Berkey Creamery - Ice Cream with a Pedigree
Photo: Dough4872, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
A stop on Penn State University Park Campus Walk, a free self-guided tour.
Time for a treat. The Berkey Creamery traces its roots to 1865, and Penn State has been selling its ice cream to the public since 1896. Dairy science was part of the land-grant mission from the start, and the short courses the Creamery began teaching in 1892 still draw ice cream makers from around the world.
Since 2006 the Creamery has operated in the Food Science Building at Curtin and Bigler Roads. It is described as the largest university creamery in the United States, turning out more than 100 flavors of rich, high-butterfat ice cream. Most of its milk comes from the university's own herd of about 225 cows at the Dairy Production Research Center, with the rest from local farms.
The lines can be long on game days and summer afternoons, but they move quickly. Classic favorites include Bittersweet Mint, Peanut Butter Swirl and Peachy Paterno. Order a cone and find a bench outside.
Getting here: Walk back southwest along Curtin Road, about 12 minutes, to the Food Science Building at the corner of Bigler Road.
Did you know?: In 1978 Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the founders of Ben & Jerry's, took the Creamery's correspondence course in ice cream making.
Photo op: Hold your cone up against the Berkey Creamery sign on the building for the classic Penn State snapshot.
More on Wikipedia: Penn State Berkey Creamery · Ben & Jerry's
Stops on this tour
- Old Main - Where the Farmers' High School Began
- Allen Street Gates - Where Town Meets Gown
- Old Botany Building - A Survivor from 1887
- Pattee Mall - The Great Elm Walk
- Nittany Lion Shrine - The Lion Everyone Lines Up For
- Pattee and Paterno Libraries - The Heart of Study
- Palmer Museum of Art - Art in the Arboretum
- Beaver Stadium - A City on Game Day
- Berkey Creamery - Ice Cream with a Pedigree
- HUB-Robeson Center - The Campus Living Room