MILLERS MILLS, N.Y. — It’s not so nice when it’s cold as ice outside. That is unless you’ve been looking forward to a Millers Mills tradition that dates back more than 200 years.
The annual ice harvest, sponsored by the Millers Mills Grange, returned for only the third time since 2019.
Over that time, with a few rare exceptions, it’s been too warm to safely harvest the ice.
Old hand tools are used to saw through the ice, then separate it, and load the blocks of ice onto horse-drawn sleighs where they are then hauled to a nearby icehouse.
The grange rewards all the hard work that’s put into harvesting the ice with an ice cream social the third week in July.
Packed in sawdust and snow, the ice blocks last well into the summer, when they’ll be put to good use.
Just not the way some people think.
“We use the ice in the summertime to cool drinks for picnics, or parties. We don’t use it to make ice cubes or ice cream. Everybody thinks we use it to make ice cream. It’s just used to cool the ice freezers, but not to make ice cream,” says Millers Mills Grange Master Judy Guske.
Before electricity arrived in 1941, ice harvested from Millers Mills Pond was used to preserve food and cool milk from local farmers.
It’s not so nice when it’s cold as ice outside. That is unless you’ve been looking forward to a Millers Mills tradition that dates back more than 200 years.
Check out this social media video of an ice harvest from the 1980s.