If you didn’t know it, the sign should indicate that there are some great artisan products at the Oregon Cheese Festival!

Is there a better place to be than with fellow cheese lovers in a town that also holds a festival for William Shakespeare and has a totally down-home, hippie vibe that loves locals and welcomes artisans?! No. There is not. I know this because this past weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to, along with two co-workers, represent Tillamook at the Oregon Cheese Guild’s 9th Annual Oregon Cheese Festival!

Four varieties of Oregon Cheeses made for one amazing dinner

The weekend started with a dinner featuring 4 varieties of Oregon Cheeses – and that doesn’t even include the cheese plate before the meal with about 20 different cheeses! WHOA! I had tasted some before (if you haven’t had it, you must try Portland Creamery’s Sweet Fire! It’s an unbelievably delicious Chevre with a Habanero Marionberry jam) and some I hadn’t had. After making sure to taste them all, I left with a greater appreciation of the quality of cheese making in Oregon. We’re pretty lucky.

Just one picture of the nearly 10,000 people who came to the 8th Annual Oregon Cheese Festival

The next day was the main event. Held right next to Rogue Creamery’s headquarters in Central Point, OR, nearly 10,000 people came to celebrate Oregon bounty under a tent that blocked not rain, but sun on this beautiful weekend! Tillamook was there with other Oregon cheeses from Rogue Creamery, Willamette Valley Cheese Company, Portland Creamery and many, MANY other artisan producers. We handed out about 60lbs of free samples of some of our more specialty cheeses: Smoked Black Pepper White Cheddar, Garlic Chili Pepper Cheddar, America’s Best Vintage White Extra Sharp Cheddar, Special Reserve Extra Sharp Cheddar and Sharp Cheddar cheeses. We also gave people recipes to try at home and wine pairing guides (which came in very handy – there were some great Oregon wines on hand to be tasted).

Driving up the Oregon Coast is always a good idea – made better when the sun decides to peak out!

I have to throw in that if you are Ashland, you should stay at the Ashland Springs Hotel. It’s a beautiful, old hotel that is part of the Historic Hotels of America and is close to everything downtown Ashland has to offer. Try out Standing Stone Brewery for some great beer and Mix café for an AMAZING chocolate croissant, then hike Lithia Park and take a drive through Myrtle Creek and up the coast through Coos Bay, Newport, and Lincoln City to see all of the incredibly natural wonders that allow Oregon to have all of the bountiful food we do!

This event was an incredible celebration of the growing cheese industry in Oregon and Tillamook was truly thrilled to be a part of it! Make sure you remember to put this on your calendar next year so you too can enjoy some of the best cheeses in America – all under one HUGE tent!

By Matt

What are you doing for Spring Break this year? If you’re thinking of taking a little vacation, you should take a drive to the Tillamook Cheese Factory!

• Drive over to Cape Meares for a view of the ocean. While you’re there, check out the lighthouse, see some huge Spruce Trees (seriously), or even walk down to the rocky beach.

• Stock up on Squeaky Cheese – it’s only available at the Cheese Factory!

• Swing by a surprising little gem in Tillamook – the Tillamook County Pioneer Museum! There you can learn a little about Tillamook County’s history and see over 35,000 historic artifacts gathered from Tillamook pioneers.

• Enjoy a free, self-guided tour where you can watch our cheese making and packaging operations and try free samples of Tillamook Cheese. Don’t forget to round it off with a scoop of Tillamook Ice Cream!

Before your trip, take a look at our special offers at the Cheese Factory – if you plan it right, you might get yourself some tasty opportunities (waffle sandwiches, anyone?). We hope you come to visit us at the Tillamook Cheese Factory!

By Katie

We’ve got some good news! Three varieties of Tillamook Cheese were voted “America’s Best” at the 2013 United States Championship Cheese Contest®!

Tillamook Colby Jack took “Best of Class” with a score of 99.40. Colby Jack is a veteran on the winners’ stand, previously earning “America’s Best Colby Jack” at the 2011 U.S. Championship! Tillamook Vintage White Extra Sharp Cheddar was voted “Best of Class” receiving a score of 99.45 out of 100, as well as second place in the Aged 2 years or longer Cheddar Category. Tillamook Sharp Cheddar scored 98.65 earning “Best of Class” for Sharp Cheddar aged 6 months to one year. We’re honored to be able to offer these “America’s Best” cheeses to all of our fans!

Held last week in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the U.S. Championship Cheese Contest® had a record-breaking total of over 1,700 entries, up 100 entries from 2011!!!

By Tillamook

I can remember the first time I ever had a root beer float. I wondered  ”what is this creamy, delicious dream, combining my favorite beverage with my favorite dessert?” Well, as it turns out, you can make an adult version of this tasty treat! I called over some (all-too-willing) friends, grabbed some St. Patty’s style beers and plenty of Tillamook Ice Cream and conducted an experiment about what makes the best beer float!

First up: Tillamook Vanilla Bean Ice Cream with Hard Cider
Independently, I love both of these ingrdients…but combined, they were amazing! With equal parts cider and ice cream, this tasted just like apple pie a la mode. The smooth cream brought out the tart, green apple flavor in the cider. It would be great for a summer treat (or a summer-dreaming treat) on a front porch. This one was my favorite of the bunch.

Next on the agenda: Tillamook Mountain Huckleberry Ice Cream with Red Ale
We thought that the hoppy flavor of a Red Ale would complement the sweet fruit in the ice cream, and we were right! Since the base of the ice cream is vanilla, it leveled out the hops to create a combo that tasted surprisingly like maple and nuts, with just a hint of fruit. It was a berry good beer float.

Finally: Tillamook Mudslide Ice Cream with Guinness Beer
In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, we decided to make a float with Ireland’s token beer: Guinness! We combined this beer with Tillamook Mudslide Ice Cream. Guinness is less carbonated, so the experience was a little smoother. I loved the Mudslide Ice Cream in this, especially because the chocolate bits tasted just a little salty! Unfortunately, most of the chocolate bits sunk to the bottom of the glass. This float was full of really rich flavors.

What kind of beer float would you make!? For more ideas (and some kid-friendly ones!), check out our favorite root beer float recipes.

By Katie

March is National Craft Month! So naturally, we’ve been spending time on Pinterest and have pulled together some of our favorite crafty pinners that we have been drawing inspiration from! Here are a few of our favorite Pinners!

Emily Morgenstern of 52 Mantels

Emily’s boards include everything from holiday inspiration to repurposing an old sweater for a lamp shade to making the perfect cake pops. Whatever inspiration you’re looking for, you can be sure Emily has already pinned it on her boards.

Marlynn Schotland of Urban Bliss

Marlynn’s boards are filled with eye catching pins of brightly colored cookies, unique gadgets, and iconic images. We plan on taking some crafty inspiration from her Organizing Bliss board when making these containers.

Lisa of Crazy Adventures in Parenting

We already have some chalkboard paint left over from this project, I think some wine glasses will be needed for our next wine and cheese pairing!

 Michael Wurm, Jr. of inspiredbycharm.com

We stumbled on Michael’s Pinterest boards while perusing Pinterest and man are we glad we did! This project would be the perfect way to put those extra Tillamook Yogurt containers to good use!

Vanessa of Tried & True

Vanessa’s Craft Nook board gave us all the inspiration and motivation we needed to get organized for National Craft month! Now we are ready to tackle all the fun projects she has pinned!

What will you create for National Craft Month?

By Candace

It’s that time of year again! It’s time to pack away your winter clothes and celebrate the arrival of spring. Out with the old and in with the new. It’s time to say goodbye to those mystery leftovers on the top shelf and give your fridge the TLC it deserves. As the temperature begins to rise, you might find yourself spending more and more time outside of the house and busy as ever! Solution!? Create a snack drawer in your fridge for easy on-the-go options! The idea came from a friend of mine with two busy kids. While there aren’t any kids running around my house, I’m not ashamed to admit this tip works great for any age!

Designate a drawer and stock it with Tilla-Moos, or cheeses that you’ve pre-sliced and cubed in serving size containers or baggies. I’ve also got a variety of Tillamook Yogurt and some veggies that I’ve pre-cut, washed, and bagged in mine.

What’s your favorite grab-and-go snack!?

By Amalya

I could not wait to get behind the wheel of that awesome looking bus! I instantly knew that while driving, I would be able to put a smile on people’s faces. But…what I didn’t know was how difficult it was going to be for me to drive!

Prior to the YUM, I was driving an automatic 1992 Ford Crown Victoria, and had never driven a manual car before. When I learned the YUMs were stick shifts I freaked out! I was both scared and excited to learn something new.

Brian, The Bus Man, was a great driving instructor! He was so knowledgeable and patient. He was still smiling after I stalled the bus five times in a row at the stop sign! Whoops! Thankfully as time passed, and with lots of practice, I was able to get the hang of it!

Now that I’m out on tour I feel a lot more comfortable behind the wheel. My favorite thing about driving is seeing people’s reactions on the road! I loaf it! But I’m still nervous for those hills in San Francisco! Good thing I’ve still got some time to practice! Catch me in the Loafster coastin’ through California!

- Madison Ornstil, West Tour

“I get to drive that cute little orange bus!” was the first thought I had in my head when I learned I would soon be driving the YUMs. But I can’t lie, this cheese lover was a bit nervous about getting behind the wheel! For some of my teammates, Elida and Katie, it was their first time learning to drive a stick shift, and certainly, none of us had ever driven a custom VW Bus before!

The Bus Man, Brian, took us to an empty parking lot to test our skills in our new mode of transportation. We took turns getting in, buckling up, and gave it our best shot! We instantly had a number of passerby’s walking over to check out the buses. There was an abundance of smiles and waves from other cars –  Ahhhh I could get use to this!

Driving the bus was a bit scary at first. They are extra sensitive to pressure on the clutch. During my first day of sampling, the Tillatruck ran out of gas and I almost had a mini panic attack thinking I’d done something terrible! (See the video!)

My two veteran teammates, April & Ashley, were very helpful! We’re all driving like pros now! Come catch us cruising through Texas this Spring!

- Inge Pe’a, East Tour

By Tillamook

Celebrate Easter with a basket full of Tillamook goodies! Shop our Easter Sale for 10% off* basket-sized treats using coupon code EASTERLOAF!

*10% off select items on the Tillamook Shop. Sale is valid March 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM through March 31 at 11:59 PM. Only valid for online purchases at Shop.Tillamook.com and Tillamook Facebook Shop.

By Tillamook

To help curd-loving fans across the country, and to support our partners at the Oregon Food Bank, we released the curds to our Online Shop for one day only on our 104th birthday! Squeaky Cheese Curds are highly perishable and start to lose their “squeak” after just a few days, so we’ve never been able to facilitate shipping them on a daily basis before. In order to ship these squeak-packed bags of curds, the Tillamook Marketing team took several days away from our regular jobs to personally hand-pack and ship orders from the Tillamook Cheese Factory! Here are some photos from our adventures in shipping Squeaky Cheese Curds.

Here come the curds! The curds we sent were taken fresh out of the vat at 6am (boy, was it early!) so we had time to pack all the boxes.

Good morning! We shipped brand-squeaking fresh curds with overnight shipping, to ensure optimal squeak when they arrived at their final destination.

Here are some empty boxes, waiting for their curds! Each box of curds was handpacked with two bags of curds, an ice pack, a packing slip, and lots of love.

Here’s our UPS truck, squeak-packed with our first day’s shipment of cheese curd orders.

We had a fun time packing all 700+ orders of cheese curds! Thanks again for supporting Tillamook and celebrating our 104th birthday. We hope you can visit us soon at the Tillamook Cheese Factory, where you can get cheese curds all year round.

Yours cheesefully,
The Squeaky Cheese Team

By Katie

What happens when the most creative people around, the best burger under the Austin sky, and the tastiest cheese in the world team up? Magic! Like a unicorn that shoots rainbows; except better! Magic may be the best word to describe what happens when Tillamook is added to anything! Thankfully you can experience this type of mouthwatering euphoria on Saturday, March 9 from 12:30pm-3:30pm at Hopdoddy Burger Bar on South Congress. You’ll go for the Terlingua burger and the Buffalo Bill burger with a Caramel and Sea Salt Shake (say that 5 times fast)! What you’ll get is all that AND samples of the world’s best Medium Cheddar Cheese (used on the “Terlingua”) and Pepper Jack Cheese (used on the “El Diablo”). Oh there’s more! Your visit won’t be complete without great Tillamook coupons, cheesy recipes, and tons of smiles!

What are you doing Saturday that could possibly be more fun than this?! Nothing. You know you’ll have a hankering for a good time, so just come on out and see our beloved new Tillatruck, say, “Hey” to our friendly brand ambassadors, grab some delicious cheese, and get your hands on the best dang burger you’ll ever have! This is one cheesy event you won’t want to miss. See you Saturday! If you can’t make it Saturday, Tillamook will be in Austin until the 18, so check the schedule to make sure you can come out to experience the YUM! We can’t wait to see you.

By Matt