SCOOP!

Hendersonville, North Carolina’s ice cream trail has 13 stops.

Photo Above: Karolina Kremes, the sixth stop on the Hendersonville, NC Ice Cream Trail.
Photo Courtesy of Tim Robison.

Danny McConnell slips nine pounds of strawberries into each five-gallon batch of ice cream at McConnell Farms on the outskirts of Hendersonville, North Carolina.

“It’s pink – not from food coloring but the strawberries,” says McConnell. “Why we actually got into the ice cream business, we wanted to do something with the excess fruit.”

Today, McConnell Farms also makes ice cream from farm-grown figs, sweet potatoes, raspberries, blackberries, peaches and sweet corn. “I can turn anything into ice cream,” McConnell says, promoting his farm as one of 13 stops on Hendersonsville’s Ice Cream Trail.

Scoop! There it is: This recently-established channel for chill seekers was McConnell’s idea, he says. “I just thought it would help promote the several ice cream shops in the county.”

Karolina Kremes at Etowah is another sweet spot. “We’re known for our shakes,” says store manager Brandon Miller. “Our best seller is a mocha shake. We also have a Redheaded Monkey Shake. It has chocolate ice cream with banana flavor, a Reese’s peanut butter sauce, whipped cream and a cherry topper.”

Over in downtown Hendersonville, store owner Kim Hogan’s heritage inspired the Celtic connection for her branch of the Celtic Creamery, a six-outlet, family franchise originating in Ireland.

“We actually use Irish butter,” says Hogan. “And we roast our pecans. We do everything in-house.”

Celtic Creamery is tagged on the trail, standing along Seventh Avenue, about two blocks off Main Street. “This trail is family-friendly,” Hogan says.

The story above first appeared in our May / June 2025 issue.