February is a very exciting month for many reasons: Valentine’s Day, Oregon’s Birthday, and most importantly, Tillamook’s Birthday!!! This year, on February 13, the farmer owned co-op is turning 104! That’s 104 years of delicious naturally aged cheese made in Tillamook, Oregon! In 1909, several small creameries teamed up to form Tillamook County Creamery Association with the mission to make delicious high quality cheese.

I have a lot to be thankful for! After all, if it wasn’t for those farmers 104 years ago, there’d be no me (Loafy)! Today, Tillamook is made up of 100 dairy farm families, many of whom are kin to the early pioneers. To celebrate this very exciting birthday, I’m writing and collecting birthday cards to share with our wonderful farmers! Will you join me!?!

Send your cards to:
Tillamook
c/o Loafy
4185 Highway 101 North
Tillamook, Oregon 97141

Learn more about Tillamook’s history here!

By Loafy

I love my Tillamook Cheese Cookbook and I began to wonder how these well-worn pages came together. So I sat down with our very own Kathy Holstad to learn more about her experiences creating the Tillamook Cheese Cookbook.

Q: How did you first taste Tillamook?
A: My grandparents were Tillamook dairy farmers, as were my great-grandparents. So, Tillamook Cheese was, of course, always in their fridge. It is what I grew up on – in our house and in theirs. My Grandpa lived to be 94 years old and he claimed that a hunk of Tillamook Cheese, a bowl of hot oatmeal, and hard work every day is the reason why he lived such a long and healthy life!

Q: What inspired you to create the Tillamook Cookbook?
A: When I started working at Tillamook in 1997 there were no formally tested recipes or food photography. My goal was to someday have a collection of recipes that could be put into a beautiful cookbook because it had never been done before. The 100^th Anniversary of the Tillamook County Creamery Association seemed like the perfect time to make it a reality.

Q: How long did it take?
A: We created, tested, and photographed all the recipes over about 12 years, and then it took 1 year to put the actual cookbook together with our publisher.

Q: What was the hardest thing about writing a cookbook?
A: Picking which recipes will go into the book – they’re all so good!

Q: What was the most fun part about writing a cookbook?
A: Hands down working with the generational family farms for all the photos. They were so honored to be a part of it (and some were so shy!).

Q: What was one surprising thing you learned through the process?
A: The amount of creative people it takes to create a really great cookbook.

Q: What is your favorite seasonal ingredient used in the cookbook?
A: Crab, squash, or apples.

Q: What’s your favorite recipe overall?
A: That’s a hard question as there are so many! The Scalloped Potatoes (page 63) are very simple, but the addition of the different kinds of delicious Tillamook Cheese make it very special.

Q: What’s your favorite recipe for a quick weekday dinner?
A: The Everyday Macaroni and Cheese (page 98) is a great base, but I add other ingredients to make it different every time. I may add shrimp and Cajun seasoning one time, or chicken and nutmeg the next time, and always play with the cheese combinations. Have fun with a basic recipe! Instead of all Medium Cheddar, make it with half Pepper Jack and half medium, or a blend of medium, Vintage White Extra Sharp and Monterey Jack…mix it up!

Q: Which recipe sounds the hardest, but is the most worth it?
A: The Mega-Cheesy Mac & Cheese (page 114) with crab. It has a lot of ingredients, but it is so worth it!

Q: What’s your favorite part about working for Tillamook?
A: The farmers, the family atmosphere, and the fact that everyone works so hard to make amazing Tillamook products to share with our consumers.

By Gillian

This January we unveiled a beautiful new addition to our association’s seal – a crimson banner that proudly proclaims that we are farmer owned and have been since 1909.  Being farmer owned means that the farmers in our cooperative guide our decisions and set the vision for the company. Many of our farm families have been co-op members for multiple generations, often farming the same land that was homesteaded by their family in the late 1800s. They are not simply shareholders; they are emotionally vested in creating quality products that begin with high quality milk. To them, it is as much their legacy as it is anything else. They know that the work that they do on their land every day impacts our ability to meet our brand promise.

I always enjoy visiting families on their dairies and seeing this pride in action. It is unmistakable.  You see it in how they beam when talking about the quality of our cheese and when they reference their dairy cows. Last year I sent a photographer out to one of our dairies to take a photo of the family for our annual report. They were one of the families we recognized last year for their high quality milk at our annual meeting. When the photographer got there, the farmer wouldn’t let her disturb the cows with her camera because it was after milking when the cows preferred to rest in the barn! I still get a kick out of that. She had to come back and tell me she took some great pictures of the family but that the farmer, we’ll call him “Jerry,” wouldn’t let her disturb the cows. Love it. BTW…we did get some awesome photos of his cows, just not that afternoon.

By Heidi