, Germany;
Boca Raton, Florida; and Long Island. 

Upon entering the main experience, we headed to the "Tea Room" to sample their teas.  Line was extremely long so we headed to the ice cream testing area instead.  We both had a Dixie cup of chocolate peanut butter ice cream and then we stood in line to make our own package and TV commercial for the ice cream we would create.  Once again the lines were extremely long, due to the four school buses sitting in front of the building, so we wandered throughout the displays and found the  "Taste Lab" where we would make our own ice cream.  Shortly the door opened and we were ushered into the lab with about four dozen others.  Took chairs front and center so we could see and hear all that was going to happen.  

The flavoring droppers.

Our "teacher" for the program was Janet who stood in front of us and began the program.  With the use of overhead monitors she listed the three ingredients that we would add to our white ice cream base: Flavoring, Inclusion and Variegate (syrup).  We were given a pint container of the white base and told to place a label on them with the name of our ice cream we planned to make.  

Here Caden is adding his flavoring to his ice cream base.

Caden called his "The Baseball Crusher" while I titled mine "LDub's Delight." The "Flavoring" was in small bottles sitting in front of us with eyedroppers in them.  We were to use 6 drops of flavoring except  if we were making chocolate or cotton candy and then we were to use 15 drops, since more flavoring was needed for those two varieties.  

Janet stands in front of the Inclusions.

Caden chose 6 drops each of chocolate and banana while I added 6 drops of Coconut and 6 drops of Mango.  Next we took our turns walking to the wall to our right where hanging canisters held the "Inclusion".  Items such as nuts, chocolate chips, cookie pieces, mints, marshmallows, etc. were added to our mixture by turning the handle on the canister. I found it came out fast and before I knew it I had a half inch layer of chocolate chips in my container.  Headed to the trash can and dumped most of them, since I didn't want it to overpower my mixture, but still wanted the chocolate flavor so my wife would enjoy it.  I went back and added some toffee chips and a few miniature peanut butter cups.  

My mixture called LDub's Delight.

Caden selected 3 or 4 inclusions and we took our seats until everyone had finished.  Everyone was having a great time and enjoying tasting their mixture after they added everything.  We finished our ice cream with the "Variegate" on the top.  Janet told us to place the syrup on the top and instead of stirring the mixture we were to blend it into the base by pushing our mixing spatula to the bottom and drawing it across the container.  

Caden and LDub with our Turkey Hill Dairy hats in place.
In front of us are the large bottles of Variegate.

This is how the swirls of syrup are added in the "real" ice cream making.  I chose pineapple syrup while Caden added the chocolate.  By now the container was turning to a liquid so all of our ice cream was placed in a freezer in front of us.  Janet gave a 10 minute talk while the ice cream temperature was lowered to -12 degrees.  

Our class.

Janet told us that quality control ice cream tasters test each batch of ice cream and if it doesn't taste as it was supposed to taste, it is fed to pigs in nearby farms.  Naturally I had to ask if they needed anymore taste testers … working for free!  After the ice cream is made it is placed in a freezer for 6-10 hours at -20 degrees.  Turkey Hill can make 975 containers of ice cream every five minutes and distributes it to many US States as well as quite a few other countries such as Puerto Rico and the Middle East.  

On my way home from my adventure with my grandson I
saw a large billboard advertising the Turkey Hill Experience.

Turkey Hill has developed over 100 flavors since they began making ice cream in 1954.  Time for our ice cream to be returned.  Most grabbed a spoon and began to eat their concoction, but I asked for lids for out containers since I had just eaten a cup about half an hour before.  Caden tried his and we both left the Turkey Hill Experience with our flavors in hand.  I drove Caden the few miles to his house and he scurried quickly in the front door so his mom could try what he had made.  As for me, mine still sits in the freezer!  I'd rather eat the vanilla that I bought to share with friends for dessert.  I will enjoy mine in the near future.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.