It’s been a while since our last post. With the labor shortages at restaurants, eating out is not as fun as it used to be. Sometimes the service is great, but the food is not. At times, it’s the other way around. Is it fair to review restaurants in this not-quite-yet-post pandemic world? We don’t know. But food pictures are always fun to look at, so moving forward, we are going to highlight the good stuff: dishes and food groups that we really enjoy. One food group is ice cream.

We recently completed a Midwest Amish country “tour” that took us from eastern Ohio to eastern Pennsylvania. Eating in Amish country is all about the dairies and the ice cream. We consumed a lot of it, but we were riding our tandem bicycle around 35 miles per day to burn some of it off. Let’s start in Killbuck, Ohio, where we stumbled into the Killbuck Sweet Shoppe on a very hot day.

We split this scoop of Amaretto cherry chocolate chip. Because of bad storms, the power was off in much of Millersburg, OH, but fortunately for us, Millers Creamery had electricity, or this would have been two bowls of ice cream soup.

Ever had Lake Erie ice cream? Think Moose Tracks with a different name. The Alley Kat flavor was interesting: Kit Kat bars and cashews. Let’s jump over to Lancaster, PA, where subliminal advertising seems to work.

Mitzi and John have joined us on the trip, which means you get to see even more flavors of iced treats. While riding near the Oregon Dairy Farm, we enjoyed an after-lunch dessert.

Nittany Paws (more Moose Tracks!) and Monkey Bones (bananas and peanuts) gave us enough energy to get back to our hotel. The highlight of any trip to the Lancaster area is the Lapp Valley Farm.

We couldn’t fit a pint onto the bike, so we had to eat it there. They say that it’s two days from the time the milk leaves the cow until you eat it at the store. The cows are right outside. The babies are very cute.

You know you want one.

Lick and turn. Lick and turn. We interrupt this ode to ice cream for something a little less frozen: donuts!

Evidently, the Amish like their donuts too. The mint chocolate cream-filled delight from Sunnyside Pastries was one of the best donuts this reporter has ever had.

Ever had a Long John?

They are cream-filled and topped with maple, vanilla, or chocolate icing. One more shot of donuts, from Beiler’s in Lancaster before we get back to ice cream.

Oh, wait…we forgot the pretzels! They are very popular in Amish country.

Here’s a couple of handmade twists we had, from the pretzel truck outside of the Bird In Hand Bakeshop and from a deli in State College, PA. And speaking of State College (the home of Penn State University), you must visit the Berkey Creamery if you are in the area. We had three encounters with their ice cream, the first at an ice cream social.

Mint chocolate chip and vanilla were very tasty, and we could dress them up the way we liked them. The next two visits were at the creamery. You get one size (more than enough!) and one flavor. Next!

That’s Peachy Paterno on the left and Arboretum Breeze (mint, chocolate, and a raspberry swirl) on the right. The next day, we were back for more.

Yes, we should have shared one, but we got to try more this way. Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy (on the left) is their version of an Almond Joy with coconut, chocolate, and almonds. On the right, have a taste of Grilled Stickies, which is cinnamon ice cream with bits of cinnamon bun mixed in. Sinful.

Despite all of the cycling, we managed to gain weight on our trip. We cannot imagine how that happened!