Tillamook Cheese Factory Tour

It’s been many years since I have been through the Tillamook Cheese Factory, perhaps 45?  I remember walking on the floor where the large long vats held the curds, and watching the workers stir and rake the forming cheese, but now visitors are not allowed close to where the cheese is handled.

Yesterday Anne-Marie and I drove a few miles south down the coast, to tour the Cheese Factory, and meet up with Andrew and Amanda our Son and Daughter-in-law.  The first thing that we saw inside of their visitor center was this shortened VW Van, and it was setup for kids to slide in and have their picture taken.

The front of the factory is where they have a boat on display, and a worker is sanding it down to repaint.  It’s a rebuilt replica of the first boat used to transport goods from Tillamook to Portland Oregon.  The original was built and used in the mid 1800s, and wrecked in 1860.

The observation area is now upstairs and through windows, and this area can handle hundreds of visitors at a time.  Today, there were 40 lb. blocks of cheese being cut down to 2 lb. loafs.  The upper line of cheese blocks was yellow cheddar when we arrived, and by the time I got to taking pictures they had changed to white cheese on all three lines.  There are a lot of people in this room, and only two packing lines were working.

This wide picture shows the other side of the operation, where the milk is turned and churned into cheese.  This side of the plant only had a few workers.  The inside of the plant is real industrial looking.

After we tired of watching the cheese being made and packaged, we went back downstairs to the gift shop.  The wide picture shows only a small part of the Tillamook branded cheese and milk products that were displayed. 

As Anne-Marie was gathering up an armful of flavored cheeses, I was choosing a T-shirt and some samples of fudge.

Our second stop of the day, the Blue Heron French Cheese Company.  I was looking for another cheese factory to tour, but the tourist/gift shop business grew so large that the cheese making was moved to another site.  The building is the size of a large barn and is is jam packed with Oregon and Northwest products.  There are samples of all of their cheeses, and nearly every other food product that they sell.  Anne-Marie at the wine tasting counter having a taste, we both had 5 samples of their offerings, and the challenge was choosing which ones to taste.  Anne-Marie choose the wines to buy, and I choose the cheese to take home.

This plate reminded me of my cousins, Patty, Ronae and Sheryl Ann.