My family spent Mother’s Day weekend in Penn Yan, staying with my grandma, walking to Main Street and letting Murphy dip his paws in the lake. It wasn’t the sunniest of Mother’s Days, but it was warmer than it has been most weekends this spring. In our family, this calls for ice cream.
One look at my Instagram feed and you know how much I adore ice cream of all kinds. This trait did not just appear for the sake of social media. My family LOVES ice cream. During the summer when Paige and I were younger, Mom would take us to get ice cream at the shop around the corner (RIP Udder Delights). When Dad came home from work and suggested ice cream after dinner, Mom shot us a look, we stayed quiet, and we wolfed down our second serving of Moo Goo of the day.
We couldn’t very well let the first weekend our family spent together since January go by without some artisan ice cream. We’re big fans of Seneca Farms (who isn’t?), but were willing to try something different after Mom mentioned a newer shop she drove by on her way out to a friend’s house. A quick scroll through Spotted Duck Creamery‘s website convinced us this was a must-try.
Before arriving, we read about the flock of friendly ducks whose eggs are what make the Creamery’s custard so special. Pulling in, we were surprised by the adorable roadside stand, peacock family and picnic benches, all lit by string lights as dusk fell.
Both the waffle cones and the custard are homemade here, so I opted for two scoops in a cone. The scoops are small, which were were told was so you can try more flavors. That is a philosophy I can 100% get behind!
I chose Seneca Salted Caramel (caramel frozen custard with Seneca salt) and Chai Tea (vanilla chai frozen custard). Both were delicious! The chai was more spicy than sweet, which I enjoyed. There are also “Wine Trail Sundaes” which all sound amazing, and I’m sure are even more so after a warm day trekking from winery to winery.
Ancona ducks are give the Creamery its name. The ducks, which are definitely spotted, live behind the Creamery and are as friendly as the website said they’d be. While waiting for our ice cream, we wandered past picnic tables and Adirondack chairs to check out the ducks. They came waddling over to the fence and chatted away among themselves.
The ducks are joined by three beautiful peacocks who were just putting themselves to bed in a tall tree by the Creamery as we pulled out of the driveway.
