Cheesey Post

Since reaching the USA last October, we've eaten tons of Tillamook cheese.

This two pound block of pepper jack cost about $8 in most grocery stores and tasted great with all the rice and beans we've eaten on this trip.  So it was a very happy coincidence when we stumbled into the little coastal town of Tillamook, Oregon - home to the best cheese factory in all of the land.

Interesting cheesebits:

• nearly one million people visit the Tillimook cheese factory every year
• Tillamook makes 167,000 pounds of cheese every single day
• they store fifty million pounds of fromage at the factory in Oregon
• family dairy farmers own the Tillamook cheese co-op and share the profits
• there are over 2000 different types of cheeses in the world
• holstein cows eat 100 pounds of food every day
• a typical dairy cow is milked twice a day
• a calf weighs 50 to 100 pounds at birth and can gain 100 pounds in one month
• the holes in swiss cheese are also called eyes

My Fella (who wore his best dairy farmer ensemble) was excited to start the tour and eat some cheese.

I just wanted a pic in the famous Cheddar Cheese Car.  I may or may not have elbowed several kids out of the way to finally get my turn driving the cheese car.

Here's My Dairy Farmer and some random child who wouldn't leave us alone until I took his picture.  I may or may not have had to bribe the little monster with a brick of cheese to finally get my turn in the cow head.

This is the fromage factory floor from the observation deck.  Visitors can watch the entire cheese slicing, sorting, shrink wrapping and packaging process from up here.

A neat look at their marketing campaigns over the years;  I love the Tillamook slogan "Don't run with our cheddar;  it's very sharp!" 

Finally on to some cheese tasting and the huge cheese shop.

We left Tillamook Cheese factory with two big bricks of our fave fromages and this cute little cow pencil.

If you ever find yourself in Tillimook, I highly recommend a visit to the cheese factory.  And feel free to bring me back a brick of pepper jack   :) 

We're on the road today and probably won't have internet for the next few nights, so I'll post the rest of our Oregon coast pics sometime next week. 

Comments

[Don]

Next time you are in Tillamook go to the warbird air museum, it is in one of the largest wooden buildings ever built, and was used to house blimps used in WW 2 for submarine patrol. It is very impressive, and is filled with vintage aircraft.

[Daizy]

How intersting! I knew there was a town in Oregon but I didn't know that was where the cheese came from. I lived in Oregon for a year and missed out on the cheese factory tour. Too bad.

[kelsi]

T-Daizy - The Tillamook tour was cool, especially being surrounded by all that cheese. Pretty sure that's what heaven must feel like :)

[kelsi]

Mr P - darn it... we actually drove by it several times and kicked around the idea of going but ran out of time. Tillamook is a place we'll head back to for sure so we'll check out the museum next time.
By the way, the PA park we stayed at there was only $13/night - 50 amp power, major cable and internet too. Oregon totally wins when it comes to excellent (and cheap) PA parks.

[Jacq]

MMMM... Tillamook cheese is awesome!

We stayed at only state parks pretty much in Oregon. Next time I'll check this one out. Great pics! Did you hit the sand dunes?