I have fond childhood memories of family reunions on Pine Lake in Eldora, Iowa. Coming together from several central Iowa counties, my mother’s side of the family got together each summer to reconnect. As the adults caught up with each other’s busy lives on the farm, the kids ran up and down a sandy bluff from the charming stone and timber Pine Lodge to cool off in Lower Pine Lake. There must have been tables and tables of food for the potluck, but I only remember one item: the homemade ice cream.
Someone would have made and chilled a homemade custard the day before to serve as the ice cream base. It was poured into what was the star of this summer’s get-togethers, a contraption I can see in my mind’s eye: an old-fashioned hand-cranked ice cream maker, big enough to feed 100 or more.
