Our booth located in the domed exhibit hall showcasing Tillamook Cheddar Cheeses at the 1932 Tillamook County Fair. It’s not too far from where our ice cream booth is today!

It’s county fair time! In Tillamook, it’s a time for pronto pups, ice cream cones, exhibits, horse races, Pig-n-Ford races and thrills on the midway.

The Tillamook County Fair was established in 1891. In 1921, land and money was acquired to build a permanent home for the fair. One of the first buildings erected was the domed exhibit hall, which is still a feature of the fairgrounds today.

We don’t know exactly how long TCCA has been involved with the fair, but we’ve certainly had a long relationship of supporting and participating in the annual event. Through the years, dairy farmers would show their cows, and cheese contests were held where all of the local creameries would submit their best cheddars. Dairy farmers still show their cows, but the cheese contest was no longer needed once all of the cheesemaking consolidated in the central plant in 1968.

But no worries, the fun never stopped. In the early 1970s an ice cream booth was established. Since then Tillamook Ice Cream cones have been available to all fairgoers. Just steps inside the main exhibit hall you can belly-up to the booth and order one or two scoops of our delicious ice cream. Today, we partner with 4-H to staff our ice cream booth. They keep all of the proceeds from the sales and we all get to have some fun.

In 2010, USA Today named the Tillamook County Fair one of the top 10 blue-ribbon county fairs. Stop by for some fun at the Tillamook County Fair, Aug. 10-13!

By Chandra

Historical photo: A float in the Tillamook June Dairy Parade

June is Dairy Month! And since Tillamook County is a proud dairy community, the county is gearing up for fun and festivities and celebrating with the June Dairy Parade on Saturday, June 25.

The national June Dairy Month promotion got started in 1937. But it appears that Tillamook was so proud of its dairy industry that the first local dairy celebration was held in the 1920s, so says an old-timer who watched the parade as a young lad. I don’t know what happened in all the years after that first parade, but the beginning of the annual celebration as we know it today kicked off in 1957.

Tillamook’s first June Dairy Month celebration had a number of activities, including a cow milking contest for the local mayors. Bob Ely, who was festival chairman and a TCCA employee, stated that “a good time was had by all,” even though the parade was delayed by rain. Nowadays the parade is held rain or shine. What’s a little rain?

By 1961 the event had turned into a festival. Four mayors competed in the cow milking contest; the Lions and Kiwanis groups held a tug-of-war contest; there were milk drinking and ice cream eating contests for fifth and sixth grade boys; two dances were held and, of course, the fourth annual June Dairy Parade, which concluded with the coronation of the Tillamook County Dairy Princess.

In 2003, TCCA began sponsoring the parade in an effort to keep the tradition active in the community. Today, Tillamook County’s June Dairy Parade is one of Oregon’s largest parades, averaging about 150 entries.

The 2011 parade will be Saturday, June 25, at 11 a.m. Come and join the fun!

By Chandra

John Wyss, Perrin and Adam Schmelzer operated the power curd mill at Beaver Creamery. Addie Bunn stands in the background.

Steam was very important for making cheese in the smaller creameries. When the creameries were running, boilers were constantly being fed wood to keep the fire high in order to generate the steam needed to heat the vats during the cheesemaking process.

But steam had other uses, too. Once the cheesemaking process became mechanized, steam was used to run some of the equipment. The best example is of the early power curd mills. This photo shows the first power curd mill for the Beaver Creamery, and possible for the county (circa 1910). The mill was used to cut the slabs of curd into small, uniform pieces, which were then salted and pressed into hoops.

By Chandra

In the early 1930s, we began researching the possibility of smaller sized cuts of our cheese, including a method of canning cheese! We learned that the “severest competitor” to our larger rounds of cheddar was packaged cheese in consumer-friendly weights. At this time in our history, most of the cheese we made came in wheels or larger blocks that were kept, normally, in a cheese case in grocery stores. Consumers asked for an amount, and the proprietor would slice it from the larger block and wrap it in brown paper.

By 1947, we began marketing our first rindless cheese. Tillamook rindless cheese was made by aging a 20-pound block of cheddar without its cheesecloth wrapping. Once the block was ready, smaller 1- and ½-pound weights were cut from the large block. To package the cheese, an inner wrap was applied, followed by a cellophane overwrap. When the main Tillamook plant was constructed in 1949, it included a packaging department for rindless-cheese cutting and wrapping.

Today, the process is much simpler. Smaller weights are cut from a 40-pound block and, instead of an inner and outer wrap, there is only one, colorful wrapper hiding the cheesy goodness inside.

By Chandra

What organization could it be, you ask? Only the Tillamook County Creamery Association, of course! Today, February 13, Tillamook is 102 years old.

TCCA was formed in 1909, but prior to that, there were other attempts at forming cooperative-style organizations. They didn’t succeed due to lack of funds or greed on the part of the organizer. But TCCA had a recipe for success.

At the center was Carl Haberlach, a young lawyer who was acting as bookkeeper and salesman for 16 of the local creameries. As the story goes, Carl observed jobbers playing the creameries against each other, influencing the price of cheese. He also noticed that store owners had preferences for cheese made by certain creameries. In these early years, each of the little creameries had their own cheesemaker, and each cheesemaker had their own process for making cheddar cheese. There were no communal standards for cheesemaking in Tillamook County.

Carl had a plan. He wanted to eliminate the jobbers, sell through one organization and improve the cheese by setting quality standards. Several of the creameries thought it was a great idea and, on Feb. 13, 1909, TCCA came into existence. TCCA’s first order of business was to elect a board of directors. With that done, the important task was finding a cheese inspector. But that’s a story for another day.

Photo: Carl Haberlach, TCCA secretary-salesman (retired in 1944)

By Chandra