Family Is Blessed to Have Multiple Generations Help With Dairy Farm and Ice Cream Stand

A local and beloved ice cream stand continues to operate with three generations of the family running it together.

Stock's Dairy Delight in Martinsburg has been sharing soft-serve ice cream and other treats with the community and beyond since May 2000. Unlike many other comparative businesses, the stand is family-owned and continues to operate as such.

Pam Stock and her daughter Tracey Dodson were the ones to establish the stand. Pam said the idea to start the business came due to rising concerns about a lack of people buying and using milk. As a dairy farmer herself, she understood how that could be a problem.

"I kept hearing how there was all this surplus of milk," she said. "This is only a drop in the bucket, but it has been a success. God blessed us well."

Starting the ice cream business took a lot of work, according to Pam, as many banks were skeptical about giving them loans. She said that their type of business was not secure enough for them to be confident in lending.

"To get started, we ended up selling lumber off of our farm to make it possible," she said. "Now, with how things are going, the banks are happy to give us money when we need it."

In order to make their ice cream, the Stock family uses the 300 cows that reside on their farm, Fair Valley, milking roughly two-thirds of them at a time. Along with the dairy cows, the farm also has pigs and beef cows, whose meat is bought by locals and Holland Brothers Meat Market in Duncansville.

Pam and her husband Roger bought the farm in 1988 from his father Ronald, the second generation of the Stock family to own it, as his parents originally settled on the land in 1945. However, Ronald was the one who had established Fair Valley as a dairy farm after he took over in the 1950s.

"I started out on a shoestring with barely a penny when I was 19," he said. "But I had a good implement dealer that took faith and me and really helped me."

Now 90 years old, Ronald said he is proud of how much has changed for the farm and the family over time. Once only a few acres, Fair Valley Farm has grown significantly in size, with over 200 acres of farming land alone.

"I've been blessed with a great family," he said. "Things have been progressing so much. I'm very fortunate to have what I have."

He and his wife Mary Jane started shipping milk on the farm to Hersberger in Altoona. They did so for 25 years before switching to Gallikers, who the family continues to ship to 43 years later.

"We give them the milk and they help create a mix that we use to make our ice cream," Pam said. "They're good people over there. We have a great relationship with each other and they come to examine our farm and cows."

Along with chocolate and vanilla, Stock's Dairy Delight also offers a flavor of the week. All the flavors are recipes the family creates themselves and undergo trial and error. Pam said they are particular with what they opt to sell.

"We do not sell anything that we do not enjoy ourselves," she said. "The quality has to be there. I do not use cheap stuff when we make anything."

Due to its prominence in the community, Stock's Dairy Delight has become part of "Scooped: An Ice Cream Trail", allowing visitors and Pennsylvanians alike to know what ice cream businesses they can travel to and taste. It was started by Visit PA six years ago.

Along with regulars in the community, there are some out-of-staters that make the journey to Stock's every year.

"We have a couple from Maryland who celebrates their anniversary by coming by for a banana split," Tracey said. "But we have had people come from all over."

Just like the farm itself, Stock's Dairy Delight is also multi-generational. Not only do Pam and Tracey work on it, but Tracey's children, too. In fact, her daughter Kayla has been sitting in the stand since she was a baby.

"We used to have her in a pumpkin seat as customers ordered," Pam said. "She never cried or fussed, and now she helps us out. People love seeing her because they've seen her grow up."

Aside from providing ice cream that is made with milk from their own cows, Pam believes the fact that there is always a Stock family member on the premises makes them stand out, too.

"Our customers can always expect one of us to be here and it has helped us form great bonds," she said. "They always tell us how thankful they are to have us here."

Members of the Stock family have helped come up with new ideas for the stand over the years, as well. According to Pam, her nephew is the reason that they started providing Sunday chicken barbecue dinners.

"He used to work at Meadows, and it was something they used to do over at Lakemont Park," she said. "So we got into it, and it has been a hit ever since. My granddaughter is also the reason that we started doing boba drinks last year."

In regard to the future of the farm and the ice cream stand, Pam said that she hopes mostly that the grandchildren will continue to run both of them.

"It was a lot of hard work to get the business going and started," she said. "So was the farm. There was nothing here for him [Ronald] back then. Just an old barn and no road until he built it himself."

Also, comparing the ice cream stand to farm life, Ronald said that both were non stop and required a lot of time and effort.

"It's a seven-day-a-week task, 365 days of the year," he said. "There's always work that needs to be done."

Stock's Dairy Delight is open starting on weekends in March or April before operating every day of the week throughout the summer months, with some seasons ending as far out as November. The stand is open from 2 p.m. until 9 p.m.

Even with a mix of stress and the continued issues faced by a lack of farming awareness among many, Pam said that the family is still thankful for all of the success and blessings they have received.

"God takes care of you. You just have to put your faith in him," she said. "The work is not always rewarding, but we love what we do, and we love providing quality to our community."