If it's July in Monroe County, then it must be ice cream season.

The business of one of America's favorite treats continues to boom, and producers can thank kids for sales based on an informal survey that showed Superman as being the region's favorite flavor.

“We try to come up with new flavors every winter and we release them in the spring for the ice cream season,” Ryan Hutchison, the owner's son of Independent Dairy, a popular local ice cream maker.

“When we were little kids, my Dad always took us to Independent Dairy for a treat. I was always torn between pistachio and blue moon, but the pistachio ice cream usually won,” Vicki LaValle wrote on a Facebook post from the Monroe News asking people what their favorite ice cream brand and flavor is.

July 17 is National Ice Cream Day. The proclamation was signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1984 to commemorate a treat enjoyed by over 90% of the U.S. population. Monroe County has two popular ice cream manufacturers that have been in business for decades.

At Independent Dairy, customers can't see the impressive system of machines that manufactures the ice cream for the family-owned firm. The process involves “a lot of thinking and trying new things,” Hutchinson added. “There definitely is some trial and error.”

Hutchinson said there are 15 full-time employees. They use ingredients sourced domestically to manufacture their tasty treat.

“None of it comes from overseas," he said. "A lot of it is from Michigan, but not all of it.”

A pair of steel drums filled with cream regularly sends raw material through a series of overhead tubes to homogenizers that compress the ingredients into ice cream. The finished products are then sold across Michigan and Ohio.

The process is a little different at Calder’s farm in Carleton. The working dairy farm has three locations throughout Southeast Michigan, but the 34 flavors of ice cream are boxed at their farm at 9334 Finzel Road.

Families from across the region come in a steady stream to visit the animals on the working family farm, taking a break from the summer sun to try new flavors of ice cream. Calder’s has spent its 75 years of existence steadily building a presence in restaurants and stores across Monroe, Washtenaw, Wayne and parts of southern Oakland County.

“We have regular customers that come in every single week," said Calder’s employee Nichola Noble. "We have other people that come out with their grandkids. Those kids then come back later when they have their own children. We’re a bit of a hidden gem, I think.”

Calder’s takes an old-fashioned, handmade approach to create their ice cream. In creating swirl-style ice cream, for example, they repurposed a machine originally made for injecting jelly into doughnuts into adding different flavors to what would otherwise be a single-flavor ice cream by pumping both the cream and the other flavor in at the same time, turning the box as they go. Noble called the process “an absolute art … a craft.”

Their ice cream can also be purchased at either of their other two locations in Flat Rock and Lincoln Park. Noble said that Calder’s has been steadily taking steps to making sure their ice cream is produced as sustainably as possible.

“John Calder’s goal with the farm being open to the public has always been to show people where their food’s coming from," Noble said. "A lot of people just don’t make the connection between a farm producing milk and the milk they purchase in the store. It’s a sad disconnect that exists these days for people. They’re just not very aware of where their food truly comes from and how much effort it takes to produce food; how much it takes to produce a gallon of milk. It’s a dedication.”

The Monroe News posted this question on Facebook: What is Monroe County's favorite ice cream flavor? 

Of the 52 respondents, Superman beat out blue moon and black cherry. Nineteen said they favored a flavor from Independent Dairy and five specified a flavor from Calder’s Dairy Farm in Carleton as their favorite.

“Independent Dairy Superman or Calder's Horchata,” wrote William Diaz.

The others pledged their love for specific flavors like Bear Claw or the Michigan-specific classic, Superman.

“Calder's Dairy Farm, Holstein Paradise!!! Or good old-fashioned chocolate chip from Independent Dairy!” Audrey Janine Shroeder wrote.

“Chocolate chip from Independent Dairy,” Kimberly Ann added.

Other favorites included butter pecan, mint moose tracks and mint chocolate chip.