Ice cream boat on Greenwood Lake sells this hands

Because nature abhors a vacuum and people adore ice cream, Fox Island Creamery, an ice cream shop in Hewitt, equipped a boat with a freezer so it could sell ice cream on Greenwood Lake.

What Charlotte Hillier, who has taken over the reins at the creamery, is banking on is that ice cream, unlike beer and wine, is more trouble than it's worth for boaters to bring along.

"We did it this weekend [Memorial Day weekend] and it worked out pretty good," Hillier said.

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It wasn't Fox Island's first foray into selling ice cream on the lake. The shop had experimented with the idea in prior years, but this is the first year it plans to do so with regularity.

On Saturday, Sunday and Monday afternoon of Memorial Day weekend, the boat was seen out and about on the lake.

"People would flag us down," Hillier said.

The schedule remains up in the air, but Fox Island Creamery is definitely planning to be out the weekend of July 4.

Because of limited freezer space, Fox Island Creamery had to limit the choices to six flavors. Hillier said the business largely decided on what to offer on a day-by-day basis, although the staff made sure they had a supply of the kids' hands-down favorite, Cookie Monster, which consists of vanilla ice cream (with blue food coloring), Oreos and graham crackers.

The ice cream boat is just another offshoot of Hillier's Greenwood Lake Experience, a charter boat service where people can rent a party boat or tour the lake on pontoon boards transformed into a floating tiki bar.

Hillier, who came to West Milford and Greenwood Lake via Bristol, England, took over running Fox Island from her mother-in-law, who owns Greenwood Lake Marina. Fox Island has moved around for a few years, starting on Greenwood Lake Turnpike, where Luc's is now.

It then moved to the site of what had been Shannon's Eyes on the Pie bakery on Union Valley Road, before moving across the street into a nice-sized nook in Cosmo's market, in the Hewitt section of West Milford. The location has better parking and seating arrangements, Hillier said.

Go: 1926 Union Valley Road, Hewitt; 973-464-3784, facebook.com/foxislandcreamery.