Mac's Dairy Farm is on 38 in Tewksbury - about five miles north of Dandi-Lyons (the Tewksbury one, not Dandi-Lyons in Reading.) It has lots of parking in front and more in back, plus a bunch of picnic tables. They have four serving windows under their yellow-lit awning¹ and there seemed to be an indoor counter as well, but that might be for winter use - or might not, the top picture on their website shows their serving windows open to a snowy parking lot, although all the picnic tables are stowed away.

They have a lengthy but familiar-looking hard ice cream list (their website advertises that they serve Richardson's ice cream) but they also have soft serve (twist but no dip), sundaes, Richie's slush, frappes/sodas/floats, yogurt, sherbet, sorbet, and Raspberry Lime Rickey. They also sell hand packed quarts/pints/half-gallons, but you can also get a pint of fudge (or other toppings.) They don't have a "tasting flight" but they do have "Mac's Mountain" 4-scoop sundae.

They also have seasonal flavors - for fall, "Apple Crisp", "Pumpkin", and "Pumpkin Oreo".

Tucked away in a corner of the feature menu they list soft serve "pup cups" which I don't think I've noticed before - I'll start keeping an eye out for it, though.

First Visit

I started with Butter Crunch (nice creamy base - though given the lighting, I have no idea if it matched the bright yellow color of Chelmsford Creamery's Butter Pecan - and properly "crunchable" sugar bits.) I paired that with Totally Turtle - vanilla with cashews, brownie chunks, and caramel swirl - which is a good "lots of stuff" flavor which matches the one I enjoyed at Dandi-Lyons.

On a return visit, their Death By Chocolate and Crunch-a-Saurus are pretty high on the list - I should get around to trying a blue vanilla some time, having seen it at several places now - and possibly the Green Monster or Campfire S'moores². The "Mac's Mountain" is also something to keep in mind next time I'm prepared for a lot of ice cream, probably not after dinner though. (If I'm back soon enough the Apple Crisp fall-seasonal flavor looks intriguing but it's one of those things that could be great, could be a soggy mess, definitely have to be in an adventurous mood to try it out.)

I made a summer evening visit to Meadowlands Homemade Ice Cream ¹ While they have a large parking lot and a field with picnic benches, they basically only have the lighting you see in this picture, so you'll have to take my word for it about the benches. The usual "a few serving windows under an overhang", with a whiteboard off to the left describing special flavors in detail (and little signs by the serving windows with just the names.) They're just inside 495 and just east of Route 3, a couple of blocks from the Billerica town line.

First Visit

Turns out the signs aren't entirely consistent; the Triple Play sounds good, but the other menu only listed Triple Threat (which was tasty but was described at the counter as having chocolate swirl and chocolate cookies rather than peanut butter.)

Triple Threat was tasty - with more of a dark chocolate taste than you usually get in ice cream.

The other half was Coffee Cookies and Cream - good coffee flavor, the orange color may have been the artifical lighting (inside my car) interacting poorly with the phone's idea of white balance, but it had lots of texture from the cookies, and paired well with the chocolate.

Next Visit

When I go back I'll probably give the Fluffernutter or S'mores flavors a try, but they also have a good range of classics like Maple Walnut, Butter Crunch, and Peppermint Stick; "Coffee Fudge" also has my attention.