Triangle’s Maple View Farm will close. Here’s what that means for the famous ice cream
Sprinkles at sunset, a cone with a view — Orange County’s Maple View Farm serves up one of the Triangle’s most beloved scoops of ice cream.
On Wednesday, Maple View announced that the farm near Chapel Hill would be shutting down and the milk that makes the famous ice cream would be no more.
But while the farm is closing, the ice cream will remain, Maple View owners said. The milk will just come from elsewhere.
“After 25 years in milk production, Maple View Farm and Milk Company are closing their doors,” the farm owners said in a Facebook post. “It is a very hard decision for both Roger Nutter and Mike Strowd in which they have decided together. The last day of bottling milk will be Monday, September 6, 2021. The cattle are all going to a good home and will be missed immensely. We thank all of our customers, friends, and family that have supported us day in and day out.”
The milk company asked customers to turn in any glass bottles by Sept. 20.
Generations of farmers
Maple View’s roots began in Maine, where the Nutter family had been farming for generations. But in 1963, the bitter Maine winters convinced Bob Nutter to move the farm and herd to North Carolina.
The farm was a fairly typical dairy farm until 1996, when the family formed Maple View Milk Company, going the rare route of bottling milk for consumers. That milk could be found in specialty grocery stores throughout the Triangle and in the farm’s country store.
Bob Nutter passed away in 2018, and Maple View continued under his son Roger and Strowd.
Though the milk company and farm will close, the ice cream shop and country store will remain open. The ice cream shop has become of of the Triangle’s most popular activities in the summer, as crowds wind through rural roads and enjoy a cone on the porch.
New milk for the ice cream
All that will stay the same, Maple View owners said, but the milk for the ice cream will now come from Ayden’s Simply Natural Creamery.
The owners said Simply Natural previously supplied the milk for Maple View after the farm recovered from a fire.
Maple View’s Agricultural Center will also remain open, offering classes and training the next generation of farmers.
“Our deepest gratitude to the Maple View Farm Milk Company and Maple View Farm team for their tireless dedication, hard work and devoted service to providing us with our ice cream base and products for over twenty years,” the owners said on Facebook.
This story was originally published August 19, 2021 at 1:14 PM with the headline "Triangle’s Maple View Farm will close. Here’s what that means for the famous ice cream."
