Fathers Day 2010 – Our trip to Tillamook and the Cheese Factory

For father’s day for 2010, we decided to take a trip to Tillamook for a day of good times and great pictures.  The weather was perfect, and the drive is calming.  Tillamook is situated southwest of Portland, OR.  For those who may know, Tillamook cheese is some good cheese and I think is distributed now nationwide.  I have been a fan of Tillamook from the days of a kid growing up in Portland, especially their ice cream.  I never realized how big they would become, but then again when you’re a kid most don’t think of companies becoming nationwide brands.

I take pride in Oregon.  I was born in Salem, OR so I guess it is natural.  I have been all around the western half of the state, and need to visit the eastern side.  We are planning a few day camping trip in eastern Oregon.  There are areas where you can find marine fossils at elevations in the thousands of feet.  There are also areas of fossils from land animals and minerals and crystals to be spotted.  The national state rock of Oregon is the thunderegg and the state gemstone is the sunstone.  These can be found along with other gemstones and such in south eastern Oregon.  Oregon is known for its volcanic activity and much of its geological treasures.

If any of you read my wife Kristin’s blog www.ourordianrylife.com, you would know how strongly she/we feel on naturally made foods especially organic products.  Some quick facts on organic info include hormone free animals, animals that do not feed on pesticide laced food, cattle with very little to no antibiotic use, and their natural environment.

Many dairy farmers these days have chosen to not use rBST which is recombinant bovine somatotropin aka hormones. Much of this can be attributed to marketing practices, but many believe along with us, that the more natural it is, the better.  Maybe we are crazy, but luckily we have the free choice.  The groups who are fully against hormone use and high levels of antibiotics believe that future problems like cancers are higher due to increased levels of estrogen as more and more milk is produced.  There are some other theories, but I figure why not drink milk the natural way, from cows that are allowed to live a more healthy life, whom are free to roam and eat green grasses.  Shoot, they even have enough room to lay down.

Happy Cows Come From Tillamook, Oregon

Tillamook is largely known for their dairy products and cattle industry.  The cows in these neck of the woods are locally raised and grazing animals.  If you know NW Oregon, you know its trees and more trees.  And the areas that don’t have trees; the western side of the state, has fields full of vegetation which is what you have in Tillamook.  With the moisture brought on from the ocean, its allows green fields to flourish allowing cows to graze on healthy greens.  I am sure with an abundance of food; cows can produce more milk than animals stressed out and crammed into pens.  The reason I guess I feel strongly on this issue is my experience with seeing cows raised naturally and cows that are raised for commerce(commercial) purposes which makes me think about the quality of product they produce.

We travel to California once a year for Disneyland and we usually drive.  If you have made the drive and pass along 1-5 through central California, you get a glimpse of several large cattle reserves of California cows.  I am not trying to diss on California, but “happy cow’s come from Oregon” and maybe its should be “content cows come from California.”  I am drawing this conclusion by pure observation.  But then again it’s clear that Tillamook is not a cattle town made to mass produce livestock, and feed our cattle is easier to with our wetter greener lands.

I did find out from @tillamookcheese on twitter that they do use controlled antibiotics, just not industrially applied.  Many cows that are basically created for use and consumption, get pumped full of antibiotics to prevent disease before they start.  Just like in humans it is not good to overuse antibiotics that are not needed and the reason is that a tolerance can be built up and resistances created against antibiotic strains.  My thing is I am sick of pumping my body full of chemicals and who knows what else.  Food has changed in it’s very nature and much of it during my lifetime.  I will not fall in line with the status-quo and I have taken steps to alter the market in whatever ways I can.

With all the health problems affecting people, and me myself being 15+ lbs overweight, I have decided to make a change.  I don’t want my children eating food that may hurt them.  Highly processed foods which include fast foods have little to no nutritional value and are actually bad  for us to eat by giving us less energy, more free radicals to damage cells, and a wide range of health problems.  I loved fast food, but the industrially-made packaged crap has to be reduced and changed.  Many know this, but I don’t think everyone takes into consideration what this would actually require.

So our first stop upon arrival was the Tillamook Cheese Factory.  It is the actually factory, and it also has a tour area with viewing of the facility.  You can see the machines that cut, slice, and package the cheese.  Also are the large mixing tanks used to create their tasty dairy products.  They have fresh from the source ice cream in I think 30 or more flavors and a full shop with every product they offer along with many hand crafted items local to Oregon and some from Washington.  Great treats.  We got some local things including candied smoked salmon, Handmade raspberry jam, natural batter for fish, honey glazed local jerky, Alpenrose Swiss chocolate milk (local milk company, best you can find), and some other items.  All of these things are from Oregon.  There really is a large selection of good quality foods that we can find here in Oregon.  It does cost a little more, but makes me think more about wasting food that we prepare.  It’s good to practice conservation.  We also got a pin signifying our trip with Kaila to the cheese factory.  We have picked her out a pin from every place she has taken for a trip, and she is gaining a large collection.

We went next to the Blue Heron French Cheese Company.  This property has a restaurant, gift shop, and full wine tasting offering their vintages and more.  It also has an ultra friendly petting zoo.  They make their own cheeses and wines, plus offer a huge selection of local foods.  They have it all.  What we really like about this place is the petting area for Kaila and now Brooklin.  They have a fenced off area where you can purchase their in-house pet food and hand feed sheep, goats, and alpaca, and other animals.  Kaila loved feeding the animals and it is always fun when kids get to interact with them.  We ate some lunch and picked up homemade wrapped licorice and caramel.

Tillamook Air Museum

Or next stop was the Tillamook Air museum.  This is a huge hanger that was created for WWII to house large airships better known as blimps.  This was a good history lesson.  These hangers were created all along the west and east coasts.  Some are still up and not been taken down and one of those is this one here.  There were actually 2 on this site, but they removed one.  These hangers could hold 8 k-Ships which were roughly 150 ft long.  They unfortunately do not have blimps anymore, but they have a selection of older pre and post WWII fighter jets including an F14 fighter jet.  They have a history room with great pictures dating back to the days of use for this hanger.  They also have a bunch of memorabilia, but to a 5 year old, it was pretty boring but I enjoyed it.

We walked around it and got a bunch of pictures.  Kaila liked to see the large aircraft.  She thought at first they were not real.  That’s what we get for taking her to amusement parks; she thinks it’s all made for show.  It was cool to see all the planes up close and touch them and inspect them.

Gun Turret, Airship Hanger Locations, Early Air Drones, Big Engine

When leaving the Museum we drove through some back roads to show Kaila where all the cows who produce the milk for cheese come from.  She was excited to see all the cows in patches and on the many different farms.  I myself think that it is good that they have large open green spaces.  Plus its seems many farms are are independent.  They look like they may even be getting a little too lazy.  I could see them do a lazy “Moooooo” as they sit back and chew their green grass.  A fact I came across from oregon.com is that milk was made the state beverage in 1997 because its impact on our economy.  It feels good to know that our diary industry is strong and that it continues to make quality product while allowing farmers do it right.  I am no expert on this all, but I have made informed decisions and I am not trying to bullshit anyone.

It was a great trip, a little overcast but no rain, which is a hit-and-miss type of deal when dealing with the Oregon coast around this time.  There were a lot of families doing the father day outing in Tillamook and it was good to see all the people enjoying the day.  I am sure everyone had a good father’s day in some way if not all, and I just wanted to take the time to write about another day I will never forget.