Friday, May 17, 2019

Two Lane Adventure to Ohio – Thursday, May 16th 2019


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!

No comments:

Post a Comment