I tend to dismiss the occasional comment people make about it being too cold to eat ice cream in winter, but it’s been a harder claim to make as this particular winter has engulfed us.
I think my chosen profession as an ice cream maker has made me more sensitive to cold weather. I know it’s winter, I know it’s supposed to be cold and rainy, but each truly miserable day we’ve had in recent weeks feels like a personal affront to me, ice cream, and The Creamery. I know, that is ridiculous. But I’m not alone in thinking that this particular winter is colder, rainier and a bit more vicious than our usual Cape winters. Capetonians have been bleating like frozen sheep on twitter (myself included), and the last two ice cream deliveries I did involved people answering the door wearing winter coats and wrapped in blankets, gloves and multiple scarves. Inside their own homes.
I guess the most reliable way to ensure a winter is particularly nasty is to open a new ice cream business!
But in the midst of this will-the-cold-ever-end nay-saying, there is still hope. I think we all have our own signs that we like to look out for, that announce the beginning of spring.For me, it used to be the first impossibly green oak tree shoots lining the roads of the Southern Suburbs. But in recent years, it has been the arrival of jasmine blossoms. Jasmine blossoms are pretty damn tough, and tend to arrive a little before the cold weather abates. But you’ve got to hand it to nature, those blossoms sense the end of winter just as wisely as the oak tree shoots do. And they arrive just when we need that lift, that sudden reminder that it will be warm again, in the not too distant future.
It was rainy and miserably cold on Sunday, but look at my neighbours’ fence:
Once these buds start blooming, I look forward to sharing with you one of my most favourite ice cream flavours, ever: jasmine blossom ice cream. But I’ll write more about that in the coming weeks. I don’t want to get ahead of myself – or the jasmine blossoms.
