Snow Ice-Cream: When Nature Provides a Gift, Accept It

Cabin-fever hit our homestead. Amy packed all of the winter boots away in the closet. Seeds planted in our simple kitchen countertop greenhouse, have sprouted baby green growth. The chicks that have grown too big for our home, were moved outside. The signs of spring may have been pushed along by our wishful thinking… as we had the biggest snowfall of the season on the second day of Spring.

 

 

The heart and soul of homesteading is making the best use of what you have. We could sit around and sulk over the heavy snow that brought down our netting over the chicken coop. We could wonder and fret over when the ground will finally warm up enough to place the tiny green leaved garden plants outside. Today the tree limbs are heavy with snow. There isn’t a blade of grass in sight. How can we use this as a gift?

 

As a kid, Amy had a friend whose mom made use of whatever she had around to bring some tasteful joy for her kids and the neighborhood kids. She remembers a metal bowl and wooden spoon being brought out to make this unique treat. As kids, there was some laughter about yellow snow and making sure to pick out the grass blades before we ate it. There was some adventure about the whole idea of finding the perfect spot to collect snow. The process for making snow ice-cream is really pretty quick and takes much less time to mix up that going up to the store on a snowy day.

Snow Ice-Cream

16 c. fresh snow

4 eggs, beaten

2c. milk

1 c. sugar

2 tsp. vanilla extract  (or be creative with flavoring, we used vanilla butter emulsion)

1 tsp. cinnamon (or try nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice, etc.)

 

 

 

Whisk eggs, milk, and sugar in a mixing bowl. Mix until the sugar has completely dissolved. Stir in the extract and spice of choice. In a large bowl or stock pot, have the snow ready, and pour whisked mixture over the fresh snow. Fold everything until the snow and sweet, rich mixture have blended into snow ice-cream. Enjoy a bowlful of this playful, nature-given treat, and then store the rest in a sealed container.