18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, March 1, 1914:
March comes in like a howling lion,
How it goes out, I do not know.
This month at least is a howler,
Or the beginning is for the winds do blow (fiercely).
Went to Sunday School this morning. This afternoon it began to get pretty breezy and by now the winds are howling to beat the band. We had ice cream. Whether attracted by the scent or not, Besse and Curt came out. Besse usually manages to get out when we have ice cream.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Besse and Curt Hester were Grandma’s married sister and her husband. They lived in nearby Watsontown.
Throughout the diary, the Muffly’s made ice cream once or twice each winter. Today we think of ice cream as a warm weather food—but I guess in the days before refrigeration that maybe it was a cold weather food. It would have been easier to get the ice needed to make ice cream during the winter months.
What kind of ice cream did they make? Maybe they made Black Walnut Ice Cream. The previous fall Grandma gathered nuts after they fell from the trees—and Black Walnut is an awesome old-fashioned ice cream flavor.
Black Walnut Ice Cream
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 cups half and half
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla
1 cup chopped black walnuts
In a saucepan combine sugar, flour and salt. Stir in 1/2 of the half and half (2 cups). Stir and cook over moderate heat until thickened. Cook 2 minutes more. Stir a small amount of the hot mixture into the eggs, and then add the egg mixture to the pan. Cook 1 additional minute. Remove from heat; add vanilla and additional half and half. Strain to remove any lumps. Chill for several hours. Stir in black walnuts before putting into ice cream freezer.
Follow freezer directions to make ice cream.
Makes approximately 1 1/2 quarts. Recipe may be doubled or tripled for larger freezers.
This ice cream turned out wonderfully—and my husband says that I should have doubled the recipe because it didn’t last long enough.
This is one of my favorite uses of black walnuts. The coldness of the ice cream and the robust flavor of the walnuts combine to create a wonderful taste treat.
Monthly Poem
The first day of each month Grandma included a poem in the diary. For more information see, the following post:
A Hundred Years Ago 
Sounds delicious Sheryl.
It was really good.
I may have to have a bit of ice cream before I go to bed now 🙂
Ice cream makes a good bedtime snack. 🙂
The old-fashioned flavors are the best! I’m partial to black raspberry and also ginger.
mmm. . . I haven’t had black raspberry ice cream in years. Thanks for reminding me of it. I have a couple black raspberry bushes in my back yard. . . . I may have to make some ice cream next summer. 🙂
Sounds good. And your grandmother’s getting very loquacious…. ;). Is she thinking about That Boy?
maybe. . .
Delicious, and it is strange to think of ice cream as a winter dessert.
We New Englanders love our ice cream year-round! There is a restaurant a mile from me which opened in 1917 as a confectioner’s shop and is now a full-service restaurant and function rooms with a year-round ice cream stand inside. They make all of their own ice cream and sell it in single-serve scoops, sundaes, frappes, etc as well as hand-packed pints and half gallons. They do a swift business all year. Another ice cream company a few towns away which also makes their own is seasonal-but they opened their outdoor stands in both towns two weekends ago and are open 7 days a week until 10pm from Valentine’s Day through early November!
You are well catered for with delicious locally made ice-cream. 🙂
Hard to imagine that a bowl of ice-cream would rate a diary entry these days. We are spoilt. Mr B would love this flavour, while I enjoy Tiger Tiger (Orange with Black Licorice)
The name of the ice cream–Tiger Tiger–reminds me of how my son wanted to paint his bedroom Tigeriffic Orange when he was little. Of course, I wasn’t as enamored by the color as he was so it never happened. 🙂
Her monthly poems show such a different side of your grandmother – delightful. The ice cream recipe sounds delicious but a lot of work.
I’m always amazed that she remembered to include a poem each month. I don’t that that I’d be that disciplined.
I love old-fashioned ice cream, without preservatives and containing all-natural ingredients. Yum, yum!
Diana xo
So many foods today contain chemicals or preservatives. I really like to make food from scratch so that I know what is in them.
Me too Sheryl, about 8 years ago I started buying mainly whole foods and cooking them for my meals. Even baking at home is better than buying ready-made sweets!
Diana xo
How interesting, the use of flour in the base!
I must try this! 🙂
I suppose that the flour (as well as the eggs) helps thicken the mixture a little.
Yum! That ice cream sounds delicious. Still loving this series.
I’m glad you’re enjoying it.
I remember my dad bringing home black walnut ice cream as a treat when we lived on our homestead in Alaska. It was winter-we were young-5 kids under 9- and we all got sick from eating too much! Grandma must have had a sugar rush because she had lots to say today! Lol!
It must have tasted really good if you all ate too much. 🙂
We.used to make ice cream with a hand-cranked ice cream maker. We put salt and snow in the outer layer. I can still see Dad’s hands as he turned the crank and pressed down the salt and snow mixture. We made rum and raisin! Jane
mmm. . . rum and raisin ice cream sounds good.
Thanks for the information about how your family made ice cream. I wasn’t sure if they used snow or ice to make it.
snow was our method, but the ice cream maker was able to use chopped ice …
Yum–and if you added a little swirl of maple syrup to that recipe, I think it might be even more perfect!
mmm. . maple syrup would be a great addition.
We definitely think of ice cream as more of a summer treat (although we have some in our freezer now – not homemade, though!).
It does seem like more of a summer treat now.
Looks delish!