
ice product for young ones, boozy treats for older people
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By Kathleen D. Bailey
EPPING — Brooke Gatchell eagerly explained one of her newest concoctions for the Cow Palace Creamery, a Bananas Foster sundae.
“It is really bought 3 scoops of vanilla ice product, bananas, Flag Hill spiced rum, and brown sugar cinnamon butter, which is held warm right up until it can be served in excess of the ice product.”
But that’s not all, Gatchell added: “Then we put on whipped cream, caramel and a cherry.”
“The alcohol cooks off,” her manager Brian Ferguson contributed.
Gatchell’s creations, with or with no spirits, are on the menu at Cow Palace, now celebrating its third year at the North River Highway intricate, which includes the Flag Hill Winery, just above the border in Lee. The advanced also consists of a doing the job mini-farm and a established of bungalow-design RiverCrest Villas.
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The team is established to make this corner of Epping and Lee a spot for agri-vino-dessert tourism, and they are just getting commenced.
Ferguson, originally from Pennsylvania, purchased Flag Hill Winery in 2015. He experienced a qualifications in distilling and it seemed like a excellent possibility, he said. But he experienced a larger vision: a vacation spot for lodging, wining and eating in the Lee-Epping area.
He and his spouse, Maddie, began building the villas with Ben and Amy Brown, the founders of Cow Palace Creamery. When the Browns wanted to get out of the ice cream company, the Fergusons bought the Creamery. This past year, they brought Gatchell on as common manager for the ice cream and lodging aspect.
“We saw a huge problem with lodging in the space,” Ferguson stated. Epping has one compact motel, and then nothing concerning Manchester and Portsmouth. He envisioned 10 villas for an right away and extended continue to be, and as of June 22, five have been created.
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The villas are ideal for persons attending races at Star Speedway or New England Dragway, people holding weddings at Flag Hill, or persons checking out Hampton Beach who never essentially want to continue to be at the beach, he mentioned.
They had a tender opening previous year and have presently noticed a great organization among their marriage ceremony clientele and Airbnb listing, he stated.
The Fergusons very own among 110 and 120 acres, wherever they develop grapes for their wine and grain for their whiskey, raise pigs and chickens and retain a greenhouse for a real farm knowledge. The farm has an 18-station strolling tour.
“You can burn off your ice cream,” he stated with a smile.
The position of it all? A real relatives desired destination, Ferguson explained. It presents company additional than a 15-minute wine tasting.
“You can stay a couple of hours, you can continue to be a pair of nights,” he explained. “The parents want to taste some wine, the little ones can glance at the animals. And you will find usually the ice cream.”
Nostalgia-inducing ice product specials
Gatchell researched culinary arts at the Seacoast University of Technological innovation. Utilizing Richardson’s Ice Product as a base, she enjoys producing weekly specials at the Creamery. A lot of it is nostalgia-based mostly, these types of as a Peanut Butter and Fluff Sundae produced in honor of her grandfather and a Cereal Milk Frappe built with a range of sugary cereals. She does Doughnut Sundaes and much more.
Her Cherry Vanilla Cola Frappe is a throwback to the fantastic ’50s.
“It’s Cherry Coke, one particular scoop of maraschino cherries, a few of squeezes of Ghirardelli vanilla syrup, and Richardson’s cherry vanilla ice cream,” she reported.
“The staff members users say, ‘Brooke, you have to stop screening this stuff on us,'” she claimed with a smile.
Ferguson also does catering on- and off-web site. The winery is a preferred place for weddings, and he lately instituted a Champagne Brunch that is “sold out months in advance.”
On the horizon and further than
In five several years, Ferguson hopes to have the other five villas developed, a new distillery, a new tasting room and to be equipped to serve breakfast and lunch to the villa company.
“We want to be a location for alcohol and agricultural tourism,” he discussed. “We want to join people today to open up room.”
In the even for a longer period expression, he hopes to sponsor company retreats, with crew creating using area over the wine tasting and the farm knowledge.
Involving the vineyard, ice product store and villas, they employ about 55 people, Gatchell and Ferguson explained.
Liza Turner of Lee stopped by with her two youngsters, Abril and Amaia.
“We like it because it is really shut,” Turner mentioned. “We love the atmosphere and the ambience. We can get ice cream and glance at the pond.”
Gatchell and Ferguson explained they have upcoming creations they are functioning on.
“We want to tie our spirits into our food stuff,” he reported, adding, “It’s not on the menu nonetheless, but I want to do a whiskey brownie sundae.”
The Cow Palace Creamery is located at 417 North River Highway. For extra information and facts, electronic mail [email protected]