“Would you like sprinkles on that?”
As a smiling customer nodded assent just beyond the service window, 11-year-old Abby Stewart relayed the order to her grandmother, Debbie Stewart, working the opposite end of the Fawn View Farms ice cream truck.
The pair are busy working the weekly Friday Nite on the Farm at the Archer family dairy and crops operation, located in northern Harford County, Maryland.
From left, Abby and Debbie Stewart whip up cool treats during a Friday Nite at the Farm.
“We started with having the ice cream truck open Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, but cut it back,” said Mary Stewart, daughter of Jim and Janet Archer. Her husband, Greg, added that usually only one night of the three was busy; and with a full weekend commitment to the ice cream truck, little time had been left for family activities.
Mary Stewart is the brainstormer and key moving force behind the ice cream truck and related agritainment activities hosted during the last several years at Fawn View Farms.
Mary, Greg and their five children live nearby on their own farm. Greg works with the Archer farming operation, while Mary spends much of her time as an educator there, teaching visitors and customers about agriculture.
Fawn View Farm straddles a quiet country road near the Pennsylvania borderline town of Fawn Grove.
Since 2014 — when Mary tentatively hosted their first farm tour for kids — delighted customer/visitors and word-of-mouth sharing have brought nearly 60,000 guests. Most of them are children who tour the farm, expand their knowledge of agriculture and enjoy delicious ice cream treats.
Clockwise from bottom left, Bradley, Greg, Mary, Abby, Zachary, Taylor and Thomas Stewart.
Some also take home with them purchases of the artisanal cheeses produced from some of the Archer dairy herd’s milk output.
A recent Friday Nite on the Farm saw a wagon-load of guests touring the growing crops, watching field equipment in action, visiting the cows and calves and getting myriad questions about farming answered.
While ice cream customers relaxed at picnic tables, farm employees hustled past with forage harvesting equipment and a combine cut ripe barley on a nearby field. A stream of customers, including neighbors and friends, kept Abby and grandmother Debbie busy dipping ice cream, filling cups and cones and whipping up delicious milkshakes.
In a large, open shed behind the ice cream truck and picnic tables, a group of musicians set up sound equipment ahead of a graduation party event on the farm’s events schedule.
Ag Education With a Side of Ice Cream
The Friday evening events were just beginning for the season, with plans to run through late October. Farm tours — mostly for school student field trips — had already brought some 750 youngsters through during April and May, soaking up ag information while enjoying the farm via wagon rides.
“I started with the field trips in 2014, right after I had the twins,” Mary said. “We had three kids under age three and decided it was a good time for me to be home full-time.”
Mary Stewart answers questions for a group setting up for a graduation party hosted at the farm.
Her position as an account manager for a wireless communications firm had entailed an hour drive to the office as well as some traveling servicing nationwide clients.
But Mary wasn’t ready to completely give up the interaction with the public and felt a need to continue doing something to challenge her marketing skills. And some farm folks for whom she held great respect encouraged her to pursue her vision of on-farm ag education.
“I sat down with Greg and my parents to get their ‘OKs’ to start,” she said, adding, “I don’t think they realized how many annoying things might get in their way of farming.”
Mary said the business soon morphed into doing birthday and graduation parties. “Then during COVID, we started making cheese with some milk from the farm,” she said.
With more young visitors at a time on field trips than one guide and one wagon seating 30 or 40 people could handle, other family members soon got pressed into service as interest in the tours grew.
Mary’s mother, Janet Archer, is a retired school teacher, and readily fit into a position as a guide. Greg’s mother, Debbie (also a retired elementary teacher) and father Dave Stewart, also are part of the team at busy times — helping with everything from the ice cream truck to working with tour visitors.
Kids camps around the area often bring summertime field trip groups, and school tours will resume for several weeks in the fall after students return to classes
A four-hour “farm festival” helped to kick off this year’s summer season on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. An estimated 30 different food trucks and vendors set up on each side of Onion Road, which cuts through the farm.
Bands, kids’ games, bubbles and a petting zoo also helped draw in hundreds of visitors to the event.
“We explain what crops are growing in the fields and the kinds of foods that are made from them,” Mary explained. “We visit the dairy, talk about cow care, see the calves, visit the milk house.”
Mary and Greg Stewart grab a moment to discuss activities taking place during a recent Fawn View Friday Nite at the Farm.
For Greg, assisting with field trips on extra busy days was initially something of an eye-opener.
“One of my first tours, I asked the kids if any of them had ever been on a farm,” he said. “One young boy waved his hand and then said that his dad regularly took him to (the convenience store) Royal Farms. There’s a huge disconnect.”
Cheese sourced from the farm’s milk is produced in a custom cheese-making operation in Lancaster. Mary is usually at the facility and hands-on helping during the cheese-making processes.
“Our cheeses are Colby and cheddar-based types,” she said. “I usually help with adding dry mixes and flavorings and helping press it. Then the cheeses are aged for 60 days.”
Mary said some of their cheese is wholesaled, while some is sold at the farm.
“We started with self-serve refrigerators,” she said. “But we didn’t have any way for our cheese customers to come back to see the cows, and that’s when the thought of an ice cream stand (came up).”
Utilizing a food truck for their ice cream business not only provides a sales site at the farm, but also allows them to participate in various community events and activities.
Area events where the Fawn View ice cream truck offers ice cream treats like cones, dishes, milkshakes, snowballs and sundaes include the Mason-Dixon, Harford County and Maryland State fairs.
In addition to the standard flavors on their menu, unique frozen-treat offerings often feature fresh fruits and seasonal flavors. “Extreme milkshakes” they sometimes offer might have a special treat, like a brownie or snack cake, strung on the straw topping ice cream with compatible flavors.
With Mary often busy conducting tours, Abby has become a regular staffer in the truck, taking customer orders and helping to dip ice cream and whip milkshakes alongside grandmother Debbie.
Admittedly somewhat shy as a youngster, working with ice cream truck customers has instilled a level of confidence in Abby well beyond her years.
“I like meeting new people,” Abby said of her enjoyment of working with the ice cream sales.
JPG 3439 – Farm neighbor Krista Wallace stopped by Fawn View for an ice cream treat, served up by Abby Stewart.
Abby and her 9-year-old twin brothers Bradley and Zachary are all 4-H members of the Black Horse area club. She shows dairy animals, including one Holstein and a few Brown Swiss, and also does some baking projects. Bradley and Zachary also show dairy heifers and all three have pairs of project market pigs.
Siblings Thomas, 6, and Taylor, 5, are still too young for 4-H participation but enjoy being in the middle of the many activities at the farm and tour events.
Adding to Mary’s super-busy schedule was her appointment in December to the United Soybean Board, representing farmers from the region. She was nominated by retiring board member and Frederick County farmer Belinda Burrier, who stepped down after nine years of serving with the national soybean promotion leadership group.
Hosting visitors to the farm, making cheese, keeping the ice cream truck stocked, scheduled and staffed, in addition to being a full-time mom, keeps Mary challenged, but delighted to continue working in agriculture education and outreach to consumers.
Only a few minor glitches have occurred over their years of welcoming guests, while returnees, newcomers and customers continue to fill their roster of visitors.
One farm tour guest summed up their assessment of the visit to Fawn View Farm, saying, “There’s no other farm tour like this one.”
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