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Village Squire, 1979-11, Page 11eese Company Limited Atwood Cheese Company Limited -- planning on an expansion to increase present production another twenty per cent. --Photo by Laura Drummond. A centiry of cheese Many things have changed but they're still making cheese in Atwood BY LAURA DRUMMOND "1 try not to tell my friends I'm going up north for the weekend or I'll end up with an order of $25 or $35 worth of cheese to buy for them. This cheese just tastes different." This man from Wasaga Beach is one of the many hundreds of people who walk through the doors of the Atwood Cheese Company Limited. This year, the company is celebrating its 100th anniversary. The factory is one mile north of Atwood or five miles south of Listowel on Highway 23. As well as producing over 1.149 tons of cheese a year, it has a very active retail outlet right at the factory. Harold Douglas, manager and shareholder of Atwood Cheese Company explains, "We do at least 10 percent of our sales over the counter." That works out to 867 pounds of cheese sold per day. One of the things that makes people come back time after time is of course the excellent quality. Serving the community for 100 years has helped it build up a very fine reputation. A customer from Grand Bend says, "It gets to be a habit of stopping off. I like the old old old cheese. Today I'm buying the four year old cheddar. 1 can buy things here I normally can't get in a grocery store." The company sells 28 varieties of cheese plus the cream cheeses. There are seven kinds of unique cream cheeses --chocolate, orange, herbs and spices, pineapple, garlic, peach melba, and black pepper. Harold Douglas says the medium cheddar and colby are favorites among his customers, although he sells a lot of old cheddar. Fred Day, the former owner of Atwood Cheese Company explains, "Cheddar is typically Canadian. It has everything you November 1979, Village Squire 9