Tillamook, Oregon! There is a cow on the front because it is home to the co-op of dairy farmers that make Tillamook cheese and ice cream. It is also orange, the color of its famous cheddar. We took a tour of the factory Monday.
The cows are pampered and well-taken-care-of in Tillamook. They have a robotic feeder that pushes the special feed to the cows (there is a board-certified nutritionist that makes sure the feed is great and healthy for the cows); they have a special brush that is automated to brush the cows and get any dirt or flies off of them (apparently the cows love it); AND, they have special beds that the cows lay on so they don't hurt their limbs or such when they lay down (they spend about 60-70% laying down and chewing). Really?? Who knew??!! They also wear special collars that transmit data to the farmer so he can tell if the cows are sick or injured. Amazing! No wonder the commercials show the farmers with smiles on their faces. Looks pretty easy!
So onto the cheddar-making process.
So when Little Miss Muffett was eating her curds and whey, she was actually eating pieces of cheese and drinking the whey (which is not very tasty, by the way). At this point in the process, they add more salt to draw out more whey. The curds are then put into 40-42lb blocks and sealed to be cured.
The warehouse is as long as a football field but 4 times as high. It can store A LOT of cheddar! The cheese is cured as short as 6 weeks to as long as 6 years. Then it goes to the cutting room.
This part was pretty neat; I didn't know that. Great quality control! After you visit the process, you go into......The TASTING ROOM! It was simply an area where there were five trays of their most popular flavors, including cheddar cheese curds, and you picked up a cup and got what you wanted (with sterilized tongs of course)! I went back for more curds, YUM!
Unfortunately, you cannot get free samples of the ice cream. We kept seeing people come out with ice cream; turns out, they were getting the kids' scoops....$2.75 for a cuppa. I passed. So what makes their ice cream better? More cream, not air. When you see the ice cream in the store say "Extra churned" chances are, there's more air.
So it was a nice little tour; it is self-guided. When you finish the tour upstairs from the tasting room, the stairs lead you downstairs to the shop. They will ship to you if you wish; however, it is 2-day air and costs about $29.95. I found that out the hard way when my mom wanted some delicious cheese. The cheese cost $12; once we factored in shipping, the whole thing was $42. Nah, we passed. It's a nice treat if you're out here.
There's more to Tillamook than the cheese. See the next post! Y'all come back!😉
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