Earlier this week, we had the delightful opportunity to visit our local dairy. The family owned business was started by Jack and Nelda Eberhard in 1951, and today is operated by 2nd generation, Bob, and 3rd generation, Mark. The experienced staff at Eberhard’s Dairy Products, consisting of 50 people, has over 460 years of combined experience in the dairy products business. Eberhard’s offers a full line of locally manufactured milks, cottage cheese, sour cream, butter and ice creams under the Eberhard’s Quality Chekd label (since 1983).
In the photo above, Bob Ebherhard begins our tour showing us the room where the temperature of the storage tanks (pictured at top) are controlled. The raw milk is brought to these tanks daily and they process the milk from one tank at a time.
From here, we all donned hair nets and proceeded into the processing plant where we followed the milk through the process of pasteurization and homogenization. We also visited the room in which sour cream and cottage cheese is made. The picture below shows where the pasteurized milk is poured into the jugs (background) and the label is attached (foreground).
We were shown how the milk crates are sanitized before the product is loaded (a mechanized case washer that transports stacks of crates along a conveyor belt), the dry storage area, and the cold room. We also briefly stepped into the freezer storage, the largest (7,000 sq. ft. + 24’ high) and coldest (20°) storage freezer in Central Oregon.
It was a very informative trip and we enjoyed every moment. Bob was very gracious to open his plant to us and the kiddos now feel a special bond with Moo Moo Belle, pointing her out when we see her face on the trucks and product labels in the stores.