The "George & Martha Loved Ice Cream" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading that George and Martha Washington were early fans of ice cream.  Often wondered why I thought he was a good President...and now I know.  Ice cream has always been a quintessential summer treat for generations in llmy family.  Back in the 18th century, the treat brought to America by the French was a rich man's dessert.  Seems you can't make ice cream without three key ingredients, ice, salt and sugar, and most Colonial families simply couldn't afford to make it.  Ice retired a separate icehouse in which to store chunks of ice cut on a nearby river or creek in winter.  Sugar and salt were expensive commodities imports from the Caribbean.  Colonial home cooks would also have to own at least one cow whose milk the family didn't need to sell to make cream and have the free time required to make the dessert.  Mr. George Washington was a wealthy man with a sizable enslaved community manning the house and gardens, thus having workers to make his favorite treat of ice cream.  The large number of "ice pots" used for holding ice cream in Mount Vernon's inventory records are testament to George and Martha's love for the stuff.  Their estate also had two tin ice cream molds, two "iceries compleat," and a dozen "ice plates."  so dear was the dessert that Washington is said to have spent $200 in 1790 - nearly $5,000 in today[s dollars - to satisfy his insatiable craving for the cool and creamy treat.  The couple also had their first "cream machine for ice" in May of 1784, six years before the first ice cream parlor opened in New York City.  Historians believe the Washingtons were introduced to the icy delicacy before the Revolutionary War by Norborne Berkeley, the Colonial governor of Virginia, who served ti to guests at his brick palace in Williamsburg.  Martha was famous for serving ice cream at her weekly receptions at their estate on the Potomac River.  The Washington's grew apricots, peaches, plums and seven types of apples, eight varieties of cherries and 18 types of pears to serve with their ice cream.  To this day you can still find beds of strawberries at Mount Vernon that Washington used to make his ice cream.  As I read a bit more, I found the recipe for Washiington's  Mount Vernon strawberry ice cream.  I'm sure there must be a few other Presidents who loved ice cream as much as George did, but I haven't bother to research that since it really doesn't matter anyway.  It as another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.