Lockbriar & Daughter Make Eastern Shore Magic
During the dog days of summer, when the air is still and the heat sizzles off the blacktop roads, it can feel like the Delmarva Peninsula exists in the deepest depths of Death Valley. Weather here operates in extremes, vacillating between the howling January winds to the long, humid, sun-drenched days that come in summer. It was on a particularly scorching day that I drove a pale blue pickup truck down Chestertown Road and noticed a wake of vultures fly from their perch off of the roof of a farmhouse and then begin their slow circular spiral over the yellowing corn fields. It was a fitting scene in the summer heat, and I imagined the scavengers picking sun-bleached bones clean as they faded into the horizon in my rearview mirror. The air from the open window did little to beat back the heat, so I mopped at the trickle of sweat at my brow when I thought, “Ice cream…I must find ice cream.”
When it comes to satisfying, cooling treats, you have options. But not all are created equally. Fortunately, I recalled seeing Lockbriar Farm’s table at the Chestertown Farmer’s Market earlier that day and remember that in addition to their fresh produce, they advertised freshly made ice cream. So I pulled a left onto Route 213 and sped down the highway towards the farm in search of an afternoon treat.
Family owned and operated, Lockbriar Farms provides the Eastern Shore with fresh, seasonal produce from the hands and hard work of Wayne and Marcella Lockwood, and their children Jacqueline and James. The family traces their lineage through a long line of Maryland farmers, with roots that run as deep as the Civil War era. The Lock-woods grow an array of fruits and vegetables that include peaches, apples, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, peaches, pumpkins, nectarines, plums, apricots and sweet cherries. They utilize every square inch of their twenty acre farm, with a U-Pick operation that allows patrons to choose their favorite fruits and vegetables all season long. This is all truly wonderful, but as I exited the truck I had one craving in mind, and it was of the cold, rich, sweet variety.
It was a similarly hot July day when Jacqueline Lockwood discovered her family’s old Waring Ice Cream Parlor machine. The device uses table salt and ice cubes to freeze the liquid ice cream mixture that becomes the treat we’ve all loved since we were children. The Lock-woods made that first batch with fresh blueberries from the farm, and Jacqueline remembers the experience well.
“Ice cream makes me happy,” she explained. The imprint of the experience of an ice cream trip with your grandparents or a baby’s first taste of strawberry will forever connect to a time and place, and she wanted that for Lockbriar Farms.
Still in high school at the time, Jacqueline enrolled in the Penn State 101 Ice Cream short course with her father, which marked the beginning of Lockbriar and Daughter - the ice cream off shoot of the farm’s business. That same year, Jacqueline was awarded a grant from the Maryland Agricultural & Resource Based-Industry Development Corporation, which helped her to acquire the necessary tools and resources for producing ice cream. She kept the operation going on weekends and summer vacations during her college days, and now has over a decade of experience making and delighting locals with her ice cream.
While Jacqueline runs the operation, she emphasizes that Lockbriar and Daughter is a family affair. She serves as churner and ice cream maker, mom Marcella works with the family’s dairy representative, dad Wayne tends the farm, and brother James serves as her biggest cheerleader and supporter.
There’s magic in ice cream. The sweetness lights endorphins off in your brain like fireworks on the Fourth of July. The cold cream hits your teeth and sends a shiver down your spine. Ice cream fosters nostalgia as memories of childhood flash through your mind; care-free summer days of your youth that you locked away.
“It’s the memory making that makes the hard work worth it,” Jacqueline told me. She revels in the idea that her ice cream is creating memories.
On a tour of the farm during a recent visit, Jacqueline bounced around the property to show me beautiful rows of blueberries, purple asparagus shoots twisting their way out of the soil, blackberries sprouting on their prickly vines, and introduced me to the farm’s resident chickens and goats. Her reverence for the work is infectious. Jacqueline snapped garlic plants at the stem, and we breathed in the sharp and spicy aroma. We took in the fragrant scent of lavender plants and chocolate mint.
The farm offers a tapestry of flavors that make up the delicious variety of ice cream choices. Perennial favorites include Briar Berry, Cookies ‘n Cream, and Mint Chocolate Chip. Additional options include Apple Cider Donut, Blackstrap Molasses, and Lemon Cookie. But it’s the Salty Moo which sends me into a feeding frenzy, with its delicious mix of double chocolate, caramel, and Peruvian sea salt. While ice cream may make you think of picnics and backyard barbecues, the sweet and savory Salty Moo is an unbelievably elevated flavor, good enough to be featured as the dessert choice at any fine dining restaurant.
When asked how often she experiments with new flavors, Jacqueline responds, “All the time.” New combinations often turn out to be delicious on her first attempt, and Christina Tosi’s seminal desert cookbook, Momofuku Milk Bar: A Cookbook, adorns the countertop of the ice cream stand, and often serves as inspiration for Jacqueline’s experimentation.
Fortunately for patrons of Lockbriar and Daughter, the wide array of options is certain to hit the pleasure centers of the eclectic group of customers that visit the ice cream barn.
Adding to the enjoyment of the ice cream at Lockbriar is seeing exactly where the ingredients come from as well as the production process. By purchasing locally-made ice cream at the farm, you also cut out multiple links in that production chain. Jacqueline makes good use of the bumped and bruised fruits, cutting around blemishes and churning the ingredients into fresh, farm-made ice cream. It’s a practice that ensures all of the hard work put into growing produce on the farm doesn’t also go to waste.
Jacqueline and the Lockwood family are an integral part of the uniqueness of the Eastern Shore. I asked her what she loves most about living and working on the Eastern Shore. “There’s peace here,” she replied. “I mean, have you ever seen our sunsets and sunrises? Heard the peepers at night?”
Jacqueline further explained that the diverse array of people makes life sp qecial here. She loves the Eastern Shore melting pot of locals born and bred on the shore, combined with vacationers, retirees, expats, and those who came here.
Her hard-working nature, entrepreneurial spirit, and the poetry in her thoughts and words about farm life in Chestertown are emblematic of what makes the location so special. looking for their own version of peace and serenity. And her ice cream…well that’s pretty special too.
Lockbriar & Daughter Ice Cream and Lockbriar Farms
10051 Worton Rd, Chestertown, MD; 410.778.9112 Facebook Instagram
