Turkey Hill Experience

On our way up to Sight & Sound Theatres, a couple weeks ago, we passed this building next to the freeway that said, "Turkey Hill Experience." Of course my natural curiosity kicked in and I searched on my phone to find out more. I think as a blogger I'm always on the lookout for new experiences.

As we kept driving towards Lancaster, I decided I would give them a call because I read on their website that visitors had the opportunity to create our own ice cream! Say WHAT?! Now mind you, this is a Saturday afternoon. I wasn't really expecting to talk to someone who'd work with me on the fly, but I had to try, right? As soon as they answered the phone, I was chatting with one of the managers, and the next thing I know, she's emailing me tickets for the next day!! Ice cream, here I we come!

Milk, glorious milk

We got up Sunday morning, had a leisurely breakfast, and then hit the road. We decided the night before that we'd check out some covered bridges on the way back to the Turkey Hill Experience. There were only a few near us, but I love bridges so...

When you visit the Turkey Hill experience, you have two options: THE only or THE + LAB. Either one gives you the opportunity to eat ice cream and sample drinks. The LAB is where you get to make your own ice cream, and honestly for the few extra dollars more, it's entirely worth it! If you choose to experience the LAB you should really make a reservation. Just showing up doesn't mean you'll be able to do it. The rooms hold about 58 people and run at various times during the day. It lasts a little under an hour and you want to get in line about 10 min early.

As you walk in you see the desk to purchase or pick up your tickets. Across from the desk is the Gift Shop. I purchased a shirt after we were done for our day, and I have got to tell you, I had to restrain myself because they prices were insanely affordable. There was a whole wall of shirts for under $8!

We headed upstairs to begin our tour. I think we got there at just the right time because it was noon on a Sunday so most people were probably just getting out of church. We were able to read all about the history of Turkey Hill. I love anything steeped in history, and Turkey Hill was just that!

I have a no so secret desire to live on a hobby farm. I've probably wanted that since I was 5 yrs old or whenever I saw my first horse. lol Learning about cows and dairy farming made my heart do flips. Fred convinced me to "milk" the cow. That was NOT easy. lol I don't know about you, but I remember when my mom used to have milk delivered to our home. We had the milk crate out front, and she would fill out a slip every week for the milk man. When I saw the order card on the wall, I had flashbacks of the days where my parents would talk about what they needed to order, and then coming home with our deliveries sitting outside our home.

My hubby loves tea. I think it's a southern thing. I'm personally not a tea kind of gal. Don't shoot! I do love my milk though. Well, at the Experience you can taste a variety of teas and take a test to see your tea personality. I gave all of the samples a Brownie sample, and ended up giving them to Fred who downed them. lol

We kept walking around and that's when I think I found where I wanted to spend the rest of my days and nights...at their ice cream sampling station. They had no limit to how much you ate. NO. LIMIT! I chose their Double Dunker. It was delicious!

It was getting close to our time for our LAB so we went to the stations where you create your virtual containers, create a flavor, and have fun with what you'd think it would be like when you're in the factory. My ice cream was called Mimi's Marvelous Moo. Kinda catchy, eh?

We got in line with a group of other people waiting to enter the LAB. This was where the magic happened. We started off with a pint of vanilla ice cream. As we went about our ice cream creations, an employee of THE taught us more about their whole process from the farm to the factory to the stores. It was fun making our creations while we learned more!

The great part was, she encouraged us to eat our ice cream as we folded, not stirred, our ice cream. I was all in. I took this part very seriously! We started by putting our flavoring in. I chose the ONE flavor where the more you put in the better. Everyone else was limited to their number of drops. My flavor...coffee! Mmmmmm

After we folded in our flavoring, we headed to the inclusion wall where we were able to add about 3 ingredients. Don't tell, but I picked 4. Well, two of the inclusions I chose were just "bits". I started off with toffee bits, then moved on to the espresso puffs. I definitely wanted cookie chunks, and finished with micro chocolate chips.

Then we went back to folding and folding. We all realized that our ice cream was starting to melt even though we were folding, not stirring. To top things off we could add one variegate. Mine was fudge! Right?! The assistants walked around and picked up all of our ice creams so they could sit in a deep freeze for a few minutes.

Once they were frozen again, we took our ice cream and headed back out to the experience. We had such a fun time! We want to go back again with all of the kids. It would be great if we could bring Mum and Pap with us, Fred's parents. Mum loves her ice cream.

What flavor ice cream would you create?