Tillamook Factory Faces

I toured the Tillamook Factory in Tillamook, Oregon, and learned things like:

A cow can drink up to a bathtub full of water every day (50 gallons)and it takes ten pounds of milk to make one pound of cheese and fresh curds squeak when you bite them because air is trapped inside.

(Not exactly news to me, since I help a edit niche magazine called CULTURE: The Word on Cheese; many of my cheese-factory visits are inspired by that work. I’ve hit half a dozen creameries in various states, most recently Beecher’s Handmade Cheese in Seattle. But fun trivia bits to share here.)

The guardsman over these forty-pound blocks of cheddar spotted me:

As well as a crazy eyed child in a model of the company bus: 

Famed for the 2-pound baby loaf, Tillamook is the #2 brand of natural chunk cheddar in the U.S.

Seen on other cheesy T-shirts: LOAF CONQUERS ALL.

Clever marketing and a delicious product, yes.

But I‘m from Cabot country.