Goats

One of the places I go for wildlife photography and exercise is Wachusett Dam, in Clinton - convenient parking on Route 62 at the top of the dam, and a pair of 250ish step staircases down into the basin and back up the far side. (There's also a more gentle but much longer access road if you're at the bottom and find the stairs overwhelming - which is also a prettier path if it's Fall and the leaves have started changing.)

Turns out that the closest ice cream place is Rota Spring Farm (around the northwest side of the lake - on what is basically a shortcut from 110 back to 62, which you can take to 190 to 2 and be directly on the fast path back to Boston; alternatively, if you're doing the Fall Tourist thing, Davis Megamaze is right there too.) Plenty of parking, the shop itself is a couple of serving windows under an overhang, with another window for hotdogs and subs, as well as a "farm stand" shop. Lots of picnic tables (including a handful under an overhang) with a very New England-scenic view of the adjacent farm with cows and goats (the farm is down a small hill and wasn't a strong smell, but it had just rained for 20 minutes before I arrived.)

First Visit

One thing that the more interesting ice cream places have in common is concocting their own flavor mixes, and naming them. While at this point things like "Moose Tracks" (vanilla ice cream, chocolate swirl, chocolate chunks) and "Green Monster" (mint chocolate chip with chocolate cookies) are reasonably consistent across the state, more advanced combinations need more of an explanation. While the server was happy to explain "Ruby's & Onyx" (chocolate chip with maraschino cherries) when I asked, they also had a detail menu with all explanations (right next to the serving window - I didn't notice it before I asked, but that's on me.)

I ordered a large, and since that's three scoops the server asked which one I wanted more of - which ended up with me getting three flavors instead of my usual two: Butter Crunch, Graham Central Station, and Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl.

The butter crunch was actually "crunchable" - sometimes the crunch bits are too solid to safely bite down on, this didn't have that problem. The ice cream itself was good - not as strong as the Bright Yellow variant from Chelmsford Creamery but that was unique; this one was fine, and the "crunch" part was far above average.

Graham Central Station (which as a train geek I picked just for the name as anything) turns out to be a Graham Cracker Ice Cream with chocolate-covered graham cracker pieces - which turned out to be a better "S'mores" ice cream than any of the ones I've had so far that were trying to be. They should add a sundae that's just this, a dollop of marshmallow sauce, and wave a torch over it for ten seconds.

Finally, the Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl. This is one of those where the peanut butter makes the chocolate taste more chocolate (or maybe decades of Reese's ads have eaten my brain.)

In the future when I go for three flavors they probably shouldn't all be complicated multi-component ones, but they're so tempting...

Future Visits

I'll definitely try Cowabunga Crunch, Coffee Oreo or Cappuccino Chip, and Maine Wild Blueberry. They also have meatball and roast beef subs made from "[their] own grass fed beef" but the non-ice cream bits of the shop close down at 7 so it would need to be an earlier visit.

Alternately "Kimball Farm Ice Cream at Bates Farm" or "Kimball Farm Carlisle" (there are a couple of others including the huge place in Westford with Miniature Golf) this is one of those that you stumble on when driving through "back roads" but still trying to get somewhere - it's on 225, not far from the Concord River (which serves as the Carlisle/Bedford border.)

Lots of parking and some kid-oriented farm entertainment (literally, they have goats.) Picnic tables, some shaded; they also host a Farmer's Market on summer weekends.

Good dense ice cream in traditional flavors; I stop in when I happen to be relaxing on those particular back roads (the Bedford Boat Ramp is actually a good birding spot when there isn't a lot of boat or fishing traffic.) Most recent visit: ½ Butter Crunch and ½ Maple Walnut, solid classics; my friend had a Strawberry Ice Cream Soda. (Their menu also includes Vegan (coconut based) and Sugar-Free options, which I will not be reporting on further.)

It's one of your New England classics - you might not have been looking for it, but if you drive by and think "Hmm, I could go for some ice cream" you will not be disappointed, and it's big enough that it won't be too crowded in the summertime. I've been stopping at Kimball Farms on and off since 2007, and was there most recently this past weekend.