Refreshing Treat Found Weekly at Market

It may have been drizzling at the Riverdale Park Farmers Market, but the ice cream stand was still popular and putting smiles on kids' and adults' faces.

Simple Pleasures is a Bowie-based ice cream café that makes and distributes their own ice cream across the county.

The 10-year-old business, originally started in Florida, but eventually came up here.

Owner Rodney Russell, and his wife, Terri, run the business with the help of some silent partners, one being Terri's mother, who created the shop's flavors and recipes.

Russell said the idea started initially after the couple had their youngest daughter and needed a new way to make a buck. Russell and his wife are both in the Air Force and got the idea for an ice cream café when they were stationed in Germany.

Now, in Bowie, they make and sell their ice cream out of a shop on Chestnut Avenue and with a cart they take to local farmers markets including Riverdale Park and Greenbelt.

Simple Pleasures uses seasonal flavors and local farms to determine ingredients for their ice cream. Shlagel Farms in Waldorf provides the fruit for the ice cream, like strawberry, raspberries, blueberries and peaches. The dairy comes from Shenandoah Farms in Virginia.

Beyond their ice cream, the shop sells homemade water ice as well.

Thursday Russell had a variety of flavors on hand, but I decided to try their lemon custard ice cream.

The rich flavor of lemon hit my tongue as soon as the spoon hit my mouth and it was very similar to the flavor you might expect to find when eating a lemon custard pie.

The ice cream was smooth with flecks of ice inside and each bite the lemon flavors builds and builds but never gets too tart.

In the past, I've tried their blueberry ice cream as well, which had hints of vanilla blended in with the bursts of blueberry. The mango water is also a great treat as well on a hot day.