Say "Cheese"!
Hello, Stuffie Friends!
It’s Scottie here. We were very happy to go to Tillamook on our second adventure in Oregon. When Katie suggested the destination, we knew something about it sounded familiar. Much to our surprise, it was the famous Tillamook Cheese Factory! When we saw the inside, we immediately recognized the brand of cheese Marial eats almost every day!
We all said “cheese” when we had our photo taken in this special VW bus. We were excited to take a tour around the humungous plant and learn more about the process of making one of our favorite snacks.
We got to look through windows and see down on all the steps in the cheese-making process. Here is what happens:
Cheese starts out with milk from cows (at this factory- sometimes it comes from goats or other animals). Don’t ask us how much milk gets delivered here every day. It’s a LOT!!!
2. Next, the milk goes into a giant pipe to reach these kettles. There it is mixed with enzymes and other natural products that causes the milk to “curd” into a semi solid. Mmm… cheese curds. One of our favorite forms of cheese.
3. After that, it is drained and formed into large blocks (weighing about 40 pounds). Those blocks go through a machine to get wrapped. Then they are boxed and stored in refrigerators to “age”. This allows the cheese to develop some great flavors.
4. After spending time in the refrigerator, people sample it to make sure it’s ready. If they need any helpers, we volunteer! We’d happily sample cheese for a living.
5. Once it’s perfectly aged and removed from storage, machines move it to a processing line. People place it on another line to be cut, weighed, and wrapped to form perfect packages. As you can see, there are a lot of moving parts and people making this happen. We liked the machine called an “octopus” the best.
After watching all these amazing people working hard to bring us our grilled cheese, cheeseburgers, and most importantly, ice cream, we found out there was a free sample counter. What are we doing learning all this time? Sorry we ate our snacks so fast we didn’t even get a picture.
Ferdinand and Jacques especially enjoyed visiting some of their relatives in the museum. I found them a little too quiet for my liking.
When we left the cheese factory, we went on a hike to see the ocean. We got to tour a lighthouse that’s the shortest one we’ve ever seen. It’s pretty interesting because it’s only 83’ tall. It’s located on a cliff which adds another 220’. That makes it tall enough for the light beam to be seen many miles out from shore.
We looked for more whales but didn’t see any. Maybe they were too far out!
We understand why Katie and our Stuffie friends love living out here- there’s so much to see and do. Maybe next time one (or more of us) will hide out and stay longer! For now, we’re headed back to enjoy the last part of our summer at the lake. See you soon!
-Scottie and Friends
