Minden ice cream factory ceases operations

The merciless economy may have claimed its sweetest victim yet. Tahoe Creamery of Minden has shut down operations. On Friday, empty crates lay stacked in front of the manufacturing suite in the Meridian Business Park. Inside, the company's famous filler machine, once used to fill large quantities of paper pints, stood defunct, motionless, half covered in wrapping.

Two Tahoe Creamery pickup trucks remained parked outside, but no employees were in sight. A phone call to the head office ended in a recorded message saying, “Tahoe Creamery is no longer producing ice cream due to the stressful economic climate.

The news came as a shock to fans who have enjoyed the company's 150 homemade recipes in restaurants and stores all over the region, from the most popular flavor, blueberry, to Batters Up, once the official ice cream of the Reno Aces.

The news was especially shocking given the optimistic report from owner Greg Hoch in February. At the time, Hoch said business had quadrupled in the preceding year and that production had increased from 12,000 pints of ice cream to 26,000 pints a month. The product, company executives maintained, was reaching about 50 chain stores throughout Nevada and California.

“We've been blessed,” Hoch said in a previous interview. “We've been growing kind of fast. We don't even have time to sit down and analyze the numbers. They're coming in fast and furious.”

Hoch grew up on Shady Glen Dairy Farm in Manchester, Conn. In 2000, he moved with his family to Nevada and opened the Sierra Glen restaurant in Carson City. In 2004, after starting Tahoe Creamery in the back room of the restaurant, Hoch closed the Sierra Glen and opened the production facility off Airport Road.

The company first sold 2.5-gallon boxes of ice cream to restaurants and hotels before developing the pint-sized product known today.

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Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream to remove ‘all natural’ from labels

Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream will no longer call itself "all natural", in response to a request from the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (www.cspinet.org), sent a letter to Ben & Jerry's, requesting the removal of the "all natural" label because of the use of things like alkalized cocoa, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, and corn syrup in its products. Ben & Jerry's has complied, and will phase out the labeling. It will not change any ingredients in its ice cream.

Natural, of course, is a slippery term. Models who display the "natural" look have probably spent three hours in hair and makeup and may even have had some plastic surgery. Foods labeled natural can still be bad for you.

Perhaps this is why the FDA has no official definition for natural when it comes to labeling foods. The USDA, which regulates meat and poultry, allows the natural label as long as there are no artificial colors or ingredients, and the product is "minimally processed". The FDA, which regulates all other foods, has yet to define the term natural, so that's why Ben & Jerry's has been able to use the label all these years.

I never liked Ben & Jerry's because it was natural. I liked it because it was deliciously creamy and fattening, and because those little cartons are the perfect size to buy and eat when you're 26, live alone, and have nothing else to do. I doubt the customer base of Ben & Jerry's is overly worried about corn syrup.

I personally feel that natural is overrated. If I let my kids behave according to what comes naturally, we'd eat all our meals with our fingers while squatting 8 inches from the television set. Dogs eating grass and throwing it up 20 minutes later on your living room rug is quite natural. Bed bugs are natural. Just calling something natural isn't necessarily a selling point with me.

Amusingly, there are places where natural food is being taken to a whole new level. At Noma, a prestigious restaurant in Copenhagen, they serve dirt. Edible dirt.

I am not making this up. I don't think like that.

They serve dirt at Gilt in Manhattan, and at Marlowe in San Francisco. Each chef has their own recipe for dirt: Noma's is a mixture of dried malt and beer, and Gilt, already serving mushroom soil, is experimenting with pebbles made from frozen foie gras. Marlowe's dirt is dried olive oil.

Is it just me, or are we all getting really weird about food? The rich people can't just enjoy a plate of delicious food, they have to pretend its dirt. The lower, "starving" classes, are fatter than ever, and the middle class is so busy we just throw processed foods at our kids while we drive them around to after-school activities. And if you finally do decide to get healthy and pay attention to the label, you will find that the label is a mass of contradictions and darn near undecipherable.

Years ago at one of my son's birthday parties, we had "Worms in the Dirt" for dessert instead of cake. The kids make it themselves, which is part of the fun. You take a plastic cup and fill it halfway with instant chocolate pudding, then you crumble up chocolate cookies into crumbs on top of that, and then you put some gummy worms on top. You eat it with a spoon and it's a giant mess. It is anything but natural. But I tell you what, that was some delicious dirt.

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Simple mint choc chip ice cream

Makes 1/2 litre

Ingredients:
300ml whole milk

75g caster sugar

Large handful of fresh mint sprigs

300ml double cream

100g very dark chocolate, preferably at least 70% cocoa solids, finely chopped

Procedure:

1: Place the milk, sugar and mint in a pan over a low heat. Heat, stirring frequently, until steaming hot and the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat, stir in the cream and set aside to infuse for at least an hour. You can leave it in the fridge overnight – which is handy if you’ve forgotten to freeze your ice cream maker.

2: Set your ice cream maker going. Remove the mint and pour the milk mixture into the ice cream maker. Once it has begun to thicken, add the chocolate chips. Let it churn until thick, then spoon into a 1/2 litre freezerproof container and freeze until solid.

3: If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you can make this by removing the mint, stirring in the chocolate and then pouring it all into a freezerproof container. Freeze for 2 hours, then beat with a fork to break the ice crystals, return to the freezer and repeat for about 8 hours or until you give up and go and buy some ice cream.

4: To serve, let the ice cream soften for 10 minutes. It should serve 6 people reasonably, 4 people greedily or 1 person guiltily.

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Ice cream makes wishes come true

Kate's single wish was to create a one-of-a-kind flavor of ice cream. Cold Stone Creamery, in conjunction with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, made it possible for this 11-year-old little girl's wish to come true. The Make-A-Wish Foundation is a charity that gives children with terminal illnesses a chance to fulfill a wish, whether it is to go to Disney World, travel to another country or create their own ice cream flavor.

On Sept. 30, Cold Stone Creameries around the nation will hold their 9th annual ice cream social, known as "The Worlds Largest Ice Cream Social." This event is Cold Stone's way of participating in Make-A-Wish Month. Throughout the month of September, paper stars, which can be signed and hung in the store, were sold for $1 each. Denise Benninghoff, manager of the Dyer branch of Cold Stone, said all of the money raised by the event goes to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

"We will likely hit 1,000 stars sold today," Bennninghoff said. However, according to Benninghoff, with a week left in the program there will likely be even more stars purchased before the social.

At the social, free three ounce samples of Kate's Creation will be available. Her creation is a combination of caramel-apple ice cream, chocolate shavings, graham cracker pie crust and apple pie filling.

This flavor was one of three created by Kate, Cold Stone Junior Tastemaster for the day, in February as she visited the Cold Stone Creamery headquarters in Scottsdale, Ariz. At the taste test, it was decided the apple-heavy recipe should be the one used for the social.

The social will take place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at all Cold Stone Creamery locations, including the branch closest to PUC, located at 883 Lincoln Highway in Dyer. Donations will be accepted up to and at the social.

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Western Family Maple Nut Ice Cream Recall – Latest Info

Deluxe Ice Cream, which is a subsidiary of the Matterhorn Group, Inc., recently issued a recall of the Western Family Maple Nut Ice Cream, due to the discovery of the possibility that the ice cream may contain traces of peanuts, although this fact is not indicated on the packaging of the ice cream. Although no complaints or illnesses with regards to this problem have been reported to date, this recall is being treated as serious due to the possibility that the consumption of this product by a person who is allergic to peanuts or has a severe sensitivity to peanuts could lead to a serious or life-threatening allergic reaction. The US food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been informed of this issue, and is cooperating with this recall.

The Western Family Maple Nut Ice Cream (56 fl oz packages) are understood to have been distributed to retail stores throughout Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, California, Alaska and Guam. The product which being recalled reportedly has the UPC code of 15400-22808, in addition to being stamped with the following data “Best By 07-23-11 Plant 41-48,” followed by a four-digit time code. Consumers in possession of these products are requested to return them to the place of purchase, where they will be offered a full refund.

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