Will Bike for Ice Cream: Snowville Creamery Tour

An exercise-bike powered ice cream maker.

This past weekend's Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA) organized tour of Snowville Creamery wasn't all fun and games...someone had to make the ice cream! (Ok, yeah, it really was all fun.)

The first stop on OEFFA's Sustainable Farm Tour series took us to Pomeroy, Ohio to see exactly how Snowville Creamery produces its amazing milk, cream, and ice cream (they make the base for Jeni's!).

Upon arrival, we were greeted by a four piece string band, a table of cookies, chips, and salsa (all locally made!) and an unending supply of Snowville milk (white AND chocolate)!

Honor your partner, honor your corner.

After introductions by pasture and herd owners Bill Dix and Stacy Hall, and Creamery owners Warren and Victoria Taylor, we made our way out to the pastures to see cows doing what they do best: eating grass.

The milk starts here.

From the pastures, we moved to the milking parlor, where Bill showed us where 18 cows at a time get milked twice a day. (They have over 250 milk producing cows right now.) Everything is done by hand and with an eye toward creating a quality product: the cows eat a diet of grass supplemented by an energy-rich feed, the milking process is human run (the milking apparatus is attached and removed by hand, no machines or computers), and the cows are sent back out into the pasture to fertilize the grass for the future. Whey leftover from the process of making milk and cream is even sprayed back onto the fields to create a closed loop system. It's kind of beautiful.

Bill explains the ins and outs of cow milking.

After the milking parlor, we moved into the creamery operations building, where Warren explained the process of turning raw milk into assorted Snowville products, expounding on his passion for good, wholesome food, and the importance of starting a 'revolution' in the US food industry.

Warren Taylor: Food Revolutionary

It couldn't have been a more lovely, educational, and entertaining afternoon. Like many of our local food producers, the folks are Snowville are 100% dedicated to crafting products that are healthy, delicious, and faithful to their Ohio roots. (Keep your eyes open for a Snowville yogurt!) If you want to check out one of our other local farms, here is a PDF with a list of this summer's farm schedule. Thanks to OEFFA, and all the folks at Snowville who hosted such a great event!

A few more pictures:

A sudden storm comes up over the pastures.


Farm hands Anna and Jeremiah head back to the barn.


Snowville posters in dairy headquarters.


Kids and baby farm animals are a great combination.

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