 |
 Russ Salvadalena '77 (left) is current manager of the WSU Creamery and
guardian of the secret adjunct culture that results in Cougar Gold.
Marc Bates '70, '76 (right) was manager for 27 years. Photo by Robert
Hubner.
Other cheese makers are now experimenting with using a second
culture to achieve the same effect as Cougar Gold, says current
Creamery manager Russ Salvadalena ’77. Indeed, Beecher’s uses an
adjunct culture with its Flagship, their homage to Cougar Gold.
Close as it may be, however, it is not the same culture. The actual
identity of WSU 19 is closely guarded.
Although the Creamery also makes a traditional cheddar, a jack,
and several flavored cheeses, Cougar Gold accounts for 75 percent
of its sales. In fact, because of steadily increasing demand, the
Creamery recently dropped a couple of its less popular varieties in
order to increase Cougar Gold production. It has also started
buying milk from a herd managed by the WSU student dairy club, CUDS
(Cooperative University Dairy Students). In all, the Creamery
produced last year 375,000 pounds of cheese, in 200,000 cans. Sixty
percent of their cheese sells between October and Christmas. The
campus store accounts for 20 to 25 percent of revenue. Most sales
are by mail. The newest outlet is the Washington State Connections
store in Seattle.
All that cheese requires someone to make it, of course.
Including Salvadalena, the Creamery supports seven staff positions,
a full-time faculty member and a staff member in Food Sciences and
Human Nutrition, two research graduate assistants, and part-time
work for 50 students. Many people working in the dairy and cheese
industry today got their cheese education at the Creamery.
The Creamery’s cheese-making education is not restricted to
undergraduates. For the past 20 years, WSU has offered an annual
four-day cheese-making course. The bulk of the class entails
lectures by cheese experts from around the country. But one day is
devoted to hands-on cheese making. This year, the class made gouda,
havarti, mozzarella, cheddar, feta, cottage cheese, queso fresco,
and ricotta.
Beecher’s Sinko, who took the class in 1993 (Dammeier has also
taken it), calls the course “way, way, way better” than any of the
others offered around the country. Class size is limited to 27
students. This year, says Salvadalena, they didn’t even have to
advertise. They simply called up everyone on the waiting list and
filled the class.
The makeup of the class has changed significantly over the
years, says Salvadalena. Originally, students were primarily from
big cheese making plants such as Tillamook and Darigold. “Now more
than half are farmstead.”
“Farmstead” describes small-scale cheese makers who make cheese
from their own animals rather than buying their milk.
After 20 years, the influence of the cheese making class has
spread around the country. Students this year came from Vermont,
British Columbia, and Louisiana, as well as Oregon, Washington, and
Montana. Bates knows of four cheese makers in California in
business today who date back to the third or fourth class. Here in
Washington, a number of successful cheese makers list the course on
their cheese-making resume. Sandra Aguilar, Quesaria Bendita, in
Yakima. Roger and Suzanne Wechsler, Samish Bay Cheese, in Bow. Lora
Lea Misterly, Quillasacut Cheese Company, in Rice.
And not all of the students are neophytes. Joyce Snook has been
making cheese for 20 years, she says. She took a week off from her
role as cheese maker at Pleasant Valley Farm in Ferndale.
“I didn’t know the science,” she says. Fortunately, she says,
smiling, the course was confirming her practices.
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