Award-Winning Ice Cream Shop Opens In Middlefield

MIDDLEFIELD, CT — A well-loved and award-winning Connecticut ice cream franchise has opened a new site in Middlefield, just in time for summer's dog days.

Following a soft launch over the July 4 holiday, Rich Farm is now serving up its famous slow-churned, small-batch ice cream daily at 1 Lorraine Terrace from noon to 9 p.m. through Dec. 22.

Connecticut Magazine named Rich Farm's flagship Oxford site "The Best Ice Cream" in the state for 2023, and not for the first time.

Rich Farm was also recently designated Connecticut's top scoop salon by another elite cohort of highly-regarded gourmands: Patch readers. In an informal and wildly unscientific survey conducted last August, you named it your state favorite by more than a 2-to-1 margin over every competitor.

"I mean, we just make the absolute best ice cream we can," Dan Rich, the shop's owner/operator, told Patch back when we tipped him to the results of the poll. "We don't skimp on any ingredient. We use the best possible ones we could find. It's all homemade, every day, right here in the shop. We make it in small batches. It's slow churn."

The Rich family moved their cows to Oxford from Seymour in 1950, and opened up the ice cream shop on the property in 1994. The bovine mystique is maintained at the Middlefield location, where cows graze near the picnic tables outside.

All of Rich Farm's ice cream is made daily. The menu shifts slightly throughout the year, with specialty flavors such as Irish Cream (March), peppermint stick (December) and others making seasonal appearances.

Rich Farm has three other ice cream stand locations in Bristol and Brookfield, as well as a site in Placentia, CA.