Oregon Dairy Industries Elliker Cheese Tray

People’s Choice Awards

Today over 200 people from across the dairy industry gathered at the ODI Elliker Cheese Tray to celebrate resumption of our annual educational conference in-person. The cheese tray has long been a closing feature of the conference for participants to gather, socialize, and enjoy both local and international cheeses accompanied by fine Oregon wines. Beyond providing relaxed networking time, a goal of the cheese tray is raising funds to support the ODI Bodyfelt Scholarship endowment for OSU Food Science students. This year’s silent and on-line auctions grossed more than $4500 with an additional $3000 in sponsorships.

A recent addition to the cheese tray has been the Peoples Choice Awards where each attendee is supplied with 3 poker chips to vote for their 3 favorite cheeses from the 38 cheeses offered in 2022. This year’s most popular cheeses were:

1st Place -TomaTruffle from Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese, Point Reyes Station, CA

2nd Place– Up-In-Smoke from River’s Edge Chevre`, Three Ring Farm, Logsden, OR  

And a three-way tie for 3rd place–

• 2010 Maker’s Reserve from Tillamook Creamery, Tillamook OR

• Rogue Rive Blue from Rogue Creamery, Central Point, OR

• Cougar Gold from Washington State University, Pullman, WA

Marc Bates, cheeseguy@charter.net

For the ODI Cheese Tray committee