Manchester Life 2020 | Page 92

home sweet home days every production period to ensure that their ice cream still made it to local shelves. Their years of hard work paid off. They moved into their new facility in Sunderland in 2015, which has given them the opportunity to increase their output, to streamline their logistics, and to make a permanent home for their ice cream–making operation. • LISI LERCH • KCROOK DESIGNS • BURGESS SWEATERS • CONSUELA BAGS • DIZZY LIZZY • SAIL TO SABLE • GRETCHEN SCOTT • KATIE KIME • JULIE VOS • KRAZY LARRY • LYSSÉ • CK BRADLEY • PLUS FABULOUS GIFTS & ACCESSORIES 4928 Main Street Manchester Center, Vermont 05255 802-367-3998 springandharbor.com 90 manchester life | manchesterlifemagazine.com Specialized knowledge passed down from generation to generation has resulted in a finely tuned, hands- on system. It starts out with an ice cream mix base made to Wilcox family recipe specifications with Vermont milk sourced from St. Albans Creamery. The base is shipped to Wilcox Ice Cream’s factory in 300-gallon containers in both sweet cream and chocolate flavors. First, the ice cream base is poured into a 100-gallon flavoring vat in which other ingredients are mixed. Initially, the flavors and colors start out simple, such as sweet cream or vanilla, with few additional ingredients other than the mix bases themselves. As the process continues, colors become darker and flavors become more complex as more ingredients are added, allowing maximum efficiency so that different types of ice cream can be concocted without having to clean out the flavoring vats and to start over every time a new variety is made. After the flavoring process, the cream base is fed into their Cherry-Burrell ice cream machine, where the mix is frozen while rotating blades churn the ice cream. An external tube pumps air into the machine, aerating the ice cream and making it creamy