what about the plastic animals?

Home of the Cheesemakers

Driving into Tillamook I went by the high school, which has "Home of the Cheesemakers" proudly written over one of the entrances.  It struck me that I could use a t-shirt or a hat with "Tillamook Cheesemakers" on it.  I had to stop for gas anyway, so while I was downtown I went to every store that might sell school t-shirts. 

No luck.

I went into a consignment store, thinking it was a small town department store, and the very nice woman in there searched every rack of clothing for me -even the little kids racks and the very large adult racks.  She pointed me to the local screen printer but he was closed for the day or for a while, she wasn't sure because he doesn't keep regular hours.  I searched a couple of more stores on the edge of town but had no luck.

To assuage my disappointment I went to the Tillamook Cheese factory and went on their self-guided tour.  About 1.7 million pounds of milk enter the factory each day and 167,000 pounds of cheese leave.  At the end of the tour you can sample several varieties of cheese curds.  There is also a highly efficient ice cream bar, which further assuaged my disappointment.  Later I remembered that I had forgotten to go back to the high school to take a picture of the "Home of the Cheesemakers" entrance.

Camouflage

Rare holstein lambs at the Strolling of the Heifers Dairy Fest.

2008 Strolling of the Heifers

Ahh, the reason I went to Vermont.  It had been four years since I last went to the Strolling of the Heifers in Brattleboro.  As in past years, about a hundred young cows strolled up Main Street at the front of the parade.   Also marching were superhero super pooper scoopers, the high school band, a couple of giant fiberglass cows, a senator, a juggler on a unicycle and a whole lot more.  After the parade I headed to the Green Expo and Dairy Fest.  At the latter one could, and did, enjoy Vermont's dairy goodness, including lots of cheese, milk, ice cream and water buffalo yogurt.

Swedish Cow

This Volvo is often parked near 116th and Morningside Avenue.

I regret not having my camera with me this evening.  There was a magician on the subway.  He had a hat, which he invited a guy to see that it was empty.  The magician lifted up the guy's girlfriend's legs up and swept the hat under her butt.  The boyfriend was asked to reach into the hat.  He reached in and pulled out his girlfriend's panties.  There was much shrieking of disbelief.  I was sufficiently entertained to give the magician a dollar.

Young's Jersey Dairy

So majestic...

Single dip waffle cone (vanilla with red and blue crunchy bits)

ice cream sources

Bull shake (strawberry shake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream)

A couple of months ago I was prattling on about how much I liked the ice cream at Bi-Rite Creamery in San Francisco.  I even compared it to the ice cream at Young's Jersey Dairy.  One reason for going to Ohio was to get an ice cream at Young's, just outside of Yellow Springs.

The two ice creams don't really compare.  Bi-Rite is outstanding gourmet ice cream with interesting flavor combinations.  Young's is all about straightforward classic flavors.  The Memorial Day weekend special was vanilla with crunchy bits of cookie.  You'll never find a purer, creamier vanilla ice cream.  I ate about half a small cone, walked around the farm, thanked the cows, and went back for a bull shake.  Strawberries were just coming into season so I tried the strawberry shake.  The bull shake is a delicious 24 ounces and includes a scoop of ice cream on top of the shake.

I took the shake with me as I headed toward Columbus.  That was quite a bit of ice cream.  I didn't feel so good while cruising on I-70 and had to swear off dairy products for a couple of days afterwards.

From Real Cows

I don't normally buy whole milk, but I couldn't pass up Cream-O-Land's milk from real cows.  There's no indication on the package that the milk is organic, or the cows free of growth hormones.  The quart only cost 93 cents, so I assume this is generic milk from factory farm cows. 

Next time I want to try Cream-O-Land's Lots-Of-Pulp milk.

Cowspotting #3, or More Accurately, Bullspotting #1

Black Angus near Jericho Center, Vermont

Cowspotting #2

Holsteins in Vermont near Lake Champlain.

p.s. I may be putting lots and lots of stuff up in the next few days.