Getting our licks in

But Dracut and Middleton aren’t exactly on the way home from the beach for people south of Boston. So, what’s a discerning ice cream lover to do?

Well, farms they’re not, but ice-cream shops in the region still make ice cream, either from raw ingredients or from ice-cream “base’’ purchased from a dairy processor. The base contains mostly milk, cream, and sugar, and even a relatively small shop can create a big list of flavors that way.

Shops that make their own can get pretty creative. Take Mister Christian’s Bounty at Nona’s Homemade in Hingham: chocolate ice cream, chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and a swirl of white chocolate sauce blended with strawberries. Using ice cream base from Guida’s Milk in Connecticut, Nona’s makes flavors with all sorts of names. Hingham Harbor Sludge, which blends fudge, caramel, and Oreo cookies in chocolate ice cream, is another favorite.

Great names help make a flavor popular, said Krissy Donahue, co-owner with her husband, Tom. When they first opened, they wanted something “Hinghamy,’’ she said, and the Sludge was born. A number of other flavors, like Hurricane Madilyn, incorporate the names of their children.

Ice cream lovers relish the variety of flavors at local dairy bars. “I like the individuality of it,’’ said Matthew Doucette, 32. “If you want to have five different scoops and 18 different toppings, you can.’’

Doucette, who lives in Milton but drove to Whitman on a recent sunny day to enjoy the ice cream at Peaceful Meadows, says he feels a certain brand loyalty born of tradition. He visited often while growing up in Brockton. “This is my family’s ice cream place,’’ he said.

Of course, it’s actually the Hogg family’s ice cream place. They opened the Whitman stand in 1962, and the company still makes ice cream in Whitman for the original location and two others in Middleborough and Plymouth. Unlike many of its counterparts, Peaceful Meadows buys milk and cream and makes its own base, according to Chris Wicks, son-in-law of the couple who opened the ice cream stand.