288666 Fri Mar 08 11:14:14 -0800 2002 12 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 1558605 In discussing the Museum of Condiment Packets below, topics covered other great chow websites. I keep combing the condiment website to find a real street address. Unless I'm missing it, I will have to forever be frustrated that I cannot actually visit and see the real-life packets. But that thread also started developing around brick and mortar museums as well. The Jell-O Museum in Leroy, New York and the Mustard Museum someone else posted. Then I remembered I've been also to the mushroom museum. Food museums, in large part, tend to be annexes of factories or in regions where that food is made or grown. Or, of course, where a fanatic lives. Here's my report on what I've seen. The Mushroom Museum in Kennett Square, PA. It's a tiny storefront museum. Two rooms- one that's like the 1960's, unmodernized natural history exhibits. But it is highly informative. The other (bigger) room is a store. And there's a lot of restaurants in town that feature mushroom foods. Kennett Square produces about 85% of the national crop of mushrooms. Check the label in the supermarket, even, these days, for "gourmet" mushrooms, and you will find Kennett Square, or a town nearby, as the source. It's right near so many other interesting places, too. Don't stay in Kennet Square, though. The manure needed to grow mushrooms makes the town itself a low-rent district, if you know what I mean. But it's near Brandywine, which is gorgeous. Great weekend getaway. We went to Longwood Gardens, Brandywine Revolutionary Battlefield, Simon Pierce Glass Blowing Factory, and Baldwin's Book Barn. Stayed at a revolutionary farmhouse B&B cheap. And there's an awful winery out there, too. We stopped in, saw the stainless vats, and wondered why the place was so packed for the $5 tastings. Jell-O Museum In Upstate New York. I was dying to go, and, in fact, made it, but the place has very limited hours off season (I tried to go in December). It's good if you're passing through on the New York State Thruway, but unless the festival is happening, or you're the most die-hard Jell-O fan, I've also been to the Anderson Pretzel Factory and Hormel packing plant when I was in high school. And Girl Scouts took me to a behind-the-scenes look at a Duncan Donuts. I've also been to a shmura matza factory. I've probably been to more, but I can't remember. All these places are in Southeast Pennsylvania. I know there's also the Herr's snack factory near Brandywine as well (my husband's favorite, since the advent of the ketchup potato chip). I went to that annoying chocolate factory tour at Ethel M's in Las Vegas. If you book bus tours with a certain company, they must have some deal where this place pays them to include them as a stop for their tourists. The cactus garden was much more impressive than the terrible chocolates the tourists were snatching up. What else have you been on or seen? I'll give the link for the Jell-O Museum below, but here are some others I've mentioned (I think I can only hotlink one below). Ethel M http://www.ethelm.com/ Mushroom Museum http://www.phillipsmushroomfarms.com/ Anderson Pretzels http://www.andersonpretzel.com/ this seems not to be working now. are they gone? Herr's http://www.herrfoods.com/visit/visit.html Mustard Museum http://www.mustardweb.com/ Link: http://www.jellomuseum.com/ Fri Mar 08 11:14:14 -0800 2002 0 cypressstylepie 1 1558614 I *strongly* recommend the wonderful Museum of Beverage Containers, located in Millersville, Tennessee (just north of Nashville). I'm including a link to their web site below. Of the many factory tours I've taken, the best was probably the Herr's Snacks plant in Pennsylvania. There's a decent guide to factory tours (not just food-related ones) called 'Watch It Made in the USA' -- lousy text, but useful listings. -- Paul Link: http://www.gono.com/cc/museum.htm Fri Mar 08 11:46:57 -0800 2002 1558605 0 Paul Lukas 1 1558615 attached is a link for the kimchi museum in seoul also there's one in chicago, which we are hoping to visit in the 24 hours of chow Also in chicago is the vienna beef factory, where you can have a chicago dog at it source Link: http://www.kimchimuseum.co.kr/e_ci00.htm Fri Mar 08 11:52:21 -0800 2002 1558605 0 zim 1 1558625 We went on the Jelly Belly tour in Fairfield, CA. It was fun -- they even sell Jelly Belly shaped hamburgers and pizzas in their cafe -- kids love them. When I went to the website to get info about the tour, I found out that they have another tour site in Wisconsin. Here are the links: Jelly Belly factory tour (California): http://www.jellybelly.com/About/Tours/California_Factory_Tour.htm Jelly Belly Warehouse tour (Wisconsin): http://www.jellybelly.com/About/Tours/Wisconsin_Tour.htm Fri Mar 08 12:49:53 -0800 2002 1558605 0 Nancy Berry 2 1558631 Thanks! Jelly Belly was already one of my favorite websites. Fri Mar 08 13:08:59 -0800 2002 1558625 0 cypressstylepie 1 1558626 Here's a link that might interest you: Link: http://www.foodfactorytours.com/ Fri Mar 08 12:51:15 -0800 2002 1558605 0 Nancy Berry 1 1558630 I remember touring the SunMaid Rasin Cooperative in Kingsburg, CA (around Fresno), and my (then little) brother eating himself sick on the little sample bags of chocolate covered raisins. In Tillamook, Oregon you can tour the dairy and plant that makes their wonderful cheddar cheese. Lawry's seasonings used to have a tour of their plant in downtown/east Los Angeles - don't know if they still do. Fri Mar 08 13:08:31 -0800 2002 1558605 0 LBQT 1 1558673 As a child, we took a trip from Detroit to Battle Creek strictly to tour the Kellogg's cereal factory. Fascinating, huge operation. I still remember the huge vats of corned flakes being cooked/baked and the overwhelming sweet, caramelized corn smell. But the best was the ice cream sundae we got at the end showered with Cocoa Krispies! (Sadly, the factory no longer gives tours--confidentiality and/or liability issues. Same for all the car factories.) Several years ago I went with a friend and our grade school children to Chelsea, MI--home of the Jiffy mix factory. Had an interesting film to start on the history of Jiffy mix (started as a Chelsea matron's cornbread recipe) and watched as all the mixes were boxed in the factory. Immaculate facility, well-done tour, and lots of boxes of mix to bring home. A virtual tour: The old, now exctinct Vernor's ginger ale plant on Woodward in Detroit had floor to ceiling glass windows where you could watch the pop being bottled from the street or on the sidewalk. A true landmark for Motowners. {Plus it had the coolest neon signage--an elf holding a bottle of Vernor's which "poured" in neon into a giant glass. Mesmerizing and iconic.) Fri Mar 08 16:07:56 -0800 2002 1558605 0 berkleybabe 1 1558705 When I was but a slip of a girl in Kentucky, I seem to recall going on a school field trip to the Wild Turkey plant. Dunno 'bout y'all, but when I think of elementary educational opportunities, the first thing that springs to mind is, of course alcohol production assembly lines. Also, I freelance for the good folks at Yoo-hoo and was just in a meeting today where we discussed the possibility of a memorabilia museum. The 8-decade spanning collections some of the employees have are truly stunning. And yeah - I've been on a factory tour there by virtue of my working for them, but I somehow get the feeling that if they felt a fan was rabid enough that perhaps things could be arranged. I promose nothing, though. Kat p.s. Weird - my Girl Scout troop went behind the scenes at a Dunkin Donuts as well. Is there some unpublicized kickback thing happening? Fri Mar 08 18:53:28 -0800 2002 1558605 0 Kat Kinsman 2 1558743 The H*** with the Yoo-Hoo tour, when is the next Wild Turkey tour, we can do that one just before we head off to the Corvette museum... Sat Mar 09 14:39:53 -0800 2002 1558705 0 Chino Wayne 3 1558768 Here you go -- the Wild Turkey Distillery tour: Link: http://www.wildturkeybourbon.com/nest/distillery.htm Sun Mar 10 10:50:28 -0800 2002 1558743 0 Nancy Berry 1 1558748 The Mount Horeb Mustard museum in Wisconsin. Link: http://www.mustardweb.com Sat Mar 09 18:02:31 -0800 2002 1558605 0 David "Zeb" Cook 1 1558761 We just visited the Cabot Cheese factory in Vermont last weekend. It's fairly interesting, particularly for people who have never seen a real food industry factory or don't know how cheese is made, but the real attraction is the gift shop which is one of the only places I've found to pick up the specially aged, ultra premium cheddar. It may be the most consistantly excellent cheddar I've ever eaten. Wow. No, really - wow. Sun Mar 10 06:50:36 -0800 2002 1558605 0 fladd