My grandmother always said that you can’t make snow cream with the first snow, but this is the South and there was never a promise of a second one. She’d give in, because grandmothers are suckers for a ‘please,’ but she might’ve been on to something.

With a good cover of snow on the ground, milk in the fridge and photos of homemade snow cream all over Facebook, I couldn’t resist. I harvested clean snow from a table outside (just use good sense by gathering snow from a clean place), made a bowl, ate a few bites then stored it outside, on a table in the screened porch. Later I went back for more and eventually let the dogs finish it for a sweet treat.

But I wondered if it was safe, so I turned to Dr. Google, the ultimate telemedicine provider these days.

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The verdict: Enjoy in moderation without worry. Here’s what I learned.

Nanny wasn’t too far off base with her talk of avoiding the first snow, but she also wasn’t exactly right. I found a link to NPR’s “The Salt” blog, written by Anne Bramley, who considers snow a foraged childhood food.

During a snowstorm in 2015, she thought of snow cream and asked some experts if it was safe to eat. Mostly, folks said, yes. And the best snow is snow that’s captured after there’s been a few hours of precipitation, because as snow falls, it acts as a “scrubbing brush” for the atmosphere.

No one is saying to wait for the second snow, but maybe what I thought was an old wives’ tale was, as they often are, bound to science in an intuitive way.

But I also checked with Priscilla Eddins, a food and nutrition extension agent with the University of Tennessee, to get her take on it.

“When we talk about snow safety, we’re talking about some of the contaminants that could be in it. It could be dust, pollutants from car emissions, anything that’s in the air,” she said.

So it’s not safe to eat?

Au contraire.

“The only thing I would say would be unsafe is using raw eggs” to make the snow cream, Eddins said. “You don’t want salmonella and if you use raw eggs, you risk it.”

Raw eggs? If I’m going there, it’s going to be for a Caesar’s salad. Who puts eggs in snow cream? (Well, Bramley’s mother did, so we can’t say no one. But don’t do it.)

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Frances Ryan doesn’t truck with raw eggs in her snow cream, which she usually makes with heavy cream, powdered sugar and vanilla.

On Monday she was listening to Geoff Calkins’ radio show as he was talking about things to do in the snow.

“They didn’t say anything about snow cream, so I called in and couldn’t believe they’d never heard about it,” she said.

(Calkins, who grew up in upstate New York, where there’s plenty of snow, told me he had a vague notion of what it is, but nope, never ate it. He thinks he’s had cream drizzled over his snow cone at Jerry’s though, if that counts.)

“I decided to make it and I happened to read about making it with Eagle Brand, which I happened to have,” she said. “I normally don’t do that. I usually use heavy cream and confectioners’ sugar, which is better than granulated sugar.”

She poured about half the can of sweetened condensed milk in a mixing bowl, added a few tablespoons of heavy cream (she didn’t measure) and a teaspoon of vanilla. Then she added snow.

“I kept stirring and got it to a good consistency, then I got the ice cream scoop and formed them into balls, put some sprinkles I found on it and took a picture. I felt like I needed an Instagram moment.”

She shared the photo on Table Talk and after a few bites, she put her snow cream on the porch to save for later, just like I did.

“After getting through Hurricane Elvis and the ice storm, I have to say I prefer the cold weather because you can use the outside for food storage,” she said.

Melissa Thornton always uses sweetened condensed milk for snow cream.

“I just think it gives it this lovely rich flavor,” she said. “I used to add regular milk to it, but I’ve taken to adding Pet milk instead because I love the cooked milk used in really good Indian desserts.”

Making snow cream couldn’t be easier. The only rule you should remember is that it’s easier to add snow to the liquid than it is to add liquid to the snow. Mix your ingredients to taste, add snow scoop by scoop, stirring with purpose but not too roughly, then enjoy.

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Want to venture beyond vanilla? Make a push-up flavored treat by mixing a box of orange Jell-O, 1 tablespoon vanilla and 1 ½ cups milk together, then stirring in about 8 cups of clean snow.

Add some leftover coffee to the cream or milk for a frappuccino. Add chocolate sauce to the milk or drizzle on top of the snow cream.

Use hot chocolate mix, if that’s what you have on hand. Mix instant hot chocolate, using milk instead of water. Add a dash of vanilla and allow it to cool. Add it to clean snow.

You can even go completely dairy-free and make something more like a sno-cone by first making a syrup:

Add 1 ½ cups sugar to 1 cup water and boil about three minutes; cool. Flavor it naturally as it cools by adding strips of citrus rind (whatever you have on hand) to it, or stir in powdered lemonade, Kool-Aid or other flavor after it cools.

Pack snow in a cup and gently pour syrup over the top.

We don’t get snow very often, which could be why snow cream is such a treat for Southern kids of all ages. Use it and enjoy it; we’re supposed to get more today, but when it’s gone, it’s gone.

And you do you, but I’ll say good riddance.