I think it was Angela who had something on Facebook recently about Colby cheese. Which made me remember how one of the treats of going to Gridley was when Dad would buy a big hunk of Colby from the Gridley Cheese Factory to take home. I always think about that when eating Colby cheese. How did the little town of Gridley get a cheese factory? Whatever happened to it? What do you remember about Gridley cheese?
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Gridley Cheese
I think it was Angela who had something on Facebook recently about Colby cheese. Which made me remember how one of the treats of going to Gridley was when Dad would buy a big hunk of Colby from the Gridley Cheese Factory to take home. I always think about that when eating Colby cheese. How did the little town of Gridley get a cheese factory? Whatever happened to it? What do you remember about Gridley cheese?
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7 comments:
It was the best cheese!! I remember going there for a field trip in grade school and watching them push that cheese around in big bins. One of my best friend's dad worked there - might've been the owner, but I'm not sure.
The building is now a meat processing plant run by the Ringger families. Have you ever had any of the canned Gridley Meats?
ooooo...GRIDLEY CHEESE....mmmmm! That brings back fond memories. And then there is the old fashioned HEAD CHEESE. mmmmm.....ooooo. Coupled with COTTAGE CHEESE (smooth) and "schweldy gumberra", this is really living yesterday!
Remberences of Gridley Cheese:
1. When I was about age 6, Dad had a hog or 2 penned up way on the West end of Gridley, 1/2 block W. of Uncle Hank and Aunt Ruth's house, near the Township Shed. He would get very cheap (or free) "wheigh" from the Gridley Cheese Factory to feed the hogs --(it was a near-worthless by-product from the process, as I recall). He also got expired breakfast cereal from Uncle Chuck's grocery store to feed the hogs, then had one butchered for our family at Austin King's Meat Market when the hog was fat enough.
2. There was a time when Uncle Hank drove the Gridley Cheese Factory truck to pick-up/deliver the milk cans from the local farmers.
Uncle Lynn...correct me if any of this is a mis-recollection.
As a parent, I can only imagine how Dad looked forward to that cheese, only to have it devoured by 4 children! Dad, I hope you bought more than one block and saved it for yourself!
To this day, whenever I see Colby cheese, I think of Gridley cheese.
I too think of Gridley cheese when I buy colby cheese.
I remember thinking it was awful and very stinky until on one visit to Gridley when I must have been 10 or so I suddenly loved Gridley cheese. I think the cheese factory closed soon after that.
Yes, Cleve, you are essentially correct on your recollection; however, I think Uncle Hank was a manager of the cheese factory. I don't recall that he picked up the milk from the farmers. He could have in emergency. I remember that he suffered from lumbago, sometimes he was very much bent over! When the cheese factory was sold, he and Butch entered the grocery business.
Those were certainly some days to remember. How could we assemble many of the incidents and make some type of permanent record?
Well, we are both right somewhat, Uncle Lynn. Confirmed by Jack Gramm, his dad did lift and deliver the milk cans for a very short time, but his health soon forced him to simply be a salesman only. Even later, after going into the grocery business, he carried all the Gridley cheeses in his store on 3rd Street in downtown Gridley.
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