Carlisle
Great Brook Farm Ice Cream is tucked inside of Great Brook Farm State Park right off of Lowell Street (about a mile and a half north of That Rotary.) The state park has $3 parking in a large lot that overflows into a field; the building right near the parking lot has restrooms but you'll need to look around for signs pointing down the hill and around the pond to the ice cream shop itself. (While it's about 750ft from mid-parking to the shop, it does appear to be fully accessible, including the ramps up to the front door.)
You will pass cows1, goats, and chickens on the way to the ice cream (the barnyard and the ice cream place are both on a bit of a plateau with ramps that have "no horses on ramp" signs and other active farm labelling; the goats are often standing at the fence rails angling for attention, though the cows just... are, and the chickens seem to have the run of the place.)
Though there are windows in front - service is at an indoor counter, with one important exception: there's a sign indicating that they'll serve one person with a dog at the window (the rest of the group needs to come inside, though.) There are picnic tables outside and inside - the interior is concrete-floored repurposed barn space - plenty of room for an indoor line in bad weather.
The menus are primarily posted indoors, with a bunch of sundaes including a Fluffernutter, Smores2, and Mud Pie; a Barbie Frappe (very pink) and a Fruit Festival Cooler. They also have floats and freezes, milk shakes and ice cream sodas, plus an otherwise unexplained "Creamsicle Drink"; they also have pints and quarts. Non ice cream options include yogurts, sherbets, and sorbets, though this time of year the only have one flavor of each.
Aside from sugar and wafer cones, they have "Danish Cones" but apparently those are just (vanilla flavored) waffle cones. Toppings include Gummy Bears and Crushed Oreos. They also list a five flavor ice cream flight (which probably works better with their longer summer menu.)
While this is clearly an ice cream place first and foremost - they do have hot dogs, and even a "hot dog special" which is a hot dog, drink, and single scoop of ice cream; the surrounding State Park has miles of trails and that might be a better balanced starting point than a triple scoop of ice cream - I certainly wouldn't know, having headed directly to the Stone Row Trail afterwards.
First Visit
As it is the latter half of October (great time for walking through the woods in the surrounding state park, classic red and orange Autumn Leaves season) they've let their menu get a lot shorter - a bunch of blank spots on the indoor list, and someone came out and crossed out an item on the outdoor menu while I was eating. Of course, they still list 21 different flavors of ice cream - this is just visibly half of their peak variety, suggesting this is a good choice to revisit in the summer.
On the positive side, this meant I felt free to go with classic favorites and not look for anything particularly unique or distinctive - so instead I started with a personal favorite, Maple Walnut, with chocolate jimmies3 on top. The maple flavor was a nice autumn note, and I'm a big fan of the added crunch of the walnuts.
I followed the Maple Walnut with "Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Dough", which was a reasonable chocolate base, mixed with a sugary cookie dough and chunks of peanut butter - turns out it was "(Chocolate) (Peanut Butter) (Cookie Dough)" rather than "(Chocolate) ((Peanut Butter Cookie) Dough)" but really, who's going to put that on a menu this far from Cambridge. Nitpicking aside it's a good combination, but as one would expect from any reading of the name, a rather sweet one.
Future Visits
I'm likely to come back next summer to try more things that aren't on the menu today, but even from the reduced list, Moose Tracks, Mint Chocolate Chip, and Salted Caramel Chocolate Pretzel do look interesting - or maybe a Coffee Espresso Frappe or Mud Pie Sundae. (I may also try to get better pictures of the chickens...)
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To perhaps over emphasize that this is a working Dairy Farm, inside the ice cream shop was a poster about how "We're the real thing, we have 130 Holstein dairy cows to prove it!" advertising, not the ice cream, but their Composted Cow Manure Garden Fertilizer, available for delivery. They did manage to out-do Trombetta's Farm with their "ice cream cakes and bundles of firewood" sign... ↩
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While Smores Sundae currently starts with Campfire S'mores ice cream, it apparently used to have Graham Central Station, based on taped over bits of the sign. ↩
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For all that they're a state park they call everything jimmies, and have both milkshakes and frappes on the menu; I suppose they're the opposite end of the Massachusetts Is Special spectrum from Berlin Farms with their instructional notes. ↩
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.