Middletown links ice cream shops with 'passport' promotion

Not only was the weather in Middletown hot Thursday, but it was the first day of summer — making it the perfect day for ice cream.

The sign on the freezer at Lee Delauter & Sons on South Church Street offered an enticing deal: 25% off on ice cream purchases to celebrate summer’s start.

Along with its seasonal customers, LDS is also one of five local stores or farms participating in Main Street Middletown’s Ice Cream Passport promotion.

Gabby French brought her sons Owen, 4, and Mason, 2, in to beat the heat.

“It was hot out. And we heard they were having a little discount for the first day of summer,” French said.

They stop into the store occasionally for ice cream, or for other food, French said.

Picking up ice cream on a hot day reminds her of being a kid, going to the pool and getting a treat during summer vacation, she said.

Most people get ice cream with their food, but some come in just for a frozen treat, said Chantre Sewell, one of the store’s employees.

The peak season usually begins in May and lasts through September, before it starts to slow down as the weather cools, she said.

The first 10 people to get their cards punched at all five locations and turn the card in at the Middletown Welcome Center or the Town Hall will receive a free ice cream t-shirt.

The event started recently and will run through Labor Day, said Becky Axilbund, the manager of Main Street Middletown.

The passport is a celebration of the Middletown Valley’s rich agricultural heritage that includes plenty of dairy farming, Axilbund said.

“It’s something very local that we celebrate,” she said.

Middletown’s ice cream tradition began with Main’s Ice Cream Factory, which once drew visitors traveling along U.S. 40 Alternate, which serves as the town’s Main Street, according to the flier for the passport promotion

The ice cream shop even drew visitors on their way to what would become Camp David, in the Catoctin Mountains near Thurmont, according to the flier.

An archive and collection gathered by town commissioner Larry Bussard records people stopping at Main’s to buy ice cream by the gallon, rather than just a cone or a quart, Axilbund said.

Although Main’s closed in the late 1960s, the store’s neon sign is still visible along Main Street at the site of the Main Cup restaurant.

Participants in the ice cream passport are:

* Moo Cow Creamery at Walnut Ridge Farm, 3935 Bussard Rd, Middletown

* More Ice Cream, 13 W. Main St, Middletown

* Abbraccio Gelato, 203B E. Main St., Middletown

* Lee Delauter & Sons, 201A S. Church St., Middletown

* South Mountain Creamery, 8305 Bolivar Rd., Middletown

Abbraccio Gelato differs a bit from the others in that it offers hand-made gelato and sorbetto, rather than traditional ice cream.

“We’re a little bit prejudiced about it,” owner Ann Miller said jokingly.

But she takes advantage of the agricultural bounty of the Middletown Valley, using local milk and cream in her products.

It’s a little unusual for a town of Middletown’s size to have so many ice cream shops, she said.

While the store has its regulars, Miller said, she also draws in visitors from Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and beyond.

Miller said her store participated in the passport program last year, and people seemed to enjoy it.

Miller’s business and the other farms and stores participating in the promotion illustrate the allure that ice cream has in the Middletown area, Axilbund said.

“It just seems like we have had a love affair with ice cream throughout the valley,” she said.