The evening sun was beginning its slow descent behind a hill full of fruit trees. Chocolate ice cream began its own slow descent down a waffle cone. The scene at Silverman’s farm was picturesque. Easton has a new attraction, and it’s pretty sweet, indeed.
Silverman’s added evening hours this summer, Tuesday through Sunday, noon to eight, and the walk-up window in the nursery section is where the new attraction lives. The flavor board hangs inside a ring of rope lighting that was just starting to glow as we ordered: vanilla, chocolate, raspberry chocolate, peach, blueberry, and Heath Heath Hooray. The kids went with vanilla and chocolate, split between bowls and cones. I chose a chocolate waffle cone. We skipped the toppings, rainbow sprinkles, chocolate shots, and fresh-picked blueberries.
What made the trip worth writing about wasn’t the flavors, though. It was where the gelato came from. Shaggy Coos is the only gelato in town that’s single source, from cow to cone. That’s not a marketing line so much as a geography lesson for those from away: the milk didn’t leave Easton to become dessert. In fact, it only travelled around the corner. A drive to Monroe or Fairfield gets you ice cream too, but it gets you ice cream that arrived on a truck with no farm attached to it, made somewhere you’ll never see, from cows you’re only told exist.
There were plenty of seating options, and the farm’s picnic tables hit the spot, close enough to the pond that the fountain’s spray quieted the sound of traffic on Sport Hill Road without making the tradeoff overly burdensome. Another family enjoyed their gelato on the iconic Silverman’s train tractor. The kids wanted to switch venues after a while, but keeping the ice cream neat was a challenge by that point and we stayed put to minimize the loss of sweetness.
Easton has been lacking an evening spot for a long time. Now, Silverman’s is offering a “third-place” to meet friends and enjoy not one, but two, of the town’s best-known farms. Cow to cone, and no further than that.
The Cultural Easton 