Travel Tips & Adventures

How many food products have you actually seen produced? Most people will say – none!

You eat and you drink every day, but with the exception of the FREE BEER tour at one of those national breweries, most people would rather eat and drink than know how it was made!!!!

Of course there are some foods you NEVER want to see produced … at least in their initial stages: hamburger, sausage, hot dogs … bologna!

But that’s not the case with milk or cheese.

For over 100 years, they’ve been milkin’ those cows, and makin’ that cheese on the central coast of Oregon. There’s not a cow in sight (you passed them on your way up Highway 101), but you’ll never see more Tillamook Cheese in one place than at the company’s visitors center in Tillamook, Oregon.

If you think that only a few people would want to see someone making cheese, you’d lose that bet. On a recent rainy day, and Sunday morning at that, there was a full parking lot of cars and RVs outside of the huge modern blue and white building with the big yellow letters spelling “Tillamook Cheese” next to US 101.

Inside was a crowd that you would expect at a rock concert squeezed into the deceptively large interior. They were in the Gift Shop, lined up at the Ice Cream counter, sitting in the food court, standing in line sampling cheese and, most of all, standing around up on the second floor.

From this level, glass surrounds two sides of the final processing area and across the hall one long line of glass lets you see where cream is turned into institutional sized large blocks of cheese, which are sent under you on a conveyor belt to the other side of the building.

Unlike some manufacturing plants that have no production on the weekends, even though it was Sunday, the white-jacketed cheese making crew was busy running the machines that cut and package the large blocks of cheese that move down the conveyor belt. The area cows do not stop for a break on the weekends, and neither does the staff at the Tillamook Cheese factory.

I am sure they are painfully aware that hundreds of people are staring at them and taking pictures from the upstairs gallery.

There are lots of displays to look at explaining the history of the co-op and the cheese making process. When you leave the building you’ll definitely have a good education about the production of cheese and other allied products.

The Tillamook County Cheese Association

In 1909, the Tillamook County Creamery Association was formed by a group of 10 independent cheese plants in the county. As of today the co-op is owned and operated by about 110 family-owned dairy farms. They milk the cows, make the rules and share the profits.
Pasteurization Vs. Heat-Shock

An interesting note came to light during the self-guided tour …

With the exception of the specialty and flavored cheeses (i.e. Colby, Monterey Jack, Mozzarella, Garlic, Pepper Jack, etc.) the basic Tillamook Cheddar and Swiss cheeses are not pasteurized.

After a special process called heat-shocking, (info can be found on the company Web site), cheddar and Swiss sold to the public must be cured (aged) for a minimum of 60 days prior to their sale. This time frame meets the U.S. government standard.

60-day aged cheese becomes a “Medium,” as seen on its distinctive yellow packaging. Any further aging is packaged as:

Vintage White Medium: 100 days
Sharp: 9 months (minimum)
Extra Sharp: 15 months (minimum)
Vintage White Extra Sharp: 2 years (minimum)

There is even a 3 Year Vintage White Extra Sharp available.

Ice Cream Counter

With 38 flavors of ice cream manufactured and sold at retail by the Tillamook company, the visitors center is the only place you can find all of the flavors under one roof. There are even seasonal and special flavors that crop up over the year.

The two lines are long on this weekend waiting for the beehive of local kids behind the counter to fill their cups or handmade waffle cones with flavors such as:
Bubble Gum, German Chocolate Cake, Lemon Blueberry Pie, Marionberry Pie, Mountain Huckleberry, Pumpkin, Root Beer Float, White Licorice
And my favorite names: Tilla-Mint & Udderly Chocolate

Farmhouse Café

Okay, let me guess! If I were to open a café in a cheeeeeeese factory, what would my major ingredient be for most of the meals?

Ah, ah …… wait, I’ll get it …. Ah …

How about …

Ham & CHEESE …

Omelet with CHEESE …

CHEESEburger …

Salads with shredded CHEESE …

And believe it or not … they even went out on a limb and took a chance by putting a slice of cheese between two pieces of bread … and GRILLED IT!

Yes, you to can purchase a Tillamook Grilled Cheese Sandwich!

Now, if they only served wine!

A Few Final Thoughts

According to a quote in the viewing area, the people at the Tillamook Creamery suggest:

“Only serve our cheese on special occasions – Like times when you eat.”

So, if you like cheese and ice cream, the Tillamook Creamery Visitors Center is nothing less than FUN! And …

It’s Free!

(Unless you walk out of the place with a handful of postcards or a T-shirt with a cow on it, six different kinds of cheese, a gallon of ice cream, and, an ice cream cone along with your Grilled Cheese Sandwich!)

Then, it’s no longer free. But, don’t look at me, I had nothing to do with that!

http://www.tillamookcheese.com/

HOURS

Daily
Labor Day through mid-June
8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Mid-June through Labor Day
8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Closed: Thanksgiving and Christmas Day

ADMISSION

FREE!!!

Tillamook Oregon Visitors Info

http://www.tillamookchamber.org/

Tomorrow… Come back to learn about an amazing use for a mountain

Tags: Food, Oregon, Oregon coast, Restaurant, Tours, Travel

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under Family Fun, Food, Restaurant, Shopping, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.