A typical Seven Valleys-area ice cream plant, complete with factory store.
Every time I read Armand Glatfelter's history of Seven Valleys, I peruse the section covering the burgeoning ice cream industry in that area in the 1800s.
Why Seven Valleys?
That area had dairy cattle.
It had streams that could be dammed to harvest ice in the winter for making ice cream the next summer.
And it had the Northern Central Railroad (See the Great Watermelon Train Wreck). The Northern Central Railroad that ran to an eagerly awaiting market in Baltimore.
And it had enough people to rake leaves.
Large amounts of leaves and sawdust were needed to insulate the ice taken from the frozen waterways against the summer heat. So, laborers took the woods in the fall to rake piles and piles of leaves.
