This was Nancy Hemler’s first trip to Patches Dairy, which is only about two miles from Juniper Village at Lebanon, even though she has lived many years in this area.
When we picked her up at her apartment, she just happened to be on her phone using FaceTime with her son in Sweden, 4000 miles away, so she gave him a play-by-play description of our entire trip to Patches Dairy. She was very enthusiastic about every twist and turn in the drive to Patches, but couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw all of the goats, chickens, and even some miniature ponies. Of course, the highlight of the trip was eating ice cream, which is made at Patches, where we had to make the choice between 26 different flavors of ice cream, choices of types of cones or dishes, and even choices of milkshakes or floats. Those who ordered two scoops soon regretted it, as it was too much to eat! Many of the flavors are “all natural”, and they sell their own milk, butter and eggs. New this year was some produce, such as corn on the cob, zucchini, and cucumbers. It was fascinating to think that we were giving a tour to Nancy’s son David, who was talking to us live all the way from Sweden!