Sanford Sizzles as a Hotbed of Cold Treats

PAGE 2
TOURIST NEWS, JULY 28, 2016
Sanford Sizzles as a Hotbed of Cold Treats
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A CHIC BOUTIQUE
cream sandwich, named for the Portland Sea Dogs
baseball team, features vanilla ice cream between two
chocolate chip cookies.
By noon, Shain is on the road again, this time to central
and western Maine.
Shain, 54, a Sanford native, has been part of his
family’s business since 1980. He worked
with his parents Rodney and Barbara
to develop the business and eventually took over its operations.
He oversees 44 full-time and
part-time employees during the
summer season, when the company
is making up to 4,500 gallons of ice
Shain’s of Maine
cream every week. His son Alex, a colJeff Shain, owner of Shain’s Ice Cream,
lege student, is one of his summer employees.
is not the sort of guy who sits in an office all day
Shain’s is known for the number of flavors it offers
delegating to others.
throughout the year – about 100. Shain and one of his longNo indeed. On a brutally hot mid-July day, Shain is time employees, Stacey Sevigney, are the flavor scientists.
pulling out of the Shain’s parking lot on Route 109 in
South Sanford by 8:30 AM to deliver ice cream. With
continued on next page
more than 300 customers throughout Maine and New
England, he will have a full day.
He will head north to mid-coast Maine, where stops
will include a drive out the peninsula off Thomaston
to Port Clyde. After a full day of deliveries to coastal
Maine, he will stop back in Sanford, fill up the truck
again, and then
head to Revere,
Massachusetts.
His day extends
into the next day,
as it ends at 1:30
AM.
The next morning, by 9 AM, he
is in the production room beneath
Shain’s restaurant
and ice cream
stand, overseeing a batch of the
Shain's ice cream sandwich, named for company’s bestthe Portland Sea Dogs baseball team, k n o w n p r o d features vanilla ice cream between two uct, the Sea Dog
Biscuit. The ice
chocolate chip cookies.
by Nancy McCallum
The Sanford-Springvale area is rich with many blessings – and you can count ice cream stands with homemade ice cream among them.
Shain’s of Maine, Shaw’s Ridge Farm and Shaker
Pond Ice Cream (which also has a shop in nearby
Alfred) attract crowds all summer long
because of their delicious, creamy
and often inventive concoctions.
Shain’s and Shaker Pond also sell
their ice cream to distributors and
retail outlets throughout Maine
and beyond.
Sanford
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Jeff Shain, owner of Shain’s Ice Cream, stands with a hot
dog friend in front of the restaurant on Route 109 in Sanford.
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TOURIST NEWS, JULY 28, 2016
PAGE 3
Sanford
continued from page 2
While most of the flavors
they create are for general
consumption, some are for
individual clients. The duo
was recently working on a
champagne sorbet for a client.
“New flavors are a result of
customer input, both retail
and wholesale, and looking at
trends in flavors,” Shain says.
The lengthy Shain’s ice
cream menu makes for
good reading – and evokes
many questions, with flavors such as “Confusion,” Shaw’s Ridge Farm in Sanford, once a huge dairy farm, has been making and selling ice
“Shain Train,” “Tornado” cream since the 1930s.
and “Maine Survivor.” Other
Shain specialties are easier
to deduce, such as their Maine walnut and the popular like to say, anyone can make ice cream, but we make
Maine caramel sea salt.
great ice cream,” he says. As one of the largest ice cream
(Shain good-naturedly lists some flavors he concocted makers in Maine, many thousands of people are in
in the early days that just did not appeal to the masses: agreement.
jalapeno cheddar cheese and salsa; garlic and tomato;
Shain’s is open seven days throughout the summer
macaroni and cheese; beer and pretzel, (“with peanuts, months. FMI 1-207-324-1449 or www.shainsofmaine.com
of course”); jalapeno Oreo and spaghetti.)
In 1984, the Shains opened a restaurant to co-exist Shaw’s Ridge Farm
with the successful ice cream stand. The restaurant has
Richard Shaw enjoys Grape-Nuts for breakfast. He takes
become known for its lobster roll, which is considered by his with cream – well, in his ice cream, that is. Ice cream
some foodies and food critics to be among Maine’s best. that is made on the farm where he has lived all his life.
Even on a slower summer weekday such as a Monday
Shaw’s Ridge Farm in Sanford, once a huge dairy
or Tuesday, Shain’s typically will sell more than 300 farm, has been making and selling ice cream at a stand
lobster rolls. In an effort to show his appreciation for the since the 1930s. Shaw, 68, is the seventh-generation to
support the communities have given his business, Jeff
continued on page 4
Shain also offers “Cheap Eats” – tater tots, hamburgers
and hot dogs for just 75 cents apiece – every Wednesday
night. As many as 500 customers will partake of this summer bargain. Shain also participates in local events such
as the July 4th parade, where he handed out 1000 free
Sea Dog Biscuits this
rFridge.c
u
summer. He does it
Kennebunkport,
o
as a “thank you” to
Kennebunk & Arundel
the people of Sanford.
Shain is proud of
Annette 207-702-7877
what his business
has become. “The
or Donna 207-702-7888
ice cream market is
FillourFridge.com
competitive, but I
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TOURIST NEWS, JULY 28, 2016
Sanford
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continued from page 3 milk, they had a surfeit of cream. “You don’t want to
work in the Shaw family business. He remembers working alongside his grandfather Harold making ice cream
when he was five years old.
“There’s always been ice cream here,” Shaw says.
When dairy farms such as Shaw’s began producing skim
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Richard Shaw remembers working alongside his grandfather making ice cream when he was five years old.
dump it down the drain,” Shaw says. “The next logical
thing is to make ice cream.”
Although the dairy business was phased out, Shaw
kept making ice cream. He makes between 30 and 40
kinds, and only sells it at the farm. Well, he says, there
was one exception. Shaw had a close friendship with
the late Brooks MacDonald, who co-owned Hurricane
Restaurant in Ogunquit and then Kennebunkport, with
his wife Luanne. Shaw said that MacDonald loved the
ice cream so much he would make a special trip out to
the farm to get it – or Shaw would special-deliver it – as
a chance to get away from the farm and see his friend.
Shaw’s Ridge makes about 6000 gallons of ice cream
during the summer season.
One of the business’s specialties is “Grammy Shaw’s
Original Coffee Recipe.” “We brew the coffee extract the
same way we did 50 years ago,” Shaw says.
Another popular flavor is the “Native Strawberry,”
made with strawberries picked at Lavigne’s strawberry
fields in Sanford. Shaw says that those two flavors, along
with vanilla and chocolate, remain the public’s favorites.
Other favorites include pistachio, butter pecan, black
raspberry, and a fresh orange ice cream and a fresh lemon
ice cream, that are not sherbets.
Shaw is the chief chemist. He says he gets some of
his ideas from his employees. “Sometimes the kids will
come up with something,” he says. “For example, I just
modified the “Coal Dust” recipe this week to try it.”
Another recent recipe he tried was a “Salted Caramel
Oreo.” “That’s why I don’t wholesale,” Shaw says. “So
I can play with weird stuff.” He says there have been
some efforts that fizzled – an experiment using bits of
broken waffle cones, and an ambrosia flavor, featuring
pineapple and banana flavors were not popular.
Because the ice cream stand has been a go-to destination for so long, Shaw has expanded the 150-acre farm
to include a restaurant that specializes in barbeque and
has a mini-golf course. Future plans include creating a
driving range.
The gardens around
the farm are spectacular;
they are the handiwork of
Shaw’s wife Cindy. Visitors are encouraged to tour
the gardens and the farm,
which includes haying
fields.
The ice cream stand is
open seven days during the
summer months. Shaw’s
Ridge Farm is at 59 Shaw’s
Needlepoint
Twigs
Open daily
207-967-117 3
Furniture &
173 Port Road
Kennebunk, Maine 04043
(207) 967-4900
[email protected]
www.NeedlepointAmerica.com
Sanford
continued on page 5
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TOURIST NEWS, JULY 28, 2016
Sanford
PAGE 5
continued from page 4
Ridge Road, also known as Route 224. The farm is near
the intersection of Routes 111 and 224. FMI 207-324-2510
or www.shawsridgefarm.com.
Shaker Pond
Coming into Sanford from
coastal communities, the first ice
cream stand you’ll see is Shaker Pond
Ice Cream, on Route 109, near the
Wal-Mart in South Sanford.
Owners Ryan Whitten of Sanford
and Dave Swett of Berwick named
the business for a small pond in nearby
Alfred, where they launched their first shop in 2008.
Both men had worked for other ice cream makers for a
combined total of 20 years, and decided that they should
give it a go themselves.
Since opening their retail stand at 148 Waterboro Road
in Alfred, they have quickly expanded, and now sell their
products to more than 100 locations in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Because they sell to distributors,
they aren’t sure of the exact number, Whitten says.
Shaker Pond features about 60 flavors. Whitten says
they come up with ideas for new flavors in several ways.
“A lot of new flavors come from our customers who
reach out to us, or suggest it when coming in,” he says.
“There always seems to be a new ‘hot’ flavor every year
that people are looking for, so we try to keep up with
those as well. In the past we did a monthly flavor contest
on Facebook, and that got us several new flavors as well.
Coming up with the new ones isn’t as hard as getting
rid of some of the old ones to make room.”
The owners test new flavors by holding about 35
tastings every year. “Our taste testings are done at some
of our accounts, events, with our employees, our family, and in many cases our customers, when we do trial
flavors and ask for input,” Whitten says.
Whitten names some of the best-selling flavors.
“ ‘Peanut Butter Paradise’ is a big hit we started right
from the beginning. It includes peanut butter ice cream
with a fudge swirl and peanut butter cups. We run out of
that and we hear about it,” he says. “‘Sea-Salted Caramel’
is another big one that we started last year, along with
‘Graham Central’.”
Shops
Because of the popularity of salted caramel, the duo
also created a ‘Salted Caramel Crunch,’ but that did not
fare well. “It sounded great,” Whitten says. “Vanilla ice
cream with caramel swirl and chocolate covered pretzel
pieces. The only problem was that the
pretzels would get soggy after a bit.
So that kind of killed that flavor.”
Shaker Pond also does well
with its seasonal flavors, such
as “Caramel Apple,” “Pumpkin” and “Egg Nog,” which are
introduced throughout the fall
and holiday seasons.
Says Whitten, “It’s one of the few
businesses where 99 percent of the customers
you deal with are happy when they come in the door,
and even happier when they leave.”
The stores are open seven days. FMI Sanford 207-8501027. Alfred 207-459-5070 www.shakerpondicecream.com.
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Shaker Pond offers 60 different flavors, with Peanut Butter
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