,1
Lane Hickenbottom/DN
CAPTAIN JIM GEORGE of the Lincoln Fire Department executes a gear-changing
drill during a Thursday afternoon bicycle practice. Firefighters were practicing slow
speed drills to prepare for large football-game crowds. See story on page 7.
Husker cheese a UNL favorite
Since the 1920s, food
science majors learn
the art of cheese mak
ing at the East Campus
Dairy Plant.
By Amanda Taylor
Staff Reporter
It’s a Cheesehusker harvest.
Students in nets, aprons and boots
show up at 5 a.m. and lean over a huge
vat of bubbling yeljow lumps to carry
on a tJNL tradition that dates back
before 1920.
Eight UNL food science students
labor over their smelly tasks at the
Dairy Plant cm East Campus churning
out 17 varieties of cheese.
Douglas Radebach, a freshman
food science major, said his first two
days on die job wexe overwhelming.
“My teacher, Dave Casillas, who
has been working at the plant for six
years can make a lot more then I can
in an hour,” Radebach said. “Right
now I just help out and hope that I will
catch on soon.”
The process begins with pasteuriz
ing milk, after which culture and ren
net, a substance used to curdle milk,
are added. After the milk curdles, the
curd is cut. The curd, is stirred and
slowly cooked at 100 degrees.
When it reaches the right acidity,
the mixture is drained and cold water
is added. It is drained and stirred until
it reaches acidity again. Salt is added,
and the cheese solidifies.
The cheese is put in boxes and
stored overnight in the same cheese
press that has been used since 1942.
The cheese is then left to age.
UNL’s cheese contains 30 percent
fat, which can vary depending on the
amount of water used-in the process
ing. That fat is taken into account when
the cheese is used as part of athletes’
diets at the training table.
The athletes, and everyone else,
have a lot of cheese to choose from.
Hie cheese conies in Husker, a mild
yellow cheese, and Husker with
jalepeno, Husker with caraway, colby,
mild cheddar, sharp eheddar, smplred
Cheddar, New York Cheddar and
Husker and gold, which is a mix of
Husker and colby.
Other test flavors include pesto,
garlic and herb, Italian, taco and dill.
Laurie Keeler, store and plant man
age*, said they sell 30,000 pounds of
cheese a year. They sell 5,000 pounds
of Husker, their most popular cheese.
And 5,000 pounds of Husker
cheese equal atout 23, 220-pound
Husker football players.
The bulk of the cheese«— about
25,000 pounds — is sold at Christmas
and comes in gift packages that can be
shipped nationwide.
The plant doesn’t make all the
cheese at the same time because
cheese has to age before it can be sold.
It’s made February through April, July,
and September through October,
which is when employees make
Husker and colby cheese. The plant
also makes fee cieam. 4|| :-r
The public can view the dairy ma
chines and production room through
glass panels. Production days and
times vary, so people are urged to call
ahead. The store is open Monday
through Saturday from 10 ajn. to 10
p.m. and Sunday freon 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.
lor state businesses
By Chad Lorenz
Senior Reporter
Don’t be surprised if a Nebraska inmate calls
trying to sell you farm equipment.
Don’t hang up, it’s his job.
Nebraska prisons offer telemarketing and
other jobs to at least 470 inmates, Don Lincoln,
superintendent of Comhusker State Industries,
said.
Comhusker State Industries coordinates con
tracts with private businesses and public agen
cies to put inmates to work during their sen
tences, Lincoln said.
One company, TGS Inc., pays inmates to call
the company’s clients and take orders for farm
equipment, Lincoln said.
Other inmates take calls from out-of-state
visitors asking about Nebraska tourism.
“If somebody calls for information about
Fort Robinson, they’ll take a name and address
and send out a packet of information,” Lincoln
said.
Inmates average about 150,000 mailings a
year for the Department of Economic Develop
ment, he said.
Other inmates provide goods and services
used by other state agencies and nonprofit or
ganizations.
Some translate books into braille, make mi
crofilm newspapers for state historical societ
ies, sew prison linens and uniforms and repair
state-owned vehicles.
Although inmate employment has attracted
controversy in states such as California and
Nevada, Lincoln said Nebraska and its prison
system benefit from the program.
The U.S. Department of Justice regulates
inmate employment, he said, and any infrac
tions could cost the state its certification.
“There’s a whole laundry list of checks and
balances,” Lincoln said.
One of those checks ensures that a public or
private business can’t shut down a plant or of
fice to employ prisoners.
“People can’t lose their jobs to inmates,”
Lincoln said.
The work programs are self-supported by the
revenue made from the products and services,
Lincoln said. And usually the inmates work
harder and faster than free citizens would, he
said.
Inmates earn about the same amount as they
Please see PRISON on 8
Big Red beer garden replaces Denny’s
| By Erin Schulte
Senior Reporter
Fans in search of halftime refreshments dur
ing the Nebraska-Michigan State football game
Saturday will not have far to stagger.
Iguana’s received a special liquor license last
week to sell beer and mixed drinks on football
Saturdays at the old Denny’s building at Ninth
and R streets.
Because the license is specially designated,
the4ptance requirements that states liquor sales
must be held at least 300 feet from campus were
waived.
The revamped restaurant, dubbed the 50
Yard Bar, has been billed by Iguana’s owners
as the largest beer garden in the state.
The 50 Yard Bar should provide Husker fans
wanting to drink before the game an option
when faced with the long line around Barry’s
Bar and Grill on Ninth Street, Iguana’s co-owner
Becky Smith said.
“There’s so much business, there’s enough
for everybody,” Smith said. Now Barry’s over
Please see BEER on 7
-_ LaneHkxenbottom/DN
ELIZABETH SWEENY, a sophomore food science major, prepares to
scoop a bucketful of cheese curds while Laurie Keeler, the Dairy Plant
manager, adjusts machinery Wednesday in the East Campus Dairy Plant