This time of year, I am reminded of making ice cream for the family and lemonade for the neighborhood when I was a boy.
Typically, on a Saturday in June, my father and I would go to the grocery store, and we would get two carts to load up with ingredients for what we were making that day. Some days we would make ice cream; his favorite was peach ice cream. Some days we made lemonade for a lemonade stand I would run.
From my father, I learned that in the store, there was a produce manager, and that you could negotiate with the produce manager on the price of fruit if you were buying two or three lugs of fruit. If we were making lemonade, we had a cart full of lemons and sugar, and a cart full of ice and cups.
Thinking of the scale in which we made food at that time was an eye-opener for me as a boy. I later had some context and understanding when I learned that my father’s father owned a ginger ale company. As a boy, my father had seen his father making large batches of beverages.
Learning to make food and beverages to feed large numbers of people created in me a joy for the entire process of batching, tasting and getting it right. I also enjoyed the feeling of sharing what we made and seeing how much happier people were on a hot summer day to get fresh peach ice cream or a cup of fresh lemonade.
Those values of planning, hard work, and attention to detail are still with me today in my work at Chocolove. And I still enjoy seeing others enjoy what we make.
Cheers to the mothers and fathers who help their children cook
and share with others in the family and in the community!
