1962 June Dairy Parade in Tillamook, OR

We’re gearing up for the June Dairy Parade, and what’s a parade without royalty waving to the crowds? In the 1962 June Dairy Parade, Tillamook County Dairy Princess Bonita Nielson and her court waved to the crowd. It was a soggy day, evidenced by the princesses wearing jackets over their fine dresses.

But the parade must go on, rain or shine! Kristen Kaste, the 2011 Tillamook County Dairy Princess-Ambassador, will host the Oregon Dairy Princess-Ambassador, Jessica Budge, and her court at this year’s parade on Saturday, June 25. Come out and enjoy the fun!

By Chandra

… And it’s time to celebrate!

Across the nation, celebrations are taking place to honor all things dairy, from the farmer to the yummy dairy products they help produce. This year marks the 74th celebration of the annual promotion.

In 1937, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores sponsored a milk promotion. The objective was to show goodwill toward dairy farmers and to increase milk sales during the month, which is a time of peak production. Originally called National Milk Month, the promotion ran from June 12 through July 10. It was supported by the National Dairy Council, which supplied promotional materials to the participating stores. By 1939 the event was officially called June Dairy Month.

June Dairy Month has become a successful public relations campaign for the dairy industry with national support from retailers, producers and processors.
 
Celebrate June Dairy Month with us! Enjoy one of our delicious Tillamook dairy products in a salute to our dairy farmers. Or if you’re in the area, watch the Tillamook County June Dairy Parade on Saturday, June 25, at 11 a.m. Come and join the fun!

By Chandra

Alder Vale Creamery (1940s or 1950s)

In the early days of TCCA, the membership was different. Today, we are a cooperative of family dairy farmers. Back in 1909, when TCCA was organized, it was a cooperative of creameries. The creameries dotted the Tillamook Valley, from north to south and east to west. One such creamery was Alder Vale.

Alder Vale was a tiny little place. It was located in the Nehalem area, which is north of the city of Tillamook. For a period of time, the entire staff at Alder Vale was one cheesemaker, Harold Fogg. Alder Vale received so little milk, cheese sometimes was only made every other day.

Alder Vale existed prior to joining TCCA, but it doesn’t show up on TCCA’s annual report until 1915. This photo of the little creamery was taken later, perhaps late 1940s or early 1950s. You can see that a farmer is delivering his milk. Milk was still being dropped off in cans at that time, although the transportation method was by truck instead of horse and wagon.

By Chandra

Farmer Hiram Smith hand milks a cow in 1912.

Milking a cow is a labor intensive process. When a cow enters the parlor, her teats are cleaned and dried. The milk is visually inspected and the milking unit is attached. About 6-8 minutes later, the unit comes off and the teats are dipped with an iodine solution to prevent bacteria entering the teat canal. At each farm, a milker preps every milking cow the same way. Depending on the herd size, parlor size and number of hands to help, milking takes an average of three hours.

That’s a very condensed version of today’s process. But going back as early as 60 years ago, milking a cow was a little different.

Enter the stool, bucket and hand-power.

Back then, the farmer would sit on a stool within reach of the udder and hand-milk the cow into a bucket. Perhaps they were hoping the cow wouldn’t be ornery and kick the bucket, or worse, kick the farmer. The milk would be poured into a milk can and transported to a creamery by way of horse and wagon. Some of our local farmers also remember their parents or grandparents setting the milk cans in a stream to keep them cool before going to the creamery.

Milking took more time back then and herds were smaller, perhaps only 30 cows as compared to today’s average of about 250 cows. In this photo from 1912, Hiram Smith is milking one of his cows. I wonder if he could ever imagine a faster process. Hmm… he was probably thinking instead, “Take the photo so this cow don’t kick me and I can get back to work!”

Computers feeding cows, automated milking, refrigerated bulk tanks, and 50,000-pound tanker trucks – my how times have changed.

By Chandra

Making and packaging "Club Cheese" cheese spreads, 1949.

Cheese spreads, the yummy product that can be spread on crackers, celery sticks, bread, or whatever else you have a mind to spread it on for tasty snacks.

We first dived into making cheese spreads, called “Club Cheese” at that time, in the late 1940s. When our plant was constructed in 1949, it included a packaging room for rindless cheese and Club Cheese production. Club Cheese was made from trim pieces that resulted in cutting down the larger rindless blocks into smaller consumer-friendly weights. To make the spreads, the trim pieces were ground up and mixed with flavorings. It was then “packaged in a sausage-shaped pliofilm wrappers that keep the cheese fresh and moist,” so stated a 1951 promotion. It could be spread or sliced, making it the perfect size to serve on crackers.

We started with simple flavors: aged cheddar, garlic flavor, and smoke flavor. Then we got a little more adventurous and added onion and bacon flavors to the line of Club Cheeses.

This photo from 1949 shows the steps in the process: The grind machine to grind the trim pieces, the mixer to add in flavors, the “stuffer” to package the cheese into the casings, and the final weighing of the packaged product.

Today, we offer four flavors of cheese spreads, which are only available at the Tillamook Cheese Factory.

By Chandra

A vintage Tillamook Cheese advertisement

Here’s a fun promotional piece from our archives. I have no information on it, including its date. Although I do know that if published, it would have been in the late 1940s at its earliest since the Medium Cheddar Cheesewas listed as our rindless variety. Date and usage aside, the drawing is what caught my attention. The little wedge of cheese biting the man’s tongue reminds me of a little puppy playing tug-of-war with a chew toy. We sure knew how to get people’s attention!

By Chandra

Tillamook cheesemakers pose with a cheese inspector and milk inspector in 1931.

Here’s another golden oldie from our archive in honor of our Monterey Jack and Colby Jack cheeses winning Best of Class in their categories at the 2011 U.S. Championship Cheese Contest®. Can you tell that we are proud?

In this photo, four of the cheesemakers from across the county posed with the awards they won for their cheese in 1931. Left to right: Alfred Long, Red Clover Creamery; Floyd Culbertson, Maple Leaf Creamery Association; Norman Christensen, Tillamook Creamery; and Hugh Barber, Holstein Creamery. Pictured with the cheesemakers are Fred Christiansen, cheese inspector, and Guy Ford, milk inspector.

In the 1930s alone, cheesemakers in the Tillamook area won at least 81 awards, none of which were less than a second place. At that time, it seems like you could enter just about any state fair, even if you didn’t live there.  Awards came from all over the western half of the country, including the Arizona State Fair, California State Fair, Colorado State Fair, Los Angeles County Fair, Midland Empire Fair, Montana State Fair, National Dairy Exposition, Oregon State Fair, Pacific International Show, Pacific Slope Dairy Products Show, Spokane Interstate Fair and Livestock Show, Washington State Fair, Western Washington Fair, and the Wyoming State Fair. Just to name a few.

We are proud of our tradition and that our cheesemakers continue to excel at making some of the best cheese in the country.

By Chandra

We’ve won some pretty amazing awards for our cheese recently. And not to brag or anything, but we have won well over 600 awards for our cheese and dairy products throughout our 101-year history. So in honor of our Monterey Jack and Colby Jack cheeses winning Best of Class in their respective categories at the U.S. Championship Cheese Contest®, here’s a photo of one of our other award-winners.

Albert Haedinger

Albert Haedinger, one of our many cheesemakers in the 1940s-1950s, won the 1953 National Cheddar Cheese Scoring Contest, an event held by the National Dairy Congress. Albert was the first cheesemaker to receive this trophy. The following year the trophy was awarded to another TCCA cheesemaker, Donley Lommen. From 1957 to 1954, four TCCA cheesemakers won the contest’s top honor.

We always knew our cheese was really tasty and made by the best cheesemakers, then and now, but it’s nice to hear it from the experts.

By Chandra

A vintage Tillamook recipe book.

In honor of the launch of our new TV commercials, showcasing our award-winning Medium Cheddar, here are three recipes from “Prize Winning Tillamook Whole Milk Cheese Recipes.” This particular recipe booklet is from 1934. It is full of “extra-good recipes originated by Western Homemakers.”

To start, a lovely soup…

“Walker House” Cheese Soup, submitted by Mrs. Hansen of Bellingham, WA
3 cups boiling water
1 heaping cup grated Tillamook Cheese
1 clove garlic
2 eggs, slightly beaten
3 tablespoons butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Grate the cheese, pour boiling water over cheese, toss in garlic and take out after a few minutes, when soup is flavored to suit. Let come almost to a boiling point, and then add the slightly beaten eggs. Stir with a fork until the eggs are cooked and look something like noodles. Add the butter, and serve at once with croutons – little toasted cubes of bread. This hearty soup can be made in three minutes. 

How about something to serve with that soup?

Tillie Pop-Ups, submitted by Mrs. Jones of Portland, OR
Break 3 eggs into a bowl, add 1-1/8 cups milk and ¼ teaspoon salt, and beat thoroughly. Add 1½ cups flour and beat at least 3 minutes longer, then add ½ cup grated Tillamook Cheese. Have heavy muffin or pop-over pans very hot and well greased. Fill about half full with the mixture, drop a little more grated cheese over the top, and put into a hot oven (450 degrees), decreasing the heat after 15 minutes to 350 degrees, and continuing to bake for 30 minutes longer.

And for dessert, something sweet (I think.)

Maids of Honor, submitted by Mrs. Cohoon of Tacoma, WA
Bake good pastry tartlets and fill with this cream: Mix 2 cups grated Tillamook Cheese with 2 tablespoons cream, the beaten yolks of 2 eggs, ½ cup sugar, 2 tablespoons melted butter and the grated rind and juice of 1 lemon; lastly, fold in the 2 egg whites, beaten stiff. Sprinkle chopped almonds over top and bake in a pastry shells in a moderate oven (375 degrees) for 20 minutes.

Mrs. Cahoon added a note at the end of her recipe that these were her favorite “tea table dainties” in England.

Bon appétit!

By Chandra

Three-of-the-Day

“Three-of-the-day, including Man-Styled Cheese Baked Eggs, cauliflower with cheese sauce in a veggie bouquet and cheese mushroom soup.” Looks pretty tasty, huh? In the 1950s, we often provided a menu idea for the month in our advertising or at the point-of-purchase in the grocery store. This was a menu idea for November in the mid-1950s. I personally am curious about what may be in the “Man-Styled Cheese Baked Eggs.”

By Chandra