Did someone say free milk and cookies?
Located in Chewelah, Columbia Community Creamery is hosting its second annual event from noon to 3 p.m. on Saturday at 519 N. Park St., offering free locally made milk and cookies, plus a behind-the-scenes look at how local dairy products are made.
“It's just really awesome; we're revitalizing local dairies,” said Brittany Bilte, executive director of the nonprofit.
Bilte said the creamery is the nation’s first nonprofit milk processing plant and partners with local dairy farms to provide dairy products throughout Stevens and Spokane counties.
Virginia Thomas, co-owner of Clover Mountain Dairy, said the nonprofit opened its doors to the public in June 2023 as a way to process and distribute its milk closer to home.
Since then, the creamery has provided community members with a variety of locally made products –including whole milk, chocolate milk, ice cream and cheese, all of which will be available for purchase at the event, she said.
"We are bottling about 700 gallons of milk a week into different products, and over this last year, we processed just over 26,000 gallons of milk,” Thomas said.
Bilte said that while whole milk will be served throughout the event, attendees can also choose chocolate milk or even a café latte instead.
“It’s kind of like a Starbucks Frappuccino but better,” Bilte said.
Thomas said visitors who tour the processing plant will also get to see the creamery’s 500-gallon VAT pasteurizer, where milk is gently heated to 145°F and held for 30 minutes to preserve quality and eliminate potential pathogens.
“Supporting these farms and allowing other farms to stay in business helps our rural economy,” Thomas said. “It's not just about the milk that's in the bottle, it's also about what we are doing in our community.”