Today we signed up and took another tour. It was not
a mystery today, we knew we were headed to Pearl Valley Cheese.
It is a business that is a 4th generation
family of cheese makers, since 1928. We took two other gentleman from the rally
with us as our riders. One, Wade, is a recent widower that has recently traded
his big 5th wheel for a small tag along that he tows with his Ford
Edge. He worked at Ford for 30 years and is now a part-time farmer with his
son. Our other rider was Jack. He travels in a small class C with no tow car.
The interesting thing about Jack is he winters at Texas Trails. Texas Trails is
where our friends Mary & Frank, have work camped for the past two winters.
Jack is the second person we have met at this rally that winters in Texas
Trails!
Okay, back to our tour. Pearl Valley Cheese is a
manufacturer of award winning natural cheeses located in Coshocton County,
Ohio, just south of Ohio’s Amish Country. The family owned business is renowned
for its award winning Swiss Cheese that it has been making since 1928. In
addition to the traditional Mild Swiss, it also manufactures several types of
Swiss including Naturally Smoked Swiss, Baby Swiss, and Lacey Swiss. The
company also produces a full line of Colby style deli-horns including Colby,
Marble, Pepper Jack, Chipotle Pepper Jack, Farmers, and Jumpin' Jack. Jumpin’
Jack is the hotter brother to Pepper Jack. Jumpin’ Jack is made with ghost
peppers. We had a taste at the counter … wow, is that hot!
Our tour started in the retail store, with our tour
guide, Terry Guilliams. Terry is a retired teacher from the area and he taught
some of the employees, most of their kids and always said working at Pearl
Valley would be his ultimate retiree job. So, when he retired from teaching
Pearl Valley called him about a job. He gladly accepted and loves coming to
work every day!
From the retail store, you can see the vats where the
whey is separated from the cheese curds. In this process they whey is separated
into tanks. I will talk more about their uses for the whey later. Today they
are making pepper jack. Once the whey is all separated from the cheese curds.
The curds will be packed into cylinders and then pressed with 87 pounds of
pressure overnight.
We headed outside where three of the whey tanks are
located. They sell the whey to places that make protein powders. Pearl Valley only
makes cheese with milk from cows that have not been injected with artificial
growth hormones from local dairies. It is about a 50 mile radius of dairies
that sell their milk to Pearl Valley.
We peeked into the processing area for the Swiss
cheese. We are not allowed in there, so pictures from the doorway, is the best
we can do.
That is start of Swiss cheese in the “blue swimming
pools” as Terry called them. Really, it is where the Swiss cures in a brine
bath for 24 hours. At this point, Swiss cheese had no holes.
Swiss ages in a warm, constant 67 degree room. One “blue
swimming pool” of Swiss is cut into seven 300 pound slabs, shrink wrapped and
placed in wooden boxes that are banded together. The head cheese maker, can
tell when Swiss is ready by the tightness of the bands. Since as the gases
escape, it expands and creates the holes.
When the head cheese maker thinks the Swiss is ready,
he uses a tool that is inserted into the hole in the wooden box and pulls out a
long plug of Swiss. He can check the size of the holes and decide if it is
ready, or needs to age longer.
Sometimes, for reasons unknown, the Swiss does not
create hole. This cheese is called “blind” and cannot be sold as grade A
cheese. Pearl Valley sells it to companies that make processed cheese products.
Also, sometimes, the cheese expands so much it busts
out of its wooden container. Again, this cannot be sold, but as long as the
shrink wrap is intact, they can sell it to the cheese food processors. Both of
these cheeses, as well as other finished cheeses are stored in the cold storage
room.
Pearl Valley is expanding and we toured a new
processing and shipping area they are building.
In 2010, Pearl Valley cheese built a state of the art
waste water treatment plant with a biodigestor that generates biogas. The gas is then used to generate a portion of
the electricity for their facility. This
plant reduced their electric bill by $8,000 a month. Wow, that is some serious
savings. We did not get close to it … but Terry told us that it does have an
odor as you get closer.
We were lucky enough to catch up with one of the
current owners, Chuck Ellis, in his office. His wife Sally is a Stalder. He
took time out of his day, to answer a few questions and share stories with a
few farmers in our group.
Our tour ended at the history of the Pearl Valley
Cheese factory wall. Very interesting history, I will recap a few of the
placards. 1928 - Ernest Stalder, a Swiss immigrant to Ohio, purchased the Pearl
Cheese Company. It consisted of a small building where a single 200 lb. wheel
of cheese was made daily in a copper kettle.
He also purchased and the neighboring house for total of $700. This was the humble beginning of Pearl Valley
Cheese. In 1929, Ernest married Gertrude Bandi.
In the 1940s, Pearl Valley began making brick cheese
because most of the able bodied men were away at war and the 200 lb. wheels of
Swiss cheese were difficult for the women to maneuver. This production eventually subsided as the
Colby business grew.
In 1969 the final copper kettles were replaced with
2,000 gallon stainless steel, steam-lined vats.
One of the original copper kettles can still be seen outside the retail
store today. Additional construction at the factory included a space for the
growing Colby business as well as additional warm room space for the Swiss.
In 2001, Pearl Valley undertook another expansion
product after the purchase of the neighboring farm. A 20,000 square foot production facility was
built and Double-O enclosed vats were installed that allowed for increased
production of Swiss and Colby varieties.
Since the expansion we have greatly increased our capacity to custom
manufacture and private label cheese for our customers as well as promote and
sell our own brand.
We enjoyed a few quiet hours of fellowship at the
Fairgrounds, before we served the bean soup dinner. That began at 4pm. No
pictures, because we were too busy serving! They had eight 40-quart roasters
full of bean soup! Wow … it was delicious and most of it was gone!
Opening ceremonies began at 7pm, in the Hunter Arena.
The choir sang a few songs and announcements were made.
The Ohio State Directors, Bill & Vickie Elliott, imparted their words of wisdom and gave everyone a few laughs! They had the representatives
from other states speak. The Kentucky State directors were there and Charlie
and I shared the information about the Florida rallies for the Ohio Snowbirds,
although many of the Ohio Good Sammers are Winter Texans.
We enjoyed music by the “no name yet” band … no
really, they have not settled on a name yet! It was music by Jeff Weaver, Adam
Miller and Greg Romanello. It was a little country, a little bluegrass and a
little old time rock n roll. I will tell you that Adam Miller was the fiddle
player and he was the State Fiddle Champion for Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois and a
few other states. But hearing him play, I could see why!
It was “ladies night” after the music and all the
ladies from the staff delivered the door prizes they were giving away that
night. We were lucky enough to win one free meal at Long John Silvers. There
was a jam session after the door prizes, but after a busy day a jam session
starting at 10pm, is too late for me! Good night, until tomorrow’s adventure!
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