Ice cream: ingredients, flavours, production, equipment – all these were covered last month at Alfred & Co’s ice cream seminar in Retford.

Attended by 22 UK dairy farmers, all of whom are looking to diversify into farmhouse ice cream making, the seminar proved an interesting and informative day.

Attracting the participants' attention from the outset, the day started with an introduction to ice cream recipe formulation presented by Karen Beattie from the Ice Cream Alliance.

The show was then handed over to Steve Henshall of Alfred & Co, who gave an overview of the Technogel batch pasteuriser and batch freezer installed on the premises.

Steve demonstrated how easy the pasteuriser is to use, as well as showing some very important safety features. 

He then produced some lovely fresh 'farmhouse' style ice cream using the Technogel Artisan ice cream freezer.

Next, Gordon Tickle from Solerco Products added a variety of flavours to the ice cream using Meucci ingredients and flavourings; creating a number of different and popular products as well as demonstrating how you can mix and match ingredients to create your favourite style in ice cream.

Needless to say this part of the session proved particularly popular.

After the lunch break Mark Gossage from the Ice Cream Alliance did an in depth presentation on marketing and sales of ice cream products.

The day finished with a presentation from Barclays Bank, who were able to introduce various financial options for farmers to add value to their milk on the farm.

Everyone enjoyed a productive and interesting day and all participants left with a deeper insight into ice cream making. 

Steve said, "We had a fantastic day with lots of fun. We have made contact with several participants since then and are pleased that the guests have been able to develop their ideas further with our help. We are currently planning for another seminar event which will take place over the summer".