Ice Cream Truck In The Western County -- Go Now For Handmade Cups And Sweet Sandwiches

Local ice cream at the Scoop & Paddle food truck

People often ask me where to find homemade ice cream in Howard County, and now I need to tell you to buy it on the road.

From a VW bus, that is.  From a new food truck working the western county selling cups and ice cream sandwiches filled with their own rich, creamy ice cream.

Mrs. HowChow saw the sign for Scoop & Paddle at their summer home, River Hill Garden Center in Clarksville.  It's a spectacularly outfitted VW bus where they offer about a dozen flavors from chocolates to fruits to an experimental "coffee and doughnuts."

Ice cream outdoors just tastes better.  It's an event to go for a drive.  It's more delicious to spoon ice cream while you're watching traffic and feeling the weather outside.

Scoop & Paddle does a high-end update on cafeteria ice cream.  The $3.50 cups are white paper circles with white paper tops.  You grab a wooden paddle to use as your spoon.  The ice cream inside goes way beyond a cafeteria.  They make their own ice cream, apparently with a bunch of seasonal fruits at the front of the menu.

Lil' Chow went chocolate.  He loves salted caramel that we buy at Harris Teeter, but he has ordered chocolate when we're out.  He squatted happily on the River Hill parking lot and shared his chocolate.  I thought it was excellent.  Deep flavor.  Creamy, rich ice cream.  Mrs. HowChow went "coffee and doughnuts."  Again, an excellent ice cream.  She could have taken even stronger coffee flavor, and we're already thinking about when we can go back to try a $5.50 ice cream sandwich with house-made ice cream between house-made cookies.

You need to go get try Scoop & Paddle this week.  Go tonight.  Go this weekend.  You're reading a Howard County food blog.  How could you not want local ice cream from a refit VW bus?  Go on a date.  Take your kids.  Do whatever you need to soak up an ice cream experience while the days are still warm enough to warrant a frozen dessert.

Since late July, Scoop & Paddle has been parking at the garden center on Thursday to Saturday evenings.  They're switching soon to a fall schedule, and you'll be able to catch them at the Western Regional Park in Cooksville or a few options in Clarksville, including at River Hill football games.

Find Scoop & Paddle's schedule on their Twitter page or Facebook page.  Clarksville is an easy run from Fulton, Columbia and most of the western county.

Ice cream is a rough business because winter comes for so much of our year.  Many people have asked for shops that make their own ice cream.  I recommend a bunch of great frozen experiences, but I think they mostly sell chain ice cream like Hershey's or Baltimore brands like Taharka Brothers at Scoop Ah Dee Doo in Ellicott City.  Does anyone else know someone selling local ice cream like Scoop & Paddle?

The only thing missing from Scoop & Paddle is a few chairs.  The cups, sandwiches and $10.50 pints lend themselves to carrying away, and leaning against a car works fine if you don't have a toddler  But a few chairs -- think cheap and modern -- could help create a little scene outside the bus.