Urban Churn owner Adam Brackbill (center) shares a word and a scoop of his craft ice cream with PA Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and Gov. Tom Wolf.
There are certain things you expect to see on a Thursday afternoon in Midtown Harrisburg: customers at Midtown Scholar, state workers eating lunch at the Broad Street Market.
Our state’s two top elected officials chomping down on ice cream cones might not be one of them. Yet that’s exactly what surprised customers saw today at Urban Churn’s new ice cream shop on N. 3rd Street.
Gov. Tom Wolf and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman joined Urban Churn owner Adam Brackbill in grabbing some cones to help bring awareness to Pennsylvania’s “Pursue Your Scoops” ice cream trail. Sponsored by the PA departments of Agriculture and Community and Economic Development, the trail offers participants prizes for visiting select creameries.
“[The trail] has brought in a lot of folks from out of town. We have people from Reading, from Lancaster, people who otherwise wouldn’t have heard about us,” Brackbill said. “Especially since we’re new, it’s helped our new retail shop to grow because of it.”
From now until Sept. 2, if you visit five creameries on any of the three trails, you’ll win a “Pursue Your Scoops” T-shirt. If you visit all of the shops on the list, you’ll receive a T-shirt and a “Pursue Your Scoops” ice cream bowl.
This is the second year that the departments are hosting the trail. According to VisitPA, the trail offers a variety of ice cream experiences, from “an urban to true cow-to-cone farm experience.” The trail is broken down into three regions: western, eastern and south central. This is the first year the trail will include creameries located off of a farm.
“We found that the way to impact our farmers isn’t just having someone visit the farm,” said Ashlee Dugan, coordinator of PA Preferred. “It’s also through companies like Urban Churn and Betsy’s Ice Cream in Pittsburgh that are still working really closely with farmers.”
Not only does the trail bring people a fun treat, but it helps promote small businesses in Pennsylvania and economic growth in those areas.
“Urban Churn buys locally so that helps create a demand for the dairy products,” Wolf said. “It’s just one small part of what the commonwealth is trying to do to really support, by some accounts, our biggest industry in Pennsylvania. Part of this is really serious [as far as] strong economic implications. Part of it is that it’s really fun to just eat good ice cream.”
For more information on the Pursue Your Scoops ice cream trail, visit visitpa.com/scoops.
