Driving that stretch of U.S. 31W between Franklin, Ky., and Bowling Green, Ky., keep your eyes peeled for a big, red building known as Chaney's Dairy Barn.

This neat roadside attraction presents an ice cream fanatic's dream, and those who love to lick the cold sweet concoction on a cone are in luck, indeed. Peer into the dipping cabinet at the front of Carl and Debra Chaney's ice cream parlor and restaurant and ponder 32 flavors.

Their ice creams include locally grown produce, such as strawberries and peaches. The menu also features soups and sandwiches on homemade bread. Their Kentucky Pride Gift Shop displays cheeses, jams, jellies, ham, bacon, popcorn and honey. The restaurant seats 100 and boasts a handsome stone fireplace and quilts hanging from the rafters.

A fifth-generation farmer on 54 acres that has been in the family since 1888, Carl milks daily the 50 Jersey cows on the dairy that his 84-year-old father began in 1940. Early this decade, he worried about survival in a tough business.

"We knew we had to do one of three things," Carl said. "Get bigger, sell off the farm — not an option because we love the cows — or do something else."

The something else was agritourism in the form of making ice cream and providing farm tours to schoolchildren.

"The farm tours are what we're most passionate about. Folks today don't have a clue what agriculture is about," said the farmer, who attended Ice Cream College at Penn State. "Kids don't know where milk comes from. They think Krogers.

After visiting here, kids have a better understanding where their food comes from."

The Chaneys opened their restaurant 4½ years ago. Last year, 7,000 young students toured their farm. Seated on bales of hay in a wagon and pulled by a 1954 International H tractor, the students are squired inside a barn where Carl brings in a cow to demonstrate milking and educate them on caring for cattle.

For Debra, their success also has brought back a measure of pride for the farming lifestyle: "There seems to be a true appreciation for the hard work that farmers portray."

On certain Friday nights in June and July, the dairy barn plays host to a free Ice Cream and a Movie event as a family film is screened on the side of their barn. A showing of The Goonies last year drew 400 people. Bring your own lawn chair or blanket and get ready to lick.