Mary Canales and Laura Howard, both artisan ice-cream makers in northern California, came to their craft in very different ways. But they share more than a passion for the purest ingredients and traditional production methods. Both women have childhood memories of making ice-cream using old-fashioned, hand-cranked wooden churns.

The one that belonged to Howard’s grandmother in West Virginia is now displayed on a shelf in the small, red-painted barn in rural Sonoma, from where Howard runs La Loo’s, the only company in the world making gourmet ice-cream from goat’s milk.