POMEROY — From 1-4 p.m., Saturday, June 5, the public will have a chance to tour one of Meigs County’s best kept, though nationally known, secrets — Snowville Creamery in Columbia Township.

Begun in 2006, Snowville Creamery reportedly bottles 9,000 gallons of milk each week which are sold not only in Ohio but Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Washington, DC. The milk, which is made from grass-grazing cows, is sold in smaller shops like Pomeroy’s Food For Thought Community Market to national chains such as Whole Foods, Giant Eagle and Kroger.

The business will likely only continue to grow after being approved for a $50,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission. The grant was discussed at this week’s meeting of the Meigs County Commission where commissioners discussed the grant assisting the creamery in achieving capacity for three-phase electricity.

Tomorrow’s open house is meant to allow the public to “experience the sights and sounds of pasture-based dairy farming.” Visitors can observe the process of bottling farm fresh milk while learning the benefits and challenges of bringing the product to market. In Ohio alone, the milk can be purchased in Columbus, Cincinnati, Athens, Cleveland, Akron.

Snowville Creamery’s motto is “milk the way it used to be.” What makes the milk different from the others, according to Snowville Creamery, is the belief milk is perfect when it comes from the cow and requires minimum processing. The milk isn’t homogenized so the cream naturally rises to the top. Pasteurization is done at the lowest, legal temperature, resulting in what the creamery believes is milk that tastes “sweet, clean and delicious.”

Tomorrow’s open house will also allow visitors to say hello to the herd. So just where do the cows come from? From April to mid-December, the milk comes from Bill Dix and Stacy Hall’s genetically diverse herd near Albany which includes Brown Swiss, Guernsey, Friesian and Jersey cows which is believed to add to the product’s “rich flavor.” During the winter months, while Bill and Stacy’s cows are on pregnancy leave, the milk comes from Hamm Valley Farm, a fourth generation dairy farm in Racine where the cows are also pasture grazed.

Saturday’s event is called the “First Snowville Creamery Milk Plant and Dix Hall Farm Open House.” The creamery is located at 32623 Ohio 143, Pomeroy in Columbia Township. Call 698-2340 or go to info@snowvillecreamery.com for information.