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| Susanna & Taste Tester |
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“Off the Lip: Time to Make the Ice Cream”
by Bre Eaton
Newport Mercury
July 20, 2011
SUSANNA WILLIAMS, Ice cream maker
She
makes two gallons at a time. So there’s no chance that Susanna Williams
is going to compromise on quality. Made with fresh local ingredients,
Susanna’s Ice Cream was named “best ice cream in New England” in the
current issue of Yankee Magazine. Being the best requires hours and
hours in the kitchen at Sweet Berry Farm in Middletown, not exactly the
part-time summer gig the former theater professor from Devon, England,
imagined when she started making ice cream from scratch. But Williams
and her taste-tester husband, Herb Zornow, sure make a lot of people
happy producing rotating flavors — such as gooseberry-elderflower in the
spring to blackberry in the summer and pumpkin in the fall. Visit them
at the Coastal Growers’ Market at Casey Farm in Saunderstown on
Saturdays from 8:30 a.m.-noon all summer long. BY BRE EATON
(Bre spells out:) S-u-s-a-n-n-a W-i-l-l-i-a-m-s, correct?
My actual given name is Susan, which I very rarely use. But Susanna...is the version that I chose for the ice cream because it sounds like
somebody in a mob cap churning one of those old-fashioned ice cream
things with rock salt, which I assure you,
I don’t do!
What makes your ice cream so uniquely delicious?
My ice cream has cream as the first ingredient, always, even if it’s a
fruit one. Strawberry, for instance, you’re probably using as much
strawberry as cream, but a pre-made mix will use milk and then some
cream to boost it. They don’t usually use egg, which I use as an
emulsifier — it gives it stability, thickens the mixture, and gives it
that lovely creamy mouth feel. If you don’t use that, the ice cream
tends to be more crystalline. And most commercial ice cream makers use
one of those gums, like guar, xanthan, carrageenan gums. It’s perfectly
legal to call those things natural because carrageenan comes from
seaweed for heaven’s sakes, but I don’t do any of that stuff.
And no corn syrup then.
I never use corn syrup. Corn is for eating off the cob not for turning into a sweetener.
(“ Tell about the cows!” urges her husband and sidekick.)
I don’t know the cows by name, but the cream is incredibly fresh. It
comes from a wonderful dairy in Tiverton called Arruda’s. I swear Tony
Moniz knows every one of the cows by name and he delivers the cream
twice a week. You have to get the order in on Sunday night before six
because that’s when he pasteurizes. Then that cream arrives the next
morning. So that’s what makes the difference is that it’s all that
fresh.
What’s your favorite flavor?
The one I started with, which is
gooseberry-elderflower. That’s really how I got associated with Sweet
Berry Farm in the first place. In wandering around, I discovered that
Jan [Eckhart] had a couple rows of gooseberries and currants. They’re
not fruits that you often see here. A problem with gooseberries is
that the bushes are unbelievably prickly. It’s sheer masochism trying to
pick them. There’s no way you’re going to have a “pick your own crop”
of gooseberries because people would be suing you left and right for the
plastic surgery they needed. (Laughs.)
Do you still pick them yourself?
I do. And after I’ve done so, I usually look as though I’ve gotten in
a fight with a rabid cat, but the ice cream is worth it!
Is Herb out there with you?
Are you kidding me? No! He doesn’t involve himself with the nitty
gritty. He does everything that I don’t do. He’s chauffeur, accountant,
chief taste tester, he puts all the labels on the tubs, he does
everything that has to do with the computer as I should not be allowed
near a pocket calculator! He keeps the whole operation afloat while I
stand in the kitchen actually making the stuff.
What’s it like working in Sweet Berry Farm’s kitchen?
It’s delightful. Everyone gets along in the kitchen. You watch Gordon
Ramsay and you think that’s how all kitchens work and it isn’t remotely
like that. Steve Cory, who runs the kitchen is the most laid-back,
generous man in the world. He’s the one who made room in the kitchen
for me and basically taught me everything I know because I had never
done any kind of commercial cookery before.
What led you to turn your hobby into a business?
It was never intended to be a career. Nobody was more surprised than I was when it turned out to be a
full-time job. After we moved here when Herb retired, I felt I needed
something else to do in the summers. I kept nagging at Jan and Michelle
that they needed to have ice cream made from their fruits. And it has
been much more successful than I ever imagined — certainly not just the
two to three afternoons a week summer job that I originally envisioned.
But the whole operation has just expanded exponentially.
How many hours a week do you typically work?
Oh, I wish you wouldn’t ask! It depends on the season, but in high
summer, like what we’re moving into now, 80 hours a week is not
uncommon.
But it’s not just the hours that get tiring, right, what about this heat?
It isn’t even hot down here this morning compared to the way it gets.
If we have a heat wave, by mid-afternoon it’s often running above 90,
with the humidity close to 100. There have been days when this machine —
an Italian gelato machine — doesn’t function. It doesn’t like it if
the temperature is above 85.
Where do you get your recipe ideas?
I have a lot of ice cream books and I browse through them, compare
recipes, and usually don’t use any of them. If two fruits are in season
at the same time, often they kind of go together. For instance, I always
know when the gooseberries are ripe because the elderflower in the
hedges is in flower.
What is the most popular flavor?
Vanilla is always the most popular. Dark chocolate, salted caramel
swirl, coffee, strawberry, mint chocolate chip and mocha chocolate chip.
Any flavors you don’t personally like?
I’ve never been a fan of coconut. I made coconut ice cream because
people were asking for it and it turned out to be one of the most
popular flavors around this time of year.
And I’m extremely popular while I’m making that one because I have to
get other people around to test it for me.
Do you ever eat other ice cream brands or is that sacrilege?
I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but I barely eat ice cream at all.
Personally, if I want a treat, pass me the salted cashews. I spend my
days up to my elbows in ice cream. It’s not what I want for dinner. He …
(points to Herb, who smiles) … eats ice cream every day. He eats ice cream for supper! It’s part of his taste-testing duties.
Since you don’t love ice cream yourself, why make it?
People love ice cream. It gives them pleasure. It’s not the nuts and bolts of food — the eat-your-vegetables-and-then-you-can-have-your-dessert. It’s the DESSERT! (Excitedly throws both hands in the air.) It’s show time.
(Laughs.)
A lot of people tell me, “You make a lot of people happy.” And that’s
nice. On the days I crawl home at midnight having spent a full day in
the kitchen, it’s a validation. It’s all worth it.
To commemorate National Ice Cream Day, Sweet Berry Farm will serve
Susanna’s Ice Cream by the cone on Sunday, July 24, 2011, 3-5 p.m. for one day
only.
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