Cool, creamy ice cream tastes even better with local ingredients

By Kathy Dixon

At the Homestead Creamery in Franklin County, you can have your cake and eat it too.

That's because birthday cake is one of more than 20 flavors of ice cream available at this small, locally owned dairy processing plant and roadside store.

Another is "fish," which includes chocolate fish swimming in cool, creamy, cake-flavored vanilla ice cream. This is the second year the creamery has made fish ice cream after getting a request from organizers of a bass fishing tournament at nearby Smith Mountain Lake.

Because the creamery is a small, independently owned business, the ice cream makers can be creative with the flavors, said Donnie Montgomery, a dairyman and one of the creamery's four owners.

And on a steamy summer day when you cool off with ice cream made with locally sourced ingredients, you can feel good knowing your sweet tooth is helping ...