By ROWENA PLETT

Staff writer

Parents, children, and grandparents gathered Saturday at Burdick Meat Market for the annual ritual of making hand-cranked ice cream for the Burdick Labor Day celebration.

Judy Carlson Ingalsbe, daughter of the late Joyce and Ruthann Carlson, said her youth group at Burdick United Methodist Church had an ice cream social every summer. When the group dwindled to two, the event became a community-wide way to make it part of the Labor Day celebration.

The tradition has continued for almost 45 years and now includes three generations of people who live there or grew up there and bring their children home to participate.

Some people brought ice cream makers, some brought electric mixers, and everyone from 3 to 70 years old participated in the various steps required to make the finished product.

Children enjoyed using an icemaker built years ago by Duane Carlson. One child used a hammer to break up ice in plastic gallon containers, while others guided it down a chute into a cylindrical container. Another child used an iron pole to crush the ice, which went into a five-gallon bucket for distribution to ice cream makers.

Thirty dozen pullet eggs were provided by Julie Klenda of J&K Farms at Lincolnville, and 30 gallons of milk and six gallons of cream came from Lyle Hanschu’s dairy at Lost Springs.

Supervisor Diana Jost said they were hoping to make 50 gallons of ice cream.

The ice cream was collected in five-gallon buckets and then transported to the former Hageberg’s garage across from the park to be ladled into Styrofoam cups. It was for sale throughout Monday afternoon.

One hundred fifty cups were sold to Burdick Relay for Life for its Sunday evening event.