PULLMAN — Ferdinand’s Ice Cream Shoppe at Washington State University, seller of Cougar Gold cheese and delicious ice cream, will celebrate its 60th birthday next Wednesday.
Special tins of Cougar Gold aged three years, two years longer than usual, will be available for purchase, said Russ Salvadalena, manager of the WSU Creamery, which operates Ferdinand’s.
Ferdinand’s arose from the decision by officials of what was then Washington State College to take over management of the Troy Hall Creamery, which had been operated by a private dairy that took milk from the college’s herd and turned it into products for dining halls.
It became the campus retail outlet for the creamery in 1948. In the beginning, Ferdinand’s offered milk and three flavors of ice cream. It is not clear if cheese was on the menu.
The first week, Ferdinand’s took in $9.42 in sales. Last year, the self-sustaining operation generated about $4.5 million in sales, Salvadalena said. Ferdinand’s sold 200,000 tins of cheese and 12,000 gallons of ice cream.
The income pays the salaries of 11 full-time employees and about four dozen part-time student workers.
Cougar Gold accounts for almost 80 percent of cheese sales. The sharp, white cheddar cheese was developed in the 1930s and 1940s by WSU dairy scientist Norman Golding while conducting research aimed at creating natural cheeses that could be vacuum canned. At the time, plastic packaging had not been invented and wax packaging sometimes cracked, leading to contamination.
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