After tasting Johnny Iuzzini's Hay Ice Cream, I was curious to know if any ice cream company out there happened to sell some.

Brad Thomas Parsons of Serious Eats mentioned in Ice Cream Sunday at the New Amsterdam Market (August 2010) that small batch producers Early Bird Cookery from Cochecton (NY) offered it.

It must be on their Spring/ Summer menu because it is not included on their Fall/Winter list. Apple cider and maple-nutmeg sound perfect in late November.

So I came back empty handed in the Hay Ice-Cream department put discovered a healthy alternative to cow milk ice-cream.

I have sampled Goat Milk Ice Cream in the past but never did try Ewe or Sheep Milk Ice Cream, some call it dessert, described as all the taste with less than half the calories.

Is it more of a UK trend?

In Hay-on-Wye, a small scale producer, Shepherds calls its treats, the original sheep's milk ice-cream.

Flavors you will find at Sheperds year round are vanilla, toffee and fudge, choc mint chip, amarena cherry yoghurt, mokka, banana toffee crunch, and chocolate along with exotic ones such as cardamom and lavender, blackcurrant cheese cake, rose, liquorice, mango and chilli, chocolate and chilli depending on the owner's inspiration.

They have become a popular fixture at Glastonbury.

A larger scale producer is Exmoor with its popular Styles Farm Slim Ewe on sale in some branches of Waitrose, the UK supermarket chain.

Jacqueline Mair in It had to be ewe (JLP E-Zine, May 2010) writes:

"Slim Ewe looks like ice cream, tastes like ice cream but is far too healthy to be officially called ice cream.

The creamy iced dessert, now on sale in nine Waitrose branches, is made from sheep's milk naturally high in cream and sugar and comes in at around 75 calories per 100ml compared to the 300 calories found in a premium dairy ice cream.

But it has just half the fat (2.5 to 5 per cent) needed to make what is officially ice cream."

It could be a smart move for those like me who need to bring down their cholesterol level.

(* illustration is Slim Ewe from pages of JLP e-zine)