I had a good sales day, though not my best ever, at the market yesterday. Beet-Nutmeg was not my biggest seller. *gasp* I sold only one, to a guy who tried it first. He had raved about the Lemon Verbena and another flavor of ice cream (I think the Vanilla Fudge) that he and his wife had bought from me two weeks prior. Then he tried and bought the BN and, if I remember correctly, a Basset Tracks.
Another guy, who was also at the market with his wife, said of the BN, "It must be good. But it sounds terrible," with a pause in between the two sentences. I exclaimed/asked, "Terrible!?" And he said something like, "That's why I said 'It must be good' first." And I said something like, "So you went with the carrot before the stick." Neither he nor his wife tried or bought anything.
I posted the above photo on Facebook and got a large number of Likes. My friend John shared it with the following caption: "Bill Hawley invented Beet-Nutmeg ice cream, which is genius. Shut up! You don't know everything. Genius!" Our mutual friend Linda commented, "I predict beet nutmeg will become the new pumpkin spice." Yes!
Another friend on Facebook asked for the recipe in a comment. Here's my reply:
I made a commercial-sized batch of it using a 2 1/2 gallon bag of plain, 14% hard ice cream mix from A. Panza & Sons. Coming up with a recipe suitable for the home kitchen based off what I had to do given my big-ass bag of mix isn't easy, but here's a good guess:
1) Peel and coarsely chop 1 pound of beets. Roast them in a pan, barely covered in salted water and tented with foil, at 350 until tender, about 1 hour. Puree the beets and their juices in a blender. When you're almost done with the pureeing, start adding freshly grated nutmeg and taste the mixture after you've incorporated each amount into the beets. I imagine you'll probably want a total of about 1/4 teaspoon.
2) In a metal bowl, whisk together 3/4 cup sugar and 3 egg yolks. Meanwhile, bring 12 fluid ounces of half-and-half to a simmer on medium-high heat. Carefully pour the hot half-and-half into the bowl, whisking constantly. (It helps to form a kitchen towel into a ring under the bowl to prevent the bowl from moving.) Return the custard mixture to a pan and cook on medium-low, stirring slowly yet constantly, until it's thickened, about six minutes. Remove the pan from the heat.
3) Stir the beet-nutmeg mixture gradually into the custard mixture, tasting as you go, until your ice cream base is as beety as you want it. If you have leftover beet-nutmeg puree, use it as a side dish or add some vodka to it and drink it.
4) Strain the ice cream base and chill it until it's cold. Process it in your ice cream maker, transfer the soft ice cream to a container, and freeze until solid, about 4 hours.
Sara(h?), my regular customer who once said I'm her favorite vendor at the market and who tends to buy my VFDs, told me I need a new name for the ice cream, something that doesn't state exactly what it is upfront. I couldn't come up with anything clever right away and still haven't thought of anything that would live up to my alleged genius status. But Pink would definitely have to be in the name.
I'm actually fine with its given name. All I need are more (in quantity) adventurous potential customers like that first guy I mentioned. Along that line, I commented on John's post (obviously before I made that first sale): "I haven't sold any Beet-Nutmeg yet, but I'm sure I will. *waits for a bus of root vegetable ice cream fans to arrive*"
My last note about a customer: A woman with an Eastern European accent who had bought ice creams from me the week before told me this week that she was back because I "make the best ice cream." She and her (I presume) husband and daughter bought a couple more pints from me this week. She said I ought to sell my products at Basil Bandwagon; since BB is a sponsor of the market, they would probably be open to that. I agree completely and will look into that next year.
Tony showed up with more Basset Tracks and some other flavors right after this family left. I wish he had been there for their visit because he would have been able to make a good guess as to where they were originally from and would have asked them whether their accent was Georgian or Belarusian or whatever.
I'm usually pretty tired after my day at the market. Even though it's only four hours, I'm standing up the whole time. And the market is the culmination of my workweek, so afterward, I feel like I used to on some Friday evenings, back when I had a regular-type job.
Yesterday afternoon, I didn't do anything more taxing than take Missy for a walk down our street. I read some of the two books I've got checked out of the library, worked on an acrostic puzzle, and helped Tony make dinner. Then we watched The Ritz, a movie that felt awfully dated and wasn't nearly as funny as we'd hoped.
This week, if Sandbrook Meadow Farm's fresh young ginger is available, I plan to make a straight-up Ginger Ice Cream and remake my Chocolate-Ginger VFD.
