Crystal Spring Farm is located near Schnecksville which is the ancestral home of the Lenapi people.

There is no better family treat than going out for ice cream, except maybe going out for homemade ice cream. 

Ever since Visit PA started their ice cream trail in 2018, we’ve enjoyed finding the cow-to-cone creameries across Pennsylvania. One that we’ve returned to multiple times is Crystal Spring Farm. 

Crystal Spring Farm is located near Schnecksville in Lehigh County. (Don’t confuse it with Crystal Springs Tree Farm in Lehighton). While it’s only 10 miles from Allentown’s city center, it feels much farther away as you arrive at this working farm in an expanse of green.

The white building with the words “Crystal Spring Farm” in script letters actually houses three distinct business operations: a grocery store featuring the farm’s own milk and dairy products, a snack bar serving hot dogs and simple sandwiches, and an ice cream parlor with the dairy’s cow-to-cone ice cream. 

We visited in mid-October when the fall flavors had taken over the ice cream freezer, and one of those sounded too good to pass up: the salted caramel pumpkin sundae. It featured caramel and crushed spiced wafers over pumpkin ice cream with whipped cream. If you love pumpkin spice, you will love the pumpkin ice cream at Crystal Spring. It’s sweet but with that little bit of warming spices that were accentuated by the wafer. 

Julie also got a small sundae, a CMP with chocolate ice cream. She appreciated the smaller size sundae so she still got the flavors of a large sundae without the extra calories. 

Our boys skipped the sundaes. Jakob, our oldest, had mint chocolate chip (his favorite) on a pretzel cone (also his favorite). He loved every bite. Lukas, our two-year-old, nibbled on some strawberry ice cream from a dish until he was full. 

While we sat inside to eat, Crystal Spring has a great patio seating area with plenty of metal picnic tables and benches all spread around the tree that grows up through the middle of the deck. With only a few people coming and going inside, we could let the boys run a little bit. 

After they had enough of doing circles around the tree, we took them across the driveway to a pair of gazebos overlooking a pond. It’s a pretty scene with more seating and more room for the boys to run around and burn some of the energy from their sugar rush. 

We also did a little shopping in the farm market. Jakob took home strawberry milk while Julie got adventurous and picked up their seasonal pumpkin spice milk. (It was interesting – not bad, but I wouldn’t rush to get more). And while we didn’t give in to the temptation of the baked goods, we did pick up some frozen pierogies that were made by a local church. 

You never know what you’re going to find when you stop into a local gem like Crystal Spring. Even without the delicious ice cream, that makes it worth the trip. (But definitely go for the ice cream).

More PA Ice Cream Spots