I visited the Velvet Ice Cream factory in Utica, Ohio. I grew up not too far away from the area where the ice cream is made, but this was my first visit to the factory where the Velvet brand ice cream is made. Velvet Ice Cream is a local brand sold to a distribution in the eastern mid-west states as far north as New England and as far south as Florida. An annual Ice Cream Festival takes place here each spring, and this festival has been taking place since 1974. Several different ice cream flavours are producted here including sherberts (marketed to children mainly) and ice cream sandwiches. We joined a tour of the factory, which included discussions about the history.
Lebanese immigrant Joseph Dager came to Ohio in 1903 and settled in Cleveland before moving to Utica and started an ice business in 1910. The ice cream was created in small batches for the local area in 1914, and this was a time when homes did not have refridgeration or freezers. Dager had worked in a business selling ice blocks cut from the Licking River, which flows through Utica. At this time, strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate were the three flavours produced.
The old mill had a different history. It began its life in the early 1800s and was a sawmill. In the 1920s, it was used as a dance hall. In the 1940s and 1950s, it took on a new life as a skating area and a popular place for dances and dates. It was only in 1960 that the Velvet Ice Cream purchased the old mill and turned it into a factory. It took a few years to turn it into a factory, and fire damaged it, but it opened to the public in 1970. In 1978, tours are offered until the mill is burned to the ground by a fire in 1986. It is rebuilt the following year and public tours have been taking place since 2000.
We were shown the inside of the factory, which is located in a building next to the old mill. We were shown the machine that makes the sherbert push-pops and the machine that makes the ice cream sandwiches. We also watched the ice cream being put into tubs and sent on their way through the conveying belts.
After the tour and a couple of videos, we went into the old mill. Next to the old mill is a building with antique farm equipment, aimed at the grain industry. The machines separate the wheat and grain from the dust/chaff. There were several different types of machines used for purifying the grain and also for purifying the product of the grain (such as creating better quality of flour for baking).
The old mill building contains a gift shop, museum, and a restaurant.
The museum showed ice-cream related products and an old phone. We saw a collection of small ice cream machines, scoops, and ice cream moulds.
We had a light lunch at the old mill. After lunch, we tried different flavours of ice cream available in the ice cream parlour. They had nearly fifteen different flavours available. I enjoyed the cinnamon ice cream the best, and I also had a scoop of mint chocolate chip.
Over 130,000 people visit the Velvet Ice Cream factory and old mill a year. It is a family-operated business with the ancestors of the original founder owning and working the factory. The busiest day is the day of the annual Ice Cream Festival, which is always held on Memorial Day. Over five million gallons of this ice cream is distributed annually.
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