Village Squire, 1978-01, Page 11Shining stainless steel and white ceramic walls make the cheese making
name of cleanliness.
phase out the cheesemaking operation and get rid of the old
churn. The plant had only been producing about 1000 pounds of
butter a month so it wasn't worth the expense of adding to the
plant for the churn. Now all the whey cream is sold to Gay Lea
foods.
Another major expansion was completed a year ago when the
plant was virtually turned around. The old cheesemaking room
as too small so a new one was added in a 90 foot by 110 addition
at the west end. The old cheesemaking room at the east end was
turned into cold storage space and what was the old cold storage
space in the west end is now offices. washrooms and other
facilities in what is now the centre of the building.
The man in charge during all the growth and changes over the
past few years is Glen Martin who in 1965 took the dual position
of cheesemaker and plant manager. Helping him now is his son
Don who joined the company in January 1972. He was fed up
with school, Don recalls. Like his father, he took a dairy course
(Don at Kempville and Glen at Guelph) in which they studied a
full range of dairy topics from cheese and butter making to ice
cream and fluid milk. Six years after using the cheese business
ais an escape from school Don now says "I bitch and complain'
about the hours but I wouldn't want to do anything else."
Cheesemaking, like winemaking, is both a science and an art.
People develop a taste for different cheeses and won't put up
with other brands. Cheese has become a big part of Canadian life
these days and connoisseurs are nearly as plentiful as they are
for wine. In its December food guide. for instance. Toronto Life
room a bright place, all in the
magazine devotes 12 pages to rating cheese from around the
world (Canadian cheeses, by the way, were at or near the top in
nearly every category).
As with winemaking the process is basically the same and the
raw product can be muck the same but the final product tends to
take on a personality of its own. This personality, Don says, can
be due to the little variations in the process from one plant to
another. A culture used to curdle the milk, for instance may work
well in one factory but not in another because the buildings
themselves have personalities. Still, Don says, a lot of the
difference in taste of cheese is in the mind of the consumer.
People get used to one cheese and think it's the best.
The gleaming new cheesemaking room is the heart of the Pine
River plant. The walls are covered with ceramic tiles floor to
ceiling. All the equipment is made of stainless steel reflecting
the light and adding brightness to the huge room.
Pine River is not as highly mechanized as some of the plants.
The Targe Milkbank facility, for instance has a cheddaring
machine that automatically performs the task of matting the
curds. The operation is still done the old fashioned way, by hand
at Pine River.
Cheesemaking begins with the arrival of the milk at the plant
in large bulk tank trucks. The milk is stored in Targe cooled tanks
and when needed is piped to the vats where it is heated and the
culture is added to begin the curdling process. The curd settles
away from the whey portion and is sliced up into small pieces.
The whey is drained off and in another set of stainless steel bins
VILLAGE SQUIRE/JANUARY 1978, 9.