RALEIGH — Sylvia Carter is not a student at N.C. State University, but this week she arrived at the D.H. Hill Library to embark on a scholarly research project: picking the ice cream flavors to serve at her wedding reception.
Carter, 64, shoved a plastic spoon into a mound of strawberry ice cream, purchased from the Creamery on the building’s ground floor. The ice cream is made on campus, and she made the trip to the library after falling for it at the N.C. State Fair.
“It is very creamy,” she said, her eyes wide with dairy-infused pleasure.
or many, Howling Cow ice cream is a once-a-year treat at the fair. Although scoops are available in the library and pints are sold at campus convenience stores, most of the ice cream is eaten by students.
N.C. State administrators soon hope to make it easier for more people to enjoy it, with a new on-campus building that would feature a storefront ice cream parlor. The scoop shop will have enough room to seat more than 100 customers in its indoor and outdoor seating areas, along with plenty of nearby parking for off-campus customers.
“Ice cream almost has this surreal quality,” said Gary D. Cartwright, director of the school’s dairy enterprise system. “It just makes people smile.”
Milk fat fans for decades have formed long lines outside the ice cream booth at the fair, a project that benefits the N.C. State Food Science Club. For nearly all of that time, the fair was the only place that most die-hards could get it. With few exceptions, the State Fair being one of them, a law prohibits state agencies from competing with private businesses.
But people within the N.C. State food sciences department asked the legislature for an exemption, which was unanimously granted in 2005. The law allows the university to sell ice cream to the public on campus, and led to plans for a $4 million annex to Schaub Hall, which would include the ice cream parlor. Ground could be broken in 10 to 12 months.
From campus cows
N.C. State controls each aspect of its ice cream operations. Most of the cream comes from the 150 or so milk cows on the university’s farm off Lake Wheeler Road, with cows from the vet school contributing as well.
In addition to ice cream, the school processes milk for use in on-campus dining halls, prisons and other state institutions. This week, it started a seasonal run of eggnog. The facility in Schaub Hall, a block off Western Boulevard on the main campus, processes about 400,000 gallons of milk each year – about as much as the Maola creamery in New Bern produces in four days – and is responsible for approximately $1.7 million in revenue.
“Everything we make is plowed back into our operation,” Cartwright said.
The university began branding the ice cream and milk as Howling Cow in 2009, as a way to increase its recognition with students, as well as the general public. Cartwright and Carl Hollifield, the dairy enterprise system’s assistant director, came up with the name.
Seeing competition
Although the ice cream has plenty of fans – 3,000 gallons or so are sold each year during the fair – not everyone is happy about the school’s plans to expand its ice cream reach.
John Lenzmeier and his wife, Linda, opened a FreshBerry Frozen Yogurt Cafe on Hillsborough Street, across the street from Hill Library, in October. The couple were not aware of the planned ice cream parlor.
“If they want Hillsborough Street to come alive, they don’t need to be competition with us,” John said. “I’m definitely not in favor of it.”
The university has built-in advantages when it comes to starting the business, he said, noting that N.C. State won’t have to worry about buying or leasing a site.
Naming rights at stake
The annex will cost about $4 million, of which $1 million has been raised so far, Cartwright said. Organizers hope to raise an additional $1.5 million through naming rights for various components of the project.
Plans calls for the construction to take place without taxpayer money, he said.
The ice cream parlor will occupy only part of the new building. The annex also will have rooms that can be used to provide training for people who work in the dairy industry. Video monitors inside the ice cream parlor will show how the ice cream is made, and literature will be available so customers may read more about the operations and products.
“The purpose is not to sell ice cream,” Cartwright said. “The purpose is to provide education.”
matt.ehlers@newsobserver.com or 919-829-4889