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| Early in May, Eric and I took a day trip to Tillamook, OR. Our first stop was the famous cheese factory. For over a centrury this valley was famous for excellent pastures and fine cheese. There is now a cooperative with the dairy farms in the valley which makes cheese and ice cream which is a premiere brand in the northwest. They are also known for their tours of the cheese factory. Above is a picture Eric took of me outside the factory. Next to that is the delivery dock (looks a little like a gas / diesel facility, but works the other way). We visited on a Saturday, but the cows produce seven days a week and so everyone all along the line does to. Here are the tanks where the milk is mixed with culture and dye and kept at a nice warm temperature (maybe 158 degrees) where it forms curds (or goes bad according to your point of view). Behind the tanks is long conveyor belt enclosure where the curds are pumped from the tanks and then spearated from the whey (fluid part with sugars and other milk solids). |
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| After the curds are separated, they are fed into the machines above on the right where they are compressed into blocks which are then sealed. Those blocks age in a warehouse at controlled temperatures until they get to the required sharpness (or go bad enough for your taste according to your point of view). Next to that is the other side of the 'factory' where they package the cheese in more consumer friendly packages. Of course they don't do that on the weekend (I assume they figure that if the cheese has aged over a month already, an extra day or so is not going to make a big difference. However, on weekends they do run a demo (or perhaps a training exercise) where they make cheese 'manually' in the vat shown here and below. That is good as nothing can be seen of the movement of the real factory processing. |
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This page was last updated on May 27, 2007.
