{ title: 'The journal. (Ogdensburg, N.Y.) 1971-current, September 27, 1987, Page 23, Image 23', download_links: [ { link: 'http://www.loc.gov/rss/ndnp/ndnp.xml', label: 'application/rss+xml', meta: 'News about NYS Historic Newspapers - RSS Feed', }, { link: '/lccn/sn84031170/1987-09-27/ed-1/seq-23/png/', label: 'image/png', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn84031170/1987-09-27/ed-1/seq-23.pdf', label: 'application/pdf', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn84031170/1987-09-27/ed-1/seq-23/ocr.xml', label: 'application/xml', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn84031170/1987-09-27/ed-1/seq-23/ocr.txt', label: 'text/plain', meta: '', }, ] }
Image provided by: Northern NY Library Network
ADVANCENEWS SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27,1987 OGDEMSBURG, N.Y. PAGE 23 EDITOR'S NOTE: The following article on New York State cheese industry has been reprinted from the September issue of \Business New York\ put out by The Business Council of New York State, Inc., from Albany. BY CALVERT L. ASHER Fact: \Philadelphia\ brand cream cheese isn't manufactured in the City of Brotherly Love. It's a 1 New York State product and is turned out in what is considered the nation's largest and most modem cream cheese plant in Lowville in 1 Lewis County. Fact:' Coon cheese, a derivative of Cheddar, was first made in that same Northern New York city, and is named not for raccoons in- habiting the rural wilds, but for its discoverer > Edward Coon, a Lewis County, farmer who gave the cheese its distinctive dark rind by curing it at a slightly higher temperature than regular cheddar. Fact: Limburger, the first fancy foreign variety of cheese to be made successfully in the United States, was produced initially in the Empire State in the late 1880s. Fact: Since World War H, the state's Italian cheese production (mozzarella, romano, ricotta and provolone) has skyrocketed from a mere 12 million pounds a year to 1 over 260 million pounds, ranking New York, as .the second largest manufacturer of these tasty favorites in the ET.S., exceeded by Wisconsin. Fact: New York State is the country's second largest producer of cottage cheese with a dollar volume of more than $90 million yearly, trailing California, the leader, by only a few million dollars. Fact: Mew York State cheddar is considered a premier product among discriminating cheese lovers, placing the state fifth in production nationwide. Fact: New York State cheese is as familiar overseas as it is in this nation's supermarkets. Today, New York ranks.fourth among all states in the use of milk for manufactured dairy products, according to the New York State Department of Agriculture and Market's latest reports, and is also among the leading producers of American cheese and other soft cheeses, butter, ice cream, evaporated milk and condensed milk products. Only Wisconsin, Minnesota and Missouri, in the heart of the dairy belt, surpass New York. New York ranks first in the na- tion in the yearly production of cream cheese, turning out 30 per- cent of all that is made, or more than 83 million pounds. Much of that is manufactured in Kraft In- ch's state-of-the-art automated' cream cheese plant in Lowville, which employs 325 workers. Kraft, the largest cream cheese producer in the state, also has a bulk cheese (hard cheese) plant in Canton, N.Y., with 120 employees. The Lowville facility is the company's largest cream cheese plant, ac- cording to Scott Horn, a spokesman at Kraft headquarters in Glenview, Ii. Other sources say it is the largest such plant in the U.S. and perhapsthe world. Oream cheese originated in Chester in Orange County. The Empire Cheese Co. plant in Southern Edmeston, Otsego Coun- ty, was the first serious manufac- turer of cream cheese in 1872, and sold it under the 'Thildelphia\ Mintener To Lead Canton Democrats Incumbent Mayor Marilyn I. Mintener will lead a full slate of Democrats in the Canton town and village elections this November. Canton Democrats held their caucus Friday. Mintener will seek a second term as the village's mayor, while Canton attorney An- drew Walton and retired broadcast engineer Irving Epstein will be the Democrat's candidate for two trustee seats. Democrats will also try to make an indentation on the Republican controlled town board. Town Justice Michael Crowe will seek re- election. Isabelle Sherman, a food ser- vices employee at the Ogdensburg Correctional Facility, will seek to fill an unexpired term on the Can- ton Town Board. Canton businesswoman Ann Carvel Ryan and attorney Allen McAllester will be the Democrat's candidates for the pther two seats. Stockholm Democrats A highway superintendent with 10 years of experience under his belt will lead Stockholm Democrats into this November's election. Stockholm Democrats caucused last week and selected David C. Gebo to seek re-election as superintendent of highways. Gebo, 42, has been superintendent of highways for the past 10 years. The Winthrop resident, a graduate of St. Lawrence.Central, •has attended Paul Smith's College, North Country Community College and Canton College of Technology. Gebo worked for the St. Lawrence County Highway Depart- ment before taking the helm of the highway department in the town of Stockholm. The Democrat's two assessor candidates will be unopposed in INovember. Incumbent Patrick J. Lynch, 29, Of Brookdale, is seeking his second term as assessor. Lynch, a lifelong resident of the town of Stockholm, is a graduate of Canton College of Technology. He has been employed by Niagara Mohawk for the past seven years and after a tour of duty as a meter reader for several years is now ser- ving as a test technician. Lynch and his wife, Sara, live on the former Ed Lynch farm in Brookdale. Robert M. Pike, 45, of Winthrop, is the also a Democratic candidate for assessor. Fike, a life-long resi- dent of the Winthrop-Brasher area, has been employed at the St. Lawrence Central Elementary School for the past six years. The Potsdam College graduate sold real estate at one time for St. Lawrence Central. Pike and his wife, Dianne, have three children. Former Town Councilman Ar- thur L. Sweeney, 45, of Sweeney's Corner, is seeking to retain the Republican hold on the Stockholm Town Board. Sweeney has six years of public service on his resume, serving as an assessor for two years and a town board member for four years. The lifelong Stockholm resident has been employed as an a teacher at St. Lawrence Central for 21 years. The former math teacher, who does construction work during the summer, is now employed as a technology teacher. Sweeney and his wife, Linda, have four children. Political newcomer Charles R. Lashombe, 34, of North Stockholm, will join Sweeney as a council can- didate on the Democratic line. Lashombe, born and raised in West Stockholm, is a graduate of Potsdam Central. He worked as a mechanic in the Potsdam area for several years and has been employed by the Norwood-Norfolk School District for the past seven years. Lashombe and his wife, Jane, have two children. Linda W. Fountaine, 40, of Win- throp, is the Democrat's candidate for tax collector. The Potsdam Cen- tral graduateihas worked as a sales representative for Avon for the past two years. Fountaine and her husband, Lawrence, business agent for Local 420 of the Aluminum, Brick and Glass Workers International Union, are the parents of three children. brand, in honor not of someplace in Pennsylvania but of a Jefferson County dairy community. Its suc- cessor, Phoenix Cheese Co., con- tinued distributing \Philadelphia\ cream cheese until it merged with Kraft in 1928, and the dairy product giant kept the brand name. But cream cheese is only a small part of the more than 600 million pounds of cheese shipped by the state, with an estimated annual retail value of $1.5 billion, ac- cording to authoritative sources. The industry, with a payroll of $52 million, provides employment for 2,400 at its 34 manufacturing plants and processors. Historians are sure the Greeks and Romans were enjoying cheese by at least 1000 BC. And it is believ- ed the staple was first discovered by accident many centuries earlier by a simple herdsman in what is how the Middle East. Ashe grazed his livestock, he carried goat's milk in a pouch made from calf's stomach. After miles of travel, the enzymes in the container, stimulated by the hot sun and the movement of the animal on which he rode, caused the goat's milk to separate into curd and whey, which is the process still known as coagulation, or thickening. When the herdsman stopped for a refreshing drink of milk, he instead found the first cheese and enjoyed its taste. Since then, cheese has become a universally accepted treat. Cheesemaking came to New York State in the early 17th Cen- tury, when Dutch colonists settled New Amsterdam and brought dairy cattle to the New World. But it took a dairyman from Rome, N.Y. to first apply mass pro- duction techniques to cheesemak- ing. Jesse Williams founded the first cheese factory in the U.S. in Rome in 1851. The machinery and equip- ment that he invented were the forerunners of improved versions still in use today. By 1864, Rome became the largest center in the world for the production and marketing of cheese. Other cheese factories soon sprung up all over Central New York as the demand for Empire State cheese grew. By 1870, two- thirds of all the cheese produced in New York State was sold to England, and London cheese buyers were a common sight on the streets of Rome, Utica and other upstate cities. The cheese manufacturers in Central New York formed their own association and were influen- tial in getting legislation passed to halt adulterating milk by diluting it with water. That era of cheesemaking in Rome will be permanently etched upon the minds of visitors to the Erie Canal Village in that city this fall, when the New York State Museum of Cheese is opened there.. With a $175,000 funding from the state, the $500,000 museum attrac- tion will feature the reconstructed Weeks and Merry Cheese plant (circa I860)' from Verona, N.Y., ac- cording to Jacqueline Herber, Erie Canal Village director. She added that the contributions of Jesse Williams to the industry will be highlighted. Cheesemaking in the state had some setbacks in the early 1900s. Where once dairy farmers were able to use up their surplus milk by selling it to cheesemakers, the burgeoning population in New York brought on a heavy demand for fluid milk and cheese manufactur- ing came to a virtual standstill. The Depression years of the 1930s saw another increase in surplus fluid milk for the dairy farmer. Milk sales slipped along with the general economy and the cheese business suffered too. It was the vision of one man who stimulated cheese production again during those years, at least in the Mohawk Valley. Frank J. Basloe, a Herkimer real estate developer and insurance man, concerned by the plight of many of his farmer clients, tried to revive their home cheddaring operations. He sought help from then Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt in starting up another cheddar cheese industry. While in Albany, he also filed with the Secretary of State the name \The Original Herkimer,\ a title that eventually evolved into The Original Herkimer County Cheese Co., headed by Basloe's son, Sheldon. Today, the Original Herkimer label is prominent na- tionally. Besides traditional ched- dar, the company markets The Original Herkimer Chutter, a soft cheese in several flavorings which Basloe formulated. More recently, the Basloes developed Chudge, an extra creamy and smoothy fudge product that is a combination of their cheddar and traditional fudge formulations. The company also produces cheese nutballs with a six-month shelf life for super, market sales, and recently ven- tured into a line of gelatin and whipped topping parfaits. The New York State Cheese Manufacturers Association is the industry's trade organization. It is headed by Jeff Yancey of Heluva Good Cheese Co. in Sodus. Yancey recently succeeded John Lavezzo, president of McCadam Cheese Co., Heuvelton. Technical adviser to the associa- tion is Prof. David Bandler of Cor- nell University. Yancey's firm delivers its ched- dar and washed curd to a primary core of supermarkets in 14 states. It also conducts a national mail order business and vends its pro- ducts overseas as well. Sixty percent of all milk produc- ed in the state goes into cheese and other manufactured dairy pro- ducts. There is one significant reason for the worldwide accep- tance of New York State cheese, say the experts. It's the quality of Empire State milk, which is rich in limestone content derived from the grass feed available to dairy herds. As a result, New York State cheese has become haute cuisine for the posh restaurants of glitter- ing American cities, the tidy kit- chens of the.nation's homemakers...a touch of elegance for gourmet galas, intimate cocktail parties and country club gatherings. At the same time, it of- fers piquant variety to the wage earner's brown bag, the schoolboy's lunch box and the even- ing menu. So say \cheese\ — New York State cheese — and smile approv- ingly. LOSURDO /BRUNETTO CREAMERY CORPORATION PLANT: 1 Pope Mills Road Heuvelton, N.Y. 344-2444 MANUFACTURER OF RICOTTA • MOZZARELLA CHEESE Clip this schedule-at-a- glance for quick reference. For more detailed program listings, call or write to Us for a copy of the \Listeners' Guide. WSLU, Payson Hall, St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY 13617. (315) 379-5356
