WEEK 42--A Trip to Needwood Ice Cream



On Wednesday night the female half of the cathedral Director of Music and I cooked up a plan.  Neither of us had ever been to Needwood Farm to buy some of the best ice cream in the country from the very place where it is made.  That's what we'll do tomorrow, we decided.  While our husbands are away.  After all, the weather has been so lovely.  What could be nicer than eating ice cream in this Indian Summer we are enjoying here in the West Midlands?

Well, obviously it rained on Thursday morning.  But we were not deterred.  Here it is, just visible through the mist and rain:



If you're trying to find it, here's the address: Coulter Hills Farm, Coulter Hills, Newborough, Burton-on-Trent DE13 8SJ.  Down a long concrete road in the middle of nowhere.

When you walk into the shop, there is none of the National Trust lavender bag knick-knackery cum coffee shop vibe going on.  It's just a barn selling eggs and ice cream.  There are about half a dozen big chest freezers loaded with different flavours.  After much squeaking with excitement and groaning in anticiplated pleasure, we narrowed the choice down to six.  And bought a tub of each.  I got the butterscotch, the pistachio and the honey & ginger.  My companion bought banana and toffee, hokey-pokey and mango sorbet (to cleanse our palate).  Hokey-pokey, in case you're wondering, is a type of ice cream where you put your spoon in, take it out, in, out, in, out, shake it all about.  And it contains crushed up Crunchie bar middles.

That very evening we had an ice cream binge.  This is about the midway point:



I have to tell you, every single flavour was a winner.  If only the Director of Music and I could synchronise our viewing of TrueBlood, we could have perfected the evening by watching a couple of episodes whilst eating ice cream, but she's half a series behind me.  Never mind.  By Series 4 we'll be ready for another trip back to Needwood to sample their new flavours.  We may yet get our girlie act together.