The Maple View Farm Country Store provides a peaceful place for ice-cream lovers to enjoy their favorite flavors away from the stress of city life.

"I went and sat out on the porch and rocked on the rocking chairs while I ate my ice cream" said Katie Lefevre, a junior at UNC-Chapel Hill. "It was relaxing because it's not far to get away from school and stress."

The store's manager, Zach Taylor, said the store is buzzing with people during the spring and summer.  Adults relax on the porch's rocking chairs and children of all ages to play on the grass. 

"The store is on top of a knoll so you can see the farm and everything from the front porch," he said. "Most people like being out of the city and not seeing a building when they look out."

The Country Store offers about fifteen regular flavors and four seasonal flavors. Seasonal flavors include pumpkin pie in November, egg nog in December and peach in the summer. In March, the flavor is pistachio for St. Patrick's Day.

Customer favorites include cookies n' cream, cookie dough, butter pecan and double chocolate, Taylor said. Carolina Crunch, Maple View's own creation, is another popular flavor. It's made of Butterfinger, Heath bar and caramel cups.

Robert Nutter and his family own the 400-acre dairy farm complete with 130 dairy cows and one white cat, Milkshake. Nutter and his family moved to North Carolina from Maine and purchased the farm in 1963. They began bottling milk in 1997. It was not until 2001 that the family began making ice cream from leftover cream at the bottling plant. 

"We had so much cream leftover because people in the Chapel Hill and Carrboro community drink skim milk," said Chris Nutter, Robert's wife.

Robert and his daughter Muffin Nutter went to ice cream school at Penn State University in Phillidelphia. Two years later, they opened the ice cream store on the farm. The store also sells milk, butter and beef. They sell cheese and bread, which comes from another local farm.

Sarah Autry, a Hillsborough resident, buys her milk from the farm store on her way home from work. Occassionally, she'll bring a pint of her favorite flavor, honey toasted almond, to share with her husband. "The ice cream is delicious, it's very thick and rich," she said.

Margaret Hutaff, a self-proclaimed connoisseur of mint chocolate chip ice cream, said the Maple View's ice cream was "wonderful."

In addition to the farm store, Maple View Farms opened ice cream stores in downtown Carrboro in 2005 and Hillsborough in 2006. They sell ice cream to grocery stores, local restaurants, convenience stores, and a retirement home. Whole Foods Market and Weaver Street Market Cooperative both sell pints of Maple View ice cream.

Lefevre said she is looking forward to returning to Maple View again in the spring. "It will be really pretty when the rolling pastures turn green and the trees are in full bloom," she sad.

The Maple View Farm store is an approximate 15-minute drive from downtown Chapel Hill. It is located at 6900 Rocky Ridge Road, Hillsborough. It is open from 12- 8 p.m. September-March, 12-9 p.m.March-June and 12-10 p.m. June- September. Check out the store's Web site at http://www.mapleviewfarm.com