Black Mesa Ranch and Goat Cheese Dairy, Snowflake, Arizona, USA

Arizona's ONLY Certified Dairy specializing in fine Farmstead Artisan Cheeses!

Nestled at the base of Black Mesa in the beautiful White Mountains of Arizona about 9 miles due east of the historic pioneer town of Snowflake, we (the owners Kathryn and David) work towards rehabilitating and improving this long-abandoned 280-acre "off-grid" homestead property with an eye toward self-sufficiency and a plan for sustainability. This web site documents our continuing plans, progress, pitfalls and projects.

Recent Happenings at the Ranch

UPDATED 10/4/08

In the News:

Phoenix New Times Award

10/4/08 The Phoenix New Times, a weekly newspaper in the Phoenix area, has recently honored us with one of their "Best Of Phoenix" awards. Below is their article about us.

Best Homegrown Goat Cheese

"Though Snowflake, the northern Arizona town nestled in the White Mountains, is outside our coverage area, we make an exception for this fabulous cheese that is available for purchase at boutique food stores around the Valley (Whole Foods is one) and at fine restaurants such as Quiessence. If you consider goat cheese to be an overpowering, overly pungent experience, think again. Black Mesa's cheeses are made exclusively from the milk of their own herd of Nubian goats, an African breed known for their adaptability to the hot summer temperatures.

The family-owned and operated company's Web site declares that Black Mesa never works on more than 14 gallons of milk at a time. That allows it to pay the closest detail to every step of the cheese-making process. The various cheeses — we especially like the goat's milk feta — are available online and at very reasonable prices. In a previous life, one of the owners was a pastry chef, and Black Mesa's commercial candy kitchen includes Goat's Milk Fudge and Butter Almond Toffees. Let's hear it for the goat! "

Other winners of this year's "Best of Phoenix" awards who use BMR cheeses include:

Binkley's Restaurant · Best Destination Dining

Rancho Pinot Grill · Best Place to Take a Slow Foodie

Pizzeria Bianco · Best Gourmet Pizza

Atlas Bistro · Best BYOB

The Farm at South Mountain · Best Patio Dining

Pane Bianco · Best Sandwiches

Quiessence · Best Seasonal Cuisine

Whole Foods · Best Cheese Selection

Congratulations to all! We are proud to supply these fine establishments with our wonderful goat cheeses!

BMR Utility Company Update:

BMR Goes SOLAR...Again

9/10/08 Since we are totally off grid we have little choice but to be our own utility company. Our main power sources are the sun and the wind. Our well, however, has always required the use of a gasoline powered generator. Finally, we have a solar powered water pump and it is really a treat. When the sun shines, our water tank fills! The overflow is directed to a cattle tank and the cows are enjoying having a second source of refreshment. While this was a very pricy upgrade, the cost was somewhat ameliorated by the fact that when we pulled the old pump out, we discovered that one of the plumbing fittings was so corroded that it would have totally disintegrated within the year, necessitating emergency repairs.

Earlier this year our wind turbine was damaged during a storm. The good folks at Val-U Solar promptly came out, climbed the 50 foot tower, and brought the turbine down to send in for repair. Unfortunately, the only company that does the repairs took two months to return the equipment! Once the turbine was finally sent back, the Val-U Solar dudes came right out, climbed the tower, and installed the turbine. Good folks, those Val-U Solar people!

The old raised tanks are not in use and the old wind mill is just decorative for now, but some day may be put back into service.

Our 4500 gallon tank is set on the ground (lower left hand corner of the picture). The new solar panels are mounted on the wind mill framework with a custom rack designed by Chuck.

Chuck, one of the Val-U Solar owners, installs the repaired turbine at 50 feet above the ground!

Reunion Committee Report:

A Good Friend Comes Back To The Ranch

8/15/08 Several years ago the wonderful folks at Jacob's Pride helped us get our dairy running by loaning us some of their beautiful milking does for the season. One of those girls has now rejoined our herd and we are so thrilled to have her back. And this time Gem, along with her friend, Marlyn, are here to stay.

Gem is a Superior Genetics doe with the softest udder we've ever felt. She is an incredibly sweet, productive, and beautiful girl. She has one Grand Champion win and one Reserve Grand Champion win. Her buddy Marlyn also has her Superior Genetics title and is the mother of an ADGA Spotlight Sales buckling. She is also the full sister to Bridget Bardoe, the high selling 2004 Spotlight doe who went Jr. Grand Champion at the ADGA National Show the following year. Marlyn has been awarded the title of Reserve Grand Champion four times.

Gem, Marlyn, and the rest of our herd can now be seen on our new "Our Goats At A Glance" web page as well as on their own, more detailed pages.

We welcome Gem (left) and Marlyn

Herd Manager Update:

The Goat Lineage Pages are updated!

8/5/08 Our Goat Lineage Pages have been updated with new pictures and information. Our pictures are not formal portraits, but rather snapshots of our goats going about their everyday lives. We feel that our goats don't need to be artificially posed in order to look great!

David and Kathryn working to get new pictures of the goats...

and even succeeding thanks to our friends Martha McClements and Glenda Bonin of Story Works Group.

News from the herd:

Kid Reservations Now Being Taken!

8/3/08 Our 2009 kidding schedule has been posted. Most of our goats are purebred, registered Nubians and in addition to having some wonderful kids available from them we will also have some Saanen cross kids and Oberhasli kids available for sale. Our goats are G6S tested, CAE free, and free of abscesses. Our herd is on DHIR and participates in the ADGA Linear Appraisal program. Please check out our goats and get your reservations in for next year's kids. If you aren't sure about which kids you want, check out our Goat Shopping Guide.

Webmaster report:

BlackMesaRanchOnline gets Downsized!

7/7/08 After years of dreaming, research, and just plain impatient waiting, we've finally been able to acquire the domain name BlackMesaRanch.com. The "online" part of our old domain name has been dropped. Web site access and email addresses will work with either the new or old name for now, but soon we will change over to the shorter version - so please update your favorites list!

A Word from the Herd...

Linear Appraisal 2008

6/11/08 We take great pride in our goat herd. They are a wonderful bunch and work hard making milk so that David can turn it into our award winning cheeses. We know that they can crank out the milk. We are on DHIR milk test so every month a supervisor comes to monitor the quantity and quality of the milk. Our girls consistently earn their milking stars. However, since we don’t show our goats, we don’t get a lot of feedback on their conformation. So last year we starting doing Linear Appraisal (LA). LA is an American Dairy Goat Association sponsored program where a trained appraiser evaluates every goat. The goat gets scored on many different attributes. We were incredibly pleased with the results of the appraisal. Last year the appraiser commented several times about what a wonderful, strong herd we have here. This year they did even better! The results of the LA will help us continue to breed attractive, productive animals. Five of our girls scored as Excellent with most of the rest of our mature herd scoring 88 or higher. Their scores are listed on their individual lineage pages.

BMR Linear Appraisal 2008

Many thanks to the appraisers for all their hard work. We really appreciate the time they spent with us teaching us how to breed productive and beautiful goats.

Spotlight on our Herd

How about that Cory!!!

Cory milked over 2 gallons on her official June milk test!!

6/3/08 Coriander is a five year old purebred Nubian doe. As a kid she had the odd habit of standing in bushes. In the evenings we’d do a head count to make sure everyone had come home from browsing and inevitably Cory would be missing. We’d go check the bushes and finally find her. Her “theme song” which we’d hum while searching for her is the theme from the original Star Trek show. When we’d find her and head her on home, we’d change the tune to Harry Chapin’s “Cory’s Coming”. She finally outgrew her need to hang out in bushes.

Cory is a tough girl. She survived the time the feed mill delivered tainted grain. A disaster that killed her littermate sister. A few years later she survived a terrible bout of milk fever combined with ketosis.

Cory has always been a productive doe, peaking at over a gallon as a first freshener. In 2007 Cory kidded with quadruplets, milked like a pro, and scored 88 VVVE on her Linear Appraisal. This year she gave us quintuplets! Five healthy, active kids. On our June 2008 DHIR milk test Cory milked 16.2 pounds – that’s over 2 gallons in a single day!! This girl is a serious contributor to our cheese making.

We love to watch Cory as she plays with the other goats in the herd, relaxes in the shade chewing cud, or is out browsing. We smile and shake our heads…”How about that Cory”, we say. Click here to read more about Cory.

Update: On June 10th of this year Cory was appraised again and scored 89 VEVV. The appraiser's comment was, " Now THIS is a milk goat Deluxe!!".

More New Arrivals

BMR Gets Another Face-Lift

The Herd heads over to check out the newcomers (top), Oracle and Trinity just kidding around

5/20/08 As if getting our two new Oberhaslis earlier this year wasn’t enough, two adorable Saanen doelings have now joined the Black Mesa Ranch herd. These beautiful young ladies come from the Sandplum Creek herd in Woodward, OK. Thank you, Talitha Young, for letting us add these lovely girls to our herd. Saanens are white with dished faces and upright ears. These girls are very playful and energetic, and it will be interesting to watch them integrate with our floppy eared Nubians.

New Arrivals

The BMR Herd Gets a New Look!

Lutzi (left) and Moon on their first day at BMR

3/20/08 BMR would like to welcome two new arrivals to the ranch! Two Oberhasli does have come to join our milking team. SG Sir Echo Full Moon 3*M and SG Sir Echo Lutzi 5*M are from the award winning Sir Echo herd in Tucson, Arizona. Oberhaslis are a Swiss breed, with upright ears and dished faces – quite a contrast to our floppy eared, roman nosed Nubians. Soon we will get more information about these lovely girls up on our web site, but for now we just want to introduce them and give them a big show of support. We look forward to getting to know Moon and Lutzi. Thank you, Sandy VanEcho for letting them come to the ranch.

In brief:

BMR herd tests CAE free

2/29/08 Once again our herd has tested 100% CAE free. We test every goat every year just prior to kidding (we pulled and submitted blood samples from 35 goats this year). With the test results in, we can feed our kids delicious raw milk with all it’s benefits, instead of having to pasteurize it to prevent CAE.

CAE is an incurable, debilitating disease that is passed on most frequently dam-to-kid through milk and colostrum. Keeping our goats free of this disease is one of our top priorities, not only because the disease decreases production but because of the suffering it can cause the goats afflicted with it.

More Exciting News From the Herd

BMR "Superior Genetics Does" Announced by ADGA

11/11/07 Congratulations to our girls, Edie, Penny, Poppy, Pepper, Cinnamon, and Espeez for being named Superior Genetics Does by the American Dairy Goat Association. The SG (Superior Genetics) title is given only to does that have a combination of great conformation, milking ability, and genetics. Once again (and it just never gets old!) we congratulate our goats for their achievements.

Way to go, girls!!

News From the Herd

BMR "Elite Does" Announced by ADGA

8/9/07 Congratulations to our girls, Pepper, Cinnamon, and Espeez for being named Elite Does by the USDA. They are in the top 5% of production does. You can check it out at: http://adga.org/SD/EliteDoe2007_JUL.htm.

Espeez Pepper

(with the linear appraisal inspector)

Cinnamon

Way to go, girls!!

Black Mesa Ranch, Snowflake, Arizona, USA - Nubian Goats, Artisan Cheese, Handmade Chocolates and Candy

Ask us about our Life-on-the-Ranch day and weekend escape packages - kidding season, cheese making, candy making etc!