Nutter said footings were poured on Wednesday for the parlor, going up on a hill near the intersection of Rocky Ridge and Dairyland roads.

The plan is to include a wraparound porch and possibly rocking chairs and to keep the parlor open seven days a week until dark. Exact business hours haven't been set yet.

Cones and pints of five permanent flavors - vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, chocolate-chip cookie dough and butter pecan - likely will be offered, as well as several rotating flavors, according to Muffin Brosig, Nutter's daughter and office manager for Maple View Farm's milk-bottling plant.

The family will use excess cream from the bottling plant to make the ice cream.

If the current buzz among the farm's milk customers and regular visitors is any indication, the Nutters could see a steady stream of ice-cream lovers trekking to the countryside west of Carrboro for cones or pints.

"If as many people buy ice cream as have talked about buying ice cream, it will be a successful business," Nutter said. "There's an awful lot of interest. It seems like everybody we've talked to is excited about it. We'll have to see about that. We just believe it's going to work."

Nutter laughed and said he would never have predicted that at age 71 after a lifetime of farming he would be undertaking a new business venture. The thing is, he said, "I don't have any desire to wear out any rocking chairs."

In the face of steady declines among family dairy operations in North Carolina and elsewhere, Maple View Farm has carried on, in part because of the willingness of the Nutters and farm managerRuss Seibert to try new ventures.

Starting the milk-bottling operation in recent years was such a step, and building the ice-cream parlor is the latest example.

There is still a good living to be made off the land, Nutter contended.

He said he sees a strong demand in Orange County and the Triangle for goods produced by local farmers. The trick for farmers is figuring out how to reach those customers directly, and in general being open to changes, Nutter said.

"There's a lot of potential, but [farmers] have to look for new ways," he said. "They can't just keep on with the old ways."

Nutter said he looks for Maple View Farm to continue as a healthy business into the foreseeable future, with Brosig, Nutter's son Roger Nutter and Seibert carrying on the tradition. Nutter said some of the farm's acreage has been sold for development in past years, but he doesn't intend to sell any more land during his lifetime.