Tomato pie ice cream? It's the latest wacky flavor at this N.J. farm

Windy Brow Farms in Fredon shocked the ice cream world in May with its Taylor Ham ice cream, which became a sweet overnight sensation.

Jake Hunt, Windy Brow's ice cream maker, is now serving up something maybe even more daring and diabolical.

Tomato pie ice cream.

"I didn't make the tomato pie to be like the Taylor ham,'' said Hunt, sitting on a picnic bench on Windy Brow Farms' front lawn. He smiled. "We need only one shock and awe right now.''

Indeed, big city TV crews - and ice cream lovers from around the state - descended on Fredon immediately after our story on Windy Brow's Taylor ham ice cream.

The Taylor ham ice cream - think a rich maple ice cream with pork roll bits - was the initial entry in the dairy's five-flavor Only in Jersey collection, one flavor for each year the Cow's Brow Creamery, part of Windy Brow, has been in business. Linda and Jim Hunt, Jake's parents, have owned the farm for 18 years; it dates to the late 1800s.

So about that tomato pie ice cream. The base, Hunt said, is steeped with oregano, black pepper, red pepper flakes, cumin and Italian seasoning.

"That's churned and upon removal from the ice cream machine we swirl in housemade sungold tomato jam, ricotta cream and basil oil,'' Hunt explained.

He said the tomato pie ice cream is best served in a wafer cone, which gives "the most pizza-like comparison of texture/taste.''

What's it taste like? Oregano-tinged, with a hint of pepper; don't expect what Hunt calls a "punch of tomato.'' Like the Taylor ham ice cream, the tomato pie tastes first of all like well-crafted ice cream, not some mad scientist ice cream lab creation.

The other flavors in the Only in Jersey collection are cranberry creamsicle, buttermilk & blueberries, and sweet corn & honey, my favorite of the five flavors. The sweet corn & honey is made with cornbread, local honey, corn cut off the cob, and sea salt, among other ingredients. All will be available at Windy Brow through the end of August.

"Everything that is New Jersey and everything that is great,'' Hunt said of the Only in Jersey collection.

Regular Windy Brow flavors, not part of the Only in Jersey collection, include milk chocolate, Madagascar vanilla, honey lavender, cold brew coffee, black raspberry truffle and white mint chip. Vegan flavors include cookies and cream, coconut blueberry lime, and grapefruit rosemary sorbet.

But the wacky, winsome Only in Jersey flavors may have put Windy Brow in an ice cream league of its own.

"We want to bring something different and weird to this area,'' Hunt said, smiling.

Peter Genovese may be reached at pgenovese@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @PeteGenovese or via The Munchmobile @NJ_Munchmobile. Find the Munchmobile on Facebook and Instagram.

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