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Over the Memorial Day weekend, my aunt and uncle came to visit me and my family in Vancouver, Washington all the way from San Antonio, Texas where they live. After a while of looking up attractions and things to do around our area, my uncle suggested visiting the Tillamook Cheese Factory, about an hour and a half away from our house. So at 8:00am on Memorial Day, we all got into the car for the drive to the factory.
Tillamook Cheese Factory is located in the city of Tillamook, Oregon. Created in 1909, it is an important supplier of cheese and other dairy products to places all over the United States. We were able to walk around a little bit around the factory and see all of the machines used to make the cheese in the factory.
Unfortunately for us, visiting on Memorial Day meant that the packaging lines were, for the most part, closed. There were big windows looking down on them, and although there were only a couple of people actually there packaging cheese, we saw the big silver machines that the 40 pound blocks of cheese travel through to get wrapped up and ready to go to be aged. Along with the view, there were signs and speakers telling us about the process of making cheese in the factory.
After this, we continued on to where cheese samples were being given out by factory employees. There were colby, medium cheddar (both yellow and white), sharp cheddar (both yellow and white) and even garlic white cheddar. They also had what they called "squeaky cheese", which were cheese curds. To make cheese, milk gets seperated into curds, which are solid, and whey, which is liquid. The curds are what is used to make cheese, but they can also be eaten straight. They make a squeaking sound on your teeth when you eat them, which is where they get their nickname from!
Each of us got our fill of cheese cubes, and then went on to get some ice cream, which they were selling there in addition to all of the cheese. Even though Tillamook ice cream is available all the time in grocery stores in the Pacific Northwest, we felt that we needed to buy some there to get the full "experience". I got black cherry, but there were tons of other flavors to choose from, like Fireside S'mores and Banana Split. We grabbed a table and sat to eat our ice cream together, before getting ready to leave the factory.
I had a really good time visiting the Tillamook Cheese Factory, and I thought it was interesting to learn a little about how cheese is made. I recommend that you visit too if you're ever in the Northwest!
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