Ross Named Ice Cream
Champion

 

by: Bobby McDonald

 

They came with vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, pecan pie, banana nut, and almost any combination you can imagine, when over 60 contestants entered the 2008 Texas State Ice Cream Freeze-Off, Saturday. It was a record number of entries in the contest, sponsored by the Hopkins County Chamber of Commerce. "We had a record number of entries and everything went very smooth," expressed Meredith Caddell, with the Hopkins County Chamber of Commerce. "Our judges were extremely complimentary of the wonderful ice cream that was entered and indicated tough decisions throughout the contest!"

 

Billy Jack Allen is awarded the Reserve Champion prize for his Banana Nut entry in Saturday's
Texas State Ice Cream Freeze-Off.

 

When all the scores were tallied, it was James Ross, who had entered a strawberry flavored entry, that was named the Champion. Ross and his wife, Tonya, had previously won the contest in 2002, so they are veteran ice cream makers.

Billy Jack Allen, a retired dairy farmer and also a veteran of the contest, was judged Reserve Champion with his Banana Nut entry.

 

Chamber of Commerce Director, Karen McMahan, delivers ice cream samples to the judges for Saturday's
Contest.

Local Dairy Farmer and judge, Tom Miller, ponders the taste of one of the entries, as he scores the
ice cream, during the judging phase of the contest.

 

Other winners included: Ann Marie Dorner and Tori Dorner, who captured first and second place respectively, in the "Litte Dip" Fruit Category. The contest is designed for youth entries. Destinee Clark and Wyatt D'Lizarrga were named winners in the "Little Dip"Novelty Category.

 

Ann Marie Dorner's entry, that was a cherry flavored concoction, was name the People's Choice Award.

In the adult categories, Carlie Penson, another veteran of the contest, captured first place in the Plain Category, with her chocolate entry. Chris Allen captured second place with her chocolate entry and Beth Wisenbaker was third place with her vanilla entry.

Local dairyman Alan Screws, was warned, "you don't need that big of samples to taste the ice cream,,"
as he served as one of the judges on Saturday!!!

 

Ryan Henton was named the winner in the adult Fruit Category, with his strawberry entry and Richard Allen won second place in the category. It was J.W. Ragan that captured the third place prize with his fruit entry.

In the Big Dip Novelty Category, Henry Penson captured the top prize with his "Pecan Pie" entry, that just made your mouth water at the thought of the "gooey" concoction. Taking second prize, was Katie Patterson with her Pecan-Praline entry, and Ryan Henton was named third prize with his Chocolate-Pecan entry.

 

A group photo of Saturday's Ice Cream Freeze-Off winners.

 

"This is the best ice cream I've ever tasted!" exclaimed one of the out-of-town balloon pilots. "What do you folks put in this stuff? It could become habit forming really, really quick!!"

 

And, the "fun" was in the sampling of the ice cream. A $3.00 ticket purchased all-you-can-eat ice
cream of all the samples.

 

"Blue Bell hasn't got anything on the ice cream makers in Hopkins County," exclamined another ice cream taster. "This stuff will make you want to slap yo're Mama and beg for more!"

Saturday's ice cream contest found people from all across the state tasting ice cream and spotlighting the makers in the contest! A special thanks is extended to Linda Henton and her Committee for sponsoring the contest and making it such a wonderful success. "The weather was nice, after the morning rain, and it was wonderful beneath the shade trees, near the Civic Center," exclaimed Henton. "We couldn't have asked for more perfect ice cream weather!!"

 

And, the lines got long behind each freezer, as folks wanted
a taste!!!

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