Moo-ving into the Future with Rocky Point Creamery
LISTEN TO Chuck and Emily's EPISODE HERE OR FIND US ON YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST LISTENING APP!
Summary
On this episode of the Farm Credit AgVocates podcast, Katie Ward sits down with Chuck Fry and Emily Snyder of Rocky Point Creamery to celebrate National Ice Cream Month and learn about the new robotic milking system on their farm. We also dive into the children’s book written about his farm and what makes their ice cream so special.
Visit Rocky Point Creamery at 4323A Tuscarora Rd. Tuscarora, MD 21790 on Tuesday-Sunday from 11:30 AM to 8:30 PM.
Katie Ward:
Welcome to the Farm Credit AgVocates podcast. I'm your host, Katie Ward, Public Relations and Communications Specialist at Horizon Farm Credit. July is National Ice Cream month and to celebrate we're bringing on a special guest to the podcast this episode.
Chuck Fry is the owner and operator of Rocky Point Creamery in Tuscarora, Maryland. He's the fourth generation to raise dairy cows and opened the Creamery in 2012 as a value added business on the farm for the community. His fiancé, Emily Snyder manages the creamery and handles all marketing and communications for the business. She's also a familiar face around Farm Credit as she's our relationship manager here for Farm Credit Express. I'm honored to call these two peers in the agriculture industry and friends.
So without further ado, welcome to the podcast, Chuck and Emily. Thanks so much for having me on your farm to chat today. So how was your spring season this year? I know we are coming into summer in two days so I'm sure you're gearing up for a busy season on the farm and at the creamery.
ROCKY POINT CREAMERY
Chuck Fry:
Every season's different, it's been a good spring. I think the things that always amazed me is no matter what kind of rainfall you get, no matter how bad you think it is, you got to love Facebook because it looks back five years and almost to the day we were harvesting barley at the same time.
You go back year after year, farming is a cyclical process. It's always amazing, no matter what kind of spring you have, everything winds up on time and everything usually winds up good. Last year with COVID, what a cluster that was, that was crazy. So I don't know that anything's normal anymore. Farming's never been normal.
Katie Ward:
Get a little scare and then you get some rain or you get some good turn in the market and everything gets back to normal. So Chuck, can you give our listeners a little background of your farm? I know it's been in your family since 1883, which is pretty incredible.
Chuck Fry:
Yeah, not many businesses make it past the second generation, let alone the fourth generation. That beer company that made it four, Yuengling, so they're right up there too. So anyway, we got kicked out of Virginia in 1882, basically because the farm was too valuable to farm. It's a long, boring story, but it's still fascinating that no matter how far you roll through life, the constant remains the same that farms are way more valuable than their face.
The history is the farm was bought at auction at the local little Point of Rocks town. Point of Rocks used to be a bustling town, it had multiple churches. It was kind of the point where the CNO railroad and where the railroad and the CNO canal met. There was a giant rock stuck out over the Potomac River. The railroad actually got ahead of the CNO canal Point of Rocks. We had a lot of trade that happened on the canal boats between here and Washington back then. So cattle would be hauled into Washington for slaughter, grain, all kinds of things went on the canal boats, which it's kind of crazy right now.
Katie Ward:
Yeah. That makes it a great location for a farm.
Chuck Fry:
But who would ever thought Point of Rocks, you know, when we opened this Creamery, we were like, who's coming here for ice cream, but I guess you proved me wrong again.
Katie Ward:
You're close to Harper's Ferry so I feel like a lot of people will go see that and get some ice cream on the way home.
Chuck Fry:
Yeah.
Katie Ward:
Cool. So can you tell us a little bit about opening the Creamery in 2012 and why you decided to add this to the farm?
Chuck Fry:
You know, it's been said when God closes one door, he opens another one. That's kind of what happened with us. We were in the turkey business, started it in 1996 and had a pretty good 15 year run on the poultry business. But it went through six or seven different changes in management and ownership. They went from full production to organic and the organic trail didn't work out like they had hoped. So they had to cut producers, they cut about 75% of their producers. It was one of those functions where, what do you do when they say, sorry, you can't grow turkeys anymore.
We've always milked cows. As quirky as that is, we’ve always milked cows. So we wanted something at the point to say, I want to own this from beginning to end, no matter what the state, whether it was good, bad or ugly. So we went to a National Ice Cream Retailers Association Convention, sort of like Farm Bureau, except I don't want to say fun, crazier people. Where the opening line, this guy came down doing somersaults in the isle, much different than Farm Bureau.
A good group of people, the networking there and when we came back from that, we started bulldozing dirt. Within six months’ time, we were ready to open and make ice cream, we got a lot of good ideas. Then what we didn't realize is when you start making ice cream, you got to do something with it. So we actually opened in December, which is a crazy time to open, but being the dumb farmer that I am, I didn't know how to deal with customers and so the POS system had to be learned.
The flow of this actually was a good time, you know, we didn't make any money, but it's just like anything else you do. Now, forwarding ahead 10 years, it's been a super big blessing. We've totally flipped. It used to be the cows ran the show, and now the creamery pays for the cows. I feel like, I don't want to say a horse farmer, having their off farm job to be able to feed your animals. So the creamery is feeding my cows.
Katie Ward:
Yeah, so next year will be 10 years. Are you doing anything to celebrate?
Chuck Fry:
Trying to get out of bed.
TECHNOLOGY ON THE FARM
Katie Ward:
So how many cows are you currently milking here on the farm?
Chuck Fry:
About 120, give or take. We were milking more, but we kind of cut back. There was a time, life happens. I went through a lot of changes in my personal life, things happen and you change. I was going to get completely out of the dairy business and then Emily comes along and kind of saved me from that spiral.
I always loved the cows, but it was a trying time. So anyway, you handle what's thrown at you and lo and behold, we just put in robots. We’ll talk a little bit about that later. We upgraded, did a lot of work at the barn and renovating. That whole farm area had been kind of let go. We just weren’t going to put money into it. We didn't know what we were going to do. So it's exciting, having a regeneration of interest.
Katie Ward:
So yeah, embracing technology.
Chuck Fry:
We don't have any choice.
Katie Ward:
Yeah, Emily actually wrote a good piece in our Leader magazine, that's actually coming out next week. So right before this podcast will launch, about technology and ag, and kind of gave a deep dive into the robotic milking system and how technology is used in equipment and all different other aspects of the industry.
So do you want to kind of give an overview of the robots now and just kind of why they're more efficient for your operation?
Chuck Fry:
Well, I don't know who's listening to this, but whoever's out there listening, realizes that labor is a challenge. I don't care what you are. The dairy industry, is 24/7, cows have to be milked every day. It doesn't matter if it’s Saturday or Sunday, or you've been out drinking and throwing up, I don't care. You still got to do it and finding the right mix of people that they love that and are willing to commit to that, it's really challenging.
So it's been said that McDonald's can put a hamburger in your mouth without a human touching it, that's what's going to happen to all industries as technology moves forward. You just have to be able to replace human labor, which you can't get with technology that works. These robots work 24/7, they're running round the clock. I don't have a machine, a combine, a tractor, anything that I put 8,000 or 9,000 hours on a year.
You think about the amount of time, those things are just running every single minute of every day, and it goes back to old school. We used to have a parlor, you could milk 150 cows in two hours, took two people, but that two hours, every day you were done. So you shut the gate and then you go do your other stuff. This changes the way you farm because the cows are being milked all day long, all night long.
Sometimes you get a call that you don't want to hear at three in the morning, something's out. Three in the morning, I'm usually kind of coming to, but you call me at midnight, I'm dead. I'm not answering that. So technology is awesome. I mean, we've replaced a three people, one full-time person, and two part-time people. Just based on the hourly rate that the state mandates and all the benefits that go with that, it's easy to pay for this robot just based on labor.
Emily Snyder:
I think we've picked up a lot of efficiency too. Less antibiotic use, there wasn't a ton before, but Katie, we were showing you how it picks up on mastitis and you can treat that naturally, if you will.
Cows are happier that helps with milk production, milk quality is up. There's a laundry list of things beyond labor that the robots have done for us. Supposedly there's more free time involved too, but I don't think we figured that one out yet.
Katie Ward:
Well, it's only what four months?
Chuck Fry:
Yeah. I mean you have good days and bad days. Yesterday wasn't so good, today has been awesome. So as long as technology works, but everybody out there has a computer at home, the minute that you hit the button to print something and the printer doesn't want to work and you can't figure it out. The first thing you want to do is open a window and throw it out.
We really can't do that with the robot, but there's days that you have those. So the main driver in this is, is cost. It’s expensive, but so is labor, so is housing, so is all the things that are associated with employees. The biggest thing is animal care and quality, our herd has completely changed.
It used to be that you would go out and you would move the cows physically from one barn, move them into a holding area, a lot of hoop and holler and scream at them because they just needed to move. To now, there’s no noise and that you can walk through the herd, touch them, pet them, they're like having 150 German Shepherds or Labrador Retrievers.
Maybe they're nicer, I don't know, but they just kind of love on you and lick you and don't move and that's good and bad. Now you can't move a 1500 pound cow if she doesn't want to move. It doesn't matter what you're going to do. She's going to stand, you're going to go around her.
Katie Ward:
Right, I guess the popular phrase now is cow comfort. That we're hearing a lot in the industry is just, you find that you get a better quality and more results when the cows are comfortable. It seems that this robot, allows them, Emily was explaining when you they're feeling full, and they know that they can walk in and get milked and not have to wait.
Chuck Fry:
Well the interesting thing about it, it changes the dynamics of your herd. It used to be, everybody was milked at the same time. Everybody went to the feed bunk at the same time. So your boss animals would run out your little animals and they'd have to wait until everybody got done. This takes that totally out of the equation.
They can do their own thing. Instead of like, we have a six row barn, which is usually short on feed bunk space. Now it's fine because 70% of the cows are laying down at all the time. Then you have a 30% of some are milking, some are eating, some are just being curious, that kind of thing. So there's no crowding at a feed bunk, there's none of that. They're just kind of coming and going at will.
There was a nice YouTube video about a guy over in Scotland, somewhere to put one of these in grazing. He's grazing his cows almost a mile away from the farm. So they have a little area where the cows come and go, and you would think that in a conventional way, all those cows won't fit through that little area, but they're just constantly coming and going in this little lane all day long. And it's the same thing in the barn. It's interesting. It changes the way everything I've been taught to do as a dairy manager, completely changes your world. And that's good and bad.
Katie Ward:
Yeah. Well, hopefully as the more months go by, the cows and everyone will get more used to it and it'll be even more efficient. So I know Emily was telling me a bit earlier that about 20% of the milk that you get from your cows here on the farm comes in and is used at the ice cream here in the creamery.
So a lot of people love Rocky Point Creamery ice cream from all around Maryland. You're part of the ice cream trail, other states come here. So what makes your ice cream so special?
ROCKY POINT CREAMERY’S QUALITY ICE CREAM
Emily Snyder:
Well, we're one of the only cow to cone operations. So we literally have a hand in every step. We milk the cows. He raises the crops that feed the cows. We’re there doing that every single day. Then it comes down here, we make the ice cream right here on the farm.
It's a really cool feeling to be able to hand a customer the product that you had a hand in every step of. It's considered super premium, so very creamy. Probably one of the best ice creams. I know we're biased, but probably one of the best ice creams you will ever experience.
Chuck Fry:
I love all ice cream. So trust me, I'll eat anything. I'm a hog in that way. But I have my preferences and it's like anything else, you can have a steak, you can go to Ruth Chris and have some of the best steak in the world, or you can go to your freezer and get the best Angus steak, same with the ice cream. I had a foodie come to us and he's like, what's your favorite place to eat? I'm like my back porch. You know what you're putting on that grill, same way with the ice cream.
The cool part about us being ice cream. I call myself the ice cream farmer. That's a real catchphrase. But anywhere we go, we're always tasting other people's ice cream. The bad thing is you’re a critic and I try not to say anything to other people because they're always waiting for your reaction. All ice cream is good. Everybody that makes their own ice cream, I have say on the trail and up and down the east coast is just good food. If you're not happy eating ice cream, I can't really help you. There's a special place in hell for you.
Katie Ward:
Yeah. Is it true that you taste vanilla, because that's where you actually taste the quality of the ice cream, because it's not kind of diluted with the other flavors?
Chuck Fry:
So we can talk about that all day long. Vanilla is your most pure form of ice cream. You can throw chocolate and throw all kinds of flavors in it. You don't really taste the quality of the cream. But we use that same quality of the cream and all flavors.
So when you taste ours and we don't put a lot of overrun, overrun is a secret catch word for air. So when you go to the grocery store, you start picking up pints and you weigh other people's products. There's some products up there, you can just pick up. It used to be half gallon was a thing you could, some of these half gallons don't weigh as much as our pints do. They have to be careful with that because a lot of companies will put a lot of candy and stuff in their ice cream. So it's full candy and so it depends on what you want to buy.
Ben and Jerry's is great. They have great flavors. I love Ben and Jerry's, in my opinion, there's a lot of candy in that, which makes theirs heavier. But if you go vanilla to vanilla, the override is what you're buying. So if you want to buy air, it's just different. We use an Italian machine, to make our ice cream, which is kind of unique. A lot of the people in Italy make gelato, which is just poor ice cream in my opinion. But when you use a gelato machine to make ice cream with 14% butterfat, then you got the bomb right there, that's pretty good.
Katie Ward:
That's the percentage you all use here?
Chuck Fry:
Correct. We're not afraid of dairy fat at all.
Katie Ward:
That’s what makes local better, I think. So how many flavors of ice cream does the creamery typically sell in one day? Like if someone customer were to come in, what are their options?
Emily Snyder:
We always have 24 flavors of our hand dipped out. That includes all our ice creams, well not all of them, but ice cream sorbets, which are dairy free. So we have those options and a vegan option.
Katie Ward:
Well, you have to please everyone though.
Emily Snyder:
That’s out sometimes, we also have no sugar added options and then we have soft serve. So there's three flavors of that. Then a variety of sundaes, milkshakes, and a couple of different products like that.
Throughout the year, we do over a hundred different flavors, so kind of seasonal. So like when peaches come in, we'll start doing peach. At the holidays we do a lot more mints or like an eggnog flavor, cinnamon, like the more spice based flavors, that kind of thing.
Chuck Fry:
When crabs come in, we do a crabby cow. That's crazy. I never thought that, it started off as a joke. We basically stole it from somebody else, everybody loves their thing. You know, it doesn't matter what it is. And I wouldn't want to eat a pocket of that stuff, but you know, whatever floats your boat.
OTHER ROCKY POINT CREAMERY PRODUCTS
Katie Ward:
So do you collaborate with any other local producers on the ingredients?
Emily Snyder:
We do. We started doing cheese last year with the start of COVID, milk prices took quite the hit. So that was kind of the kick to make us do cheese, which we'd wanted to do for a while. So one of those actually has a local wineries wine in it.
Mazzaroth Vineyard is 20 minutes up the road in Middletown. So we use one of their Petite Verdot. So it's a really deep colored wine. It tastes really good, smells really good. We've got a couple other partnerships we've been in collaboration with.
Flying Dog Brewery before, done some of their events. We've just spun some beer milkshakes. I would love to do a cheese with them. I think that would be really cool. So now things are getting back to normal. I think we'll start having those discussions again. We catered an event, maybe two weeks ago, met a guy who does a little candied bacon business, and we've been wanting to do maybe like a maple bacon or some kind of bacon basis.
Chuck Fry:
They did bacon. It doesn't matter for bacon in anything.
Emily Snyder:
So that is officially on the docket now for a flavor this year. It's pretty cool.
Katie Ward:
And what else do you sell here at the Creamery besides ice cream and cheese, any beef?
Emily Snyder:
We do sell beef. We do steaks hamburgers, burger patties, lots of different cuts. That's a good portion of our business. We talked about cheese, we've got milk here, used to do eggs. That's kind of hard to get a big enough quantity to keep customers happy.
Chuck Fry:
Unless you grow your own, it's hard. So we have Angus. So we send them up to Pennsylvania to get processed because Maryland's short on processing. We were such good customers of those, they were able to fit us in last year, even during COVID when people weren't doing it, and we were getting beef regularly.
So we booked this year out entirely because it's the hardest part, trying to get people to work with you to say, I want to end up with a product that is X, Y, and Z. Sometimes you have to compromise, sometimes what you really want and what you really get is somewhere in between. So you try to tweak that, we're trying to tweak everything.
ROCKY POINT GRAIN OPERATION
Katie Ward:
A little more about your grain operation, how many acres?
Chuck Fry:
So we're big in the cover crop and have been doing cover crops for 30 plus years, I've been doing no till for a long time. So we do a lot of cover crop management. The good thing about cover crops and dairy cows, is its food for milk.
So we grow a lot of barley and we're using a hulless barley. Which if you know anything about barley, usually when you cut it, it looks like barley and the tank has got a hall on it. But when you cut this new variety of hulless, it almost looks like wheat. So the feed value in that barley is almost 40% more than the regular because you're not taking the hull with it. So straight into the feed for your cows because it's not worth anything on the market.
The cover crop program is really strong. We harvest a lot of small grain for silage. Those cows will eat 300 acres of small grain for silage and then another a hundred acres of barley for grain. Then at that point, it gives us the opportunity in the fall to say, well, do we keep corn or sell corn? What's the market going to look like? It looks like the markets are pretty strong.
We have soybeans too. We will use a lot of those soybeans back through the cows. We will roast them, comes out smelling like peanuts, and it's a good fat energy product for the dairy. So we try to run as many things through the cows as we can, because that's your ultimate. That's your ultimate feed, is whatever you can grow on your own.
PARTNERSHIP WITH ST. JUDE’S
Katie Ward:
I'm sure your consumers like knowing that what the cows eat, you grow here. So they can literally sit in the Creamery, look out the window and see the fields.
So I always am inspired when I see your sunflower field pictures each year and the charity that you do with St. Jude's. So can you tell our listeners a little bit about this project?
Emily Snyder:
Chuck started that five or six years ago.
Chuck Fry:
We pretty much did that when we opened it. It wasn’t about St. Jude's. We just did the St Jude's recently, but it was more of we're out here in the middle of nowhere and when we wrote our business plan for the ice cream shop, I'm like, nobody's coming to Point of Rocks to get ice cream. So we have a road that moves very fast by us and to try to get people to notice, we just planted sunflowers out there.
So it was like, wait, what is that? That brought people in that were new customers that kind of said, "Hey, I noticed the flowers, I didn't know what the building was."
It started as ads and turned into a really great community project with St. Jude's and everybody knows about St. Jude. So that will wear your heart out.
Katie Ward:
Yeah and last year you raised $9,000 for them, which is amazing.
Emily Snyder:
So we charge a dollar per cut flower and accept donations. We get lots of people out just for the photo op for them, for the ‘gram, we ask them to donate. So we get a lot of cash donations. We added to our point of sale, like our credit card system.
We got a number of donations that way. I unknowingly put something on Facebook that created a link, and we got a heck of a lot of donations last year, that way. So that really helped get us to that $9,000.
Chuck Fry:
It's a bad thing is I just remembered that's one more job I got to get done by Tuesday. Well, you plant it a little bit longer and we stagger, we want to push that business into September. So we plant a little later than most people do.
ROCKY POINT CREAMERY EVENTS
Katie Ward:
Yeah, because if they all grow at the same time, then they all die at the same time. Awesome. And you run the social media for the creamery here.
So how has marketing it to the community and like photography, I know Andrea Hanes is a local photographer here that Mid-Atlantic Farm Credit adores, we use her for a lot of publications and how is it telling the creamery story to the consumer?
Emily Snyder:
Andrea came out, I think it was Tuesday and took a lot of professional photos. I can snap cow pictures and ice cream photos, but I wanted some truly professional ones to put on the website and of course use on our social media just so consumers can really see exactly what the product is.
She captured some of our staff making the ice cream and just the whole process. So I'm excited to see what she comes up with. But I do try to post every day, just keep it fresh.
I've been trying to make the connection between the cow and the cone more because so many people come here and don't realize that all the buildings back there are farm buildings. They don't see the whole picture. So a lot of it's the educational piece and sometimes it's hard, but we do our best.
Katie Ward:
Yeah. You're doing a great job. So do you have any other events or ventures planned for the Creamery this year? I think you may have an event trailer.
Emily Snyder:
Last year, our big fun purchase was an ice cream trailer. Obviously, maybe it wasn't a great year. We didn't know that we went into 2020, right. We were able to take it up to a friend's pumpkin patch, Winterbrook Farms up in Thurmont. I think you've spoken with them before. They do sunflowers, pumpkins, hay rides, all those fun things. So we took the trailer. That was a great trial run.
We will do that again this year. We've gotten a couple other smaller events to do with it. Then we always have food trucks on the weekends. We've got a couple of goat yoga sessions signed off. Nothing too crazy this year, but we're excited next year to start planning some more things and go back to our collaborations with other businesses.
TALES OF A DAIRY GODMOTHER, CHUCK’S ICE CREAM WISH
Katie Ward:
That's exciting. So tell me a little bit about the children's book that was written about your farm. It's called Tales of the Dairy Godmother, Chuck's Ice Cream Wish.
How did that come into fruition and how can our listeners get a copy?
Chuck Fry:
So I was president of the Maryland Farm Bureau and I was also on American Farm Bureau's executive committee. So I was in Washington probably more than I really care to talk about. We were at a meeting doing something and Christie Lujan came up and she said, we're writing this story about dairy and we want your input, we want your thoughts, they really want to do this book and it's about some kids, this and that and the other, but we would rather use your tagline in your story because it's real.
I'm like, oh, that would be fine, as long as the book can be fun. If you're writing for a first grader, it doesn't have to be everything in this world does not have to be politically correct to be fun, so you can have fun in the book. So anyway, they used Chuck's Ice Cream Wish to try to get more people to understand that ice cream actually comes from cows and told the story well. It was voted book of the year, I think, this year or last year.
Emily Snyder:
It was the 2020 book of the year for American Farm Bureau. And then a number of the state farm bureau is I think, nine or ten that I'm aware of, chose it for their 20-21 book of the year. So we did some virtual farm tours beginning of the year, some readings online with kiddos across the country. So that's cool.
Chuck Fry:
So you can get that on Amazon, Chuck's Ice Cream Wish. I’ve never really looked at it, but somebody said you can get it right on Amazon. We have copies here in the store. I'll sign them for a small fee if you buy an ice cream. You know, just one of those crazy things in life that happens that you don't plan for.
AMERICAN FARM BUREAU
Katie Ward:
Well, I think Farm Credit could get some and give them out to our listeners if they would like copy too. So a little bit about Farm Bureau.
How did your leadership roles serving on the American Farm Bureau boards and committees, and a state president kind of guide you as a business owner and teach you things here on the farm?
Chuck Fry:
I would have flipped that and said the farmer taught me about being on the board. The American Farm Bureau is more about connections across the U.S. and other countries. The network of farmers in that is amazing. The friendships that are formed in that is amazing. We had some young dairy farmers from Utah, just come out a couple of weeks ago.
Because we live so close to D.C., they come here, but because of the farm bureau, the bonds that we have from all over, we are still cultivating that. So the management of knowing what big business does, what big agriculture does, how that relates to Washington D.C., whether you like it or hate it, that's the way the world works.
Politics seems to run policy. It doesn't take good politics to make bad policy that seems to happen more often than not. So American Farm Bureau is there in D.C. We at Maryland Farm Bureau and Frederick County Farm Bureau, it all comes back down to the counties. So one voice, one vote, and Emily is on the local board. I hadn't been to a farm bureau meeting in God knows how long and I'm smiling.
Katie Ward:
How many years were you involved?
Chuck Fry:
Forever, it was just seems like, I think I spent three years as president of Frederick County and kind of worked up through the ranks. Then went to the state as first vice president, second vice president or whatever. However it went, it seemed like it was a great time. Met a lot of people, learned a lot of things. Policy kind of changed a little bit and it was a great time, but everything has its time where it's taken a lot of toll out of you.
I gave a lot of time to that. It's really nice to be back at the farm. And it's really nice not to have to get all dressed up and go to D.C. for three days. In the middle of harvest, it would drive me crazy. But you know, it's nice to be able to say, been there, done that and I can kind of do what makes me happy.
Katie Ward:
But still keep all the connections and relationships and continue to learn from the national farmers.
Chuck Fry:
Correct. So Wayne is a new president and I get a call from him every now and then. Zippy is the president of American Farm Bureau, and out of the blue he'll call me.
A lot of times they'll call me and say, Hey, I'm reading your book to a group of kids. And he was like, I wanted them to know that I knew Chucky the Ice Cream Farmer so can you talk to them. It's just funny that those connections and the friendships that were made in farm bureau are just priceless. It still goes on today.
ICE CREAM: THIS OR THAT
Katie Ward:
So now we're going to do a fun little lightning round. I'll ask a question and each of you can tell me your answer to these ice cream questions. So we'll start with Emily. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
Emily Snyder:
Rainbow sprinkles on soft serve twist. In depth, then lemon cookie crunch.
Katie Ward:
Lemon cookie crunch. All right. What about you Chuck? Favorite ice cream flavor?
Chuck Fry:
I sort of like soft serve vanilla with nothing. That's so boring. Twist is okay, because it gives you a little chocolate.
Favorite flavor, and the hard dip is hard, so I like white chocolate, so we make a white wedding cake, you know, I only go to weddings to eat the cake. I'll pay for whatever. I just want the white wedding cake.
Katie Ward:
That sounds good. I remember the salted caramel pretzel. That's always been my favorite when I would dip ice cream at the Maryland State Fair and Rocky Point would bring their ice cream for a day. That was my go-to.
All right. So Emily, what's your favorite topping on ice cream?
Emily Snyder:
Rainbow sprinkles.
Chuck Fry:
Good ice cream doesn't need toppings.
Katie Ward:
Okay. Emily cup or cone?
Emily Snyder:
Cone, waffle cone.
Katie Ward:
It smelled amazing, when I came in here this morning from the waffle cone making, what about you Chuck?
Chuck Fry:
It depends on my mood. So a lot of times I just like the cup because I like the ice cream, not all the other crap, but I really like the waffle cones because they have a lot of vanilla in them. So there's the vanilla theme, so boring.
Katie Ward:
Emily, milkshake or sundae?
Emily Snyder:
Oh a shake.
Chuck Fry:
I like it all. I mean, so hot fudge sundae. If you really want to get fat, hot fudge brownie sundae or double fudge with whipped cream. Then don't get on the scale.
Katie Ward:
And then the last question, Emily, Holstein or Jersey?
Emily Snyder:
Oh, Jersey. I love my little brown cow.
Chuck Fry:
Oh no. So I've always had Holsteins, but I'm short and my Holsteins have about outgrown me. I've always bred these cows and with the robot, I breed a lot of cows on the same level as they are. I realize that they're like way taller than I am, so I need a bucket to stand on. So we are breeding everything to Jerseys, buying Jerseys because it comes down to my size.
Katie Ward:
That's awesome. So how can our listeners find Rocky Point Creamery online?
Emily Snyder:
We're on Facebook, we're on Instagram and we have a website. Every once in a while we'll have an article done about us. So I think if you Google us, you should find everything you want to know.
WHAT DO YOU ADVOCATE FOR IN AG?
Katie Ward:
Awesome. We can link to your website and Facebook on our podcasts website.
So we always like to ask our guests one final question, same question to everyone. And that is what do you advocate for in agriculture? Kind of a big picture question.
Chuck Fry:
You want to go first?
Emily Snyder:
Well, I think we kind of talked about it. It's really important that you get the whole picture of where your food comes from. It's not just the grocery store and we hear that so often. Or like I mentioned, people come here and not realize what's literally right behind the creamery is the dairy farm where it really happens.
So I always try to say, hey, this is all the work that goes into the thing that's on your dinner table. You know, whether it's bread or ice cream or whatever it is. There's a lot that went in to getting product in front of you.
Chuck Fry:
I agree and that's why I wanted you to go first because I didn't want to ruin it. But education, I went to college to educate people. I taught school. I just don't have the patience for all that. So my hats off to school teachers, but everything we do here is about food and education. And the more you become educated, the more you realize why farms exist.
There was a little video somebody sent to me and you know, it was about farming and why we've evolved. What are we 2%, or less than 2% of the population feeding a hundred and some percent because most of our products go overseas. So for us working as hard as we do, it allows everybody else to do what they want, whether it's doctors and lawyers, or educators or loan officers or whatever that may be.
You don't have to worry when you come home at night, whether you're going to get something out of the garden and that's a choice, but most of the time you can drive through the Shake Shack on the way home and get a hamburger shoved out the window and we make that possible.
Katie Ward:
Awesome. Well, I agree. Consumer education is definitely a huge priority and something that all of us in the industry try to do every day. So thank you all for contributing to the food, fuel and fiber. And also ice cream.
Chuck Fry:
The ice cream, I don't care about anything else. All about the ice cream.
Katie Ward:
Yeah. Especially in July. All right. Well again, thank you guys for your time. I know you're super busy, so I appreciate this and hope that everyone else enjoys as well.