Turns out he was, and for the last four summers Pendarvis has been running the seaside snack shack and ice cream shop. In between hiring teenagers and cooking french fries, Pendarvis has become an expert in the nuances of making ice cream.
“I had no idea four years ago how much art goes into it,” Pendarvis says.
This creative endeavor begins with cream and flavorings mixed in a batch cooler. Once it’s blended to the consistency of a milkshake, chunky additions such as nuts and cookies are added. Then the mixture goes into a flash freezer, which instantly solidifies the ice cream at a temperature between 20˚ and 30˚ below zero, all the while keeping ice crystals from forming.
Each batch takes about 20 minutes to make, but that adds up when you consider the more than 30 flavors of hard ice cream Pendarvis serves each day. But don’t inquire too deeply about the ingredients he uses, because he won’t tell you for fear other ice cream makers will be tempted to swipe his much loved recipes.
“I use whatever’s best,” Pendarvis says with a chuckle. “But I’m not going to tell you what I put in my ice cream.”
From hay to ice cream
Over at Smiling Hill Farm in Westbrook, ice cream maven Warren Knight is more forthcoming about one of the family farm’s signature products. Here the frozen treat’s principle ingredients — hormone-free cream and milk — come from cows that graze just steps from the ice cream shop.
“We don’t use a (pre-made) mix,” Knight says. “We use pure cane sugar in our base mixture, rather than corn syrup. We source local whenever possible and keep it natural.”
This reflects the farm’s environmentally-minded and holistic philosophy. Knight explains that when he’s sweating under the noontime sun to bring in a crop of hay, he knows that the quality of the hay will directly influence the health of the cows, which will affect the quality of the milk and finally the flavor of the ice cream.
“Whether we’re making hay, milking cows, pasteurizing milk or making ice cream, it’s all part of the process,” Knight says.
At any give time, the farmstand sells between 20 and 30 naturally good flavors. These include distinctive offerings such as honey vanilla, made with honey from the farm, and ginger, flavored with the real stuff. For restaurants and people hosting parties, Smiling Hill will whip up unique flavors using customers’ recipes, no matter how unusual.
Unique flavors
Ice cream wholesaler Shain’s of Maine serves up its own distinctive flavors, including Smurf and Dinosaur Crunch. But owner Jeff Shain (who describes himself as “the strangest and by far the most eccentric ice cream guy in Maine”) is well versed in truly bizarre flavor combos. For special events, Shain has made things like jalapeno cheddar cheese and salsa ice cream and beans and hot dogs ice cream.
About the last one, he says “It wasn’t bad. People ask me what the texture was like. I tell them, ‘Have you ever seen the movie “Alive,” where the plane crashed and they had to eat the other people? That’s the texture.”
Cannibal-esque textures aside, Shain says popular flavors change during the course of the season. After school ends for the summer, Shain says flavors like cookie dough and chocolate Oreo “fly out the door.” But once Labor Day hits and ice cream patrons tend to sport gray hair, classics such as maple walnut, rum raisin and Grapenut become the most sought after flavors.
Shain, who’s been making ice cream since 1979, says he loves the business because of the intense pleasure people derive from the product.
Pendarivs in Cape Elizabeth agrees, saying “We sell more than ice cream. We sell memories.”
And whether you prefer the Kahlua fudge or the beans and hot dogs, the joy of an ice cream cone on a summer day is a simple indulgence that’s hard to forget.