What is more refreshing on a lazy summer afternoon than a nice cool bowl of ice cream? What is more fun than roasting a marshmallow over an open fire on a warm summer evening? What snack goes better than crunching on walnuts or almonds any time you want? How about putting them altogether and serving them at the same time!?!
Well that’s exactly what William Dreyer did in 1929 when he took his wife’s scissors and cut up marshmallows and nuts and mixed them into his ice cream. Some say he used a new candy bar his partner had come up with containing chocolate, marshmallows and walnuts. Either way, Rocky Road ice cream was invented – although it wasn’t called that yet.
Fenton Creamery claims that Dreyer stole the idea from George Farren, one of their employees who had apparently come up with his own candy bar with the same ingredients. They claimed the only difference was that Dreyer and Edy had used almonds instead of walnuts. Perhaps had I been around back then, I would have come up with that candy bar since it wasn’t exactly rocket science.
Anyway, Dreyer’s Ice Cream caught on, particularly right after Wall Street crashed later in 1929. That was when Dreyer became inspired and called his invention, Rocky Road ice cream. The thing I find odd is that history goes on to show that Dreyer and Edy became two different ice cream companies and both make Rocky Road! Go figure.
How to celebrate: Go enjoy a bowl of ice cream, guess it better be Rocky Road for the sake of this holiday. Try making your own flavor of ice cream from last night’s left-overs – Say, steamed broccoli and meatloaf ice cream. Start your own ice cream company, seems like everybody else back then did.
Unboxing the Bizarre™ 