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 1/4/19
Ringing In A New Year
A Beautiful Way To Start The Year
1/4/19 We woke up to a new year with a lovely covering of fluffy white show shimmering in the sunlight - almost 8 inches of glistening crystals. Occasionally the trees would drop big clumps of snow that hit the ground sending up plumes of sparkles.
Downsizing
Goat Supplies and Equipment For Sale
12/15/18 Due to our herd dispersal we are offering great deals on supplies and equipment. We have a milk buckets, kid care equipment, health care supplies, feed bunks, and more. Just click on this link to see what is available. Please email Kathryn with any questions or to purchase items. Thanks!
It's a Sweet Life
BMR Gourmet Candies Are Now Available
11/4/18 The weather is starting to cool off enough for us to start making our seasonal gourmet chocolates! This year we will have a very focused, highly curated selection of our most popular confections. Think of it as our "Greatest Hits" album.
We are proud to offer the freshest candies possible and use only the finest ingredients available including exquisite Belgian Chocolate, high quality fancy nuts, and 100% pure flavors and extracts.
Our candies, as always, are handmade in tiny little batches, attractively packaged, and express shipped with the utmost care. Please give our fine confections a try. They also make great gifts.
Changing Hats
Something crazy and NEW! from BMR…
10/16/18 Running a goat cheese dairy is a lot of work for an ageing duo to handle, especially without any outside help. And after 15 years of doing it 24/7/365 - it gets, shall we say, a little boring. A couple of months ago, David (whose background is as a professional chef), during a long, hungry drive home through the “Culinary Wasteland” of central Arizona, decided that this area needed a new and exciting food option.
His big idea? A mobile gourmet kitchen with a varying menu that would celebrate seasonal and regional foods. Take the food to the people! Yes, we’re talking about a gourmet food truck!
The idea evolved and solidified quickly. The opportunity to buy an amazing almost-new fully-customized gourmet trailer presented itself and we jumped in with all four feet. The menu concepts coalesced. The new graphics for the wrap blossomed and before we knew it Grillin N Chillin, an Arizona Food Truck, was born.
So now, in ADDITION to running the dairy, we are also venturing out to venues across Arizona in “Grillin”, bringing our exceptional food to you! And we’re certainly not bored anymore!
Find out more about this wild-and-crazy new BMR adventure at the Grillin N Chillin website. Find out where we’ll be Grillin next on Street Food Finder. Connect with us on social media: FaceBook, Twitter, and Instagram, and have us cater your next event!
Oh yeah – and wish us luck!
Kathryn and David (both Center) at the Snowflake Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting ceremony
Lookin' GOOD!
BMR Goats Are Judged As Excellent
9/15/18 The goats are looking great and they can prove it. Our linear appraisal, where a trained appraiser looks at each goat individually and grades them against “the perfect goat”, went very well. The appraiser was thrilled with our goats, commenting that the girls were both beautiful AND productive. That is exactly what we strive for here. All the does that got their final LA score were judged as Excellent, younger girls scored from Good Plus to Very Good to Excellent.
Not long after our appraisal session it was time for our annual inspection by the Humane Farm Animal Care people. Our inspector was amazed at our goat cheese operation here, loved the goats, and commented multiple times at how great they looked and what a wonderful environment they had. In fact, she put in her report that if she were a goat, she'd want to live here! Now THAT’S a good report!
BMR Fan Club
Getting Feed Back From Our Customers
5/15/18 We always appreciate getting updates on the goats that we sell. Pictures are a bonus, too. But 7-year-old Sariah in Colorado went even farther. She hand stitched a marvelous likeness of Liberty Rose, one of the goats that she and her family adopted last year along with a doe named Peace. Sariah even sent a hand-written note about how the girls are doing there.
Thank you Sariah for your very kind and beautiful gift. We hope you, Liberty, and Peace have a great time together!
Continuing Education
BMR Herd Manager Earns Certification
2/10/18 Herd Manager, Kathryn, has now earned her certification as a Dairy Goat Producer from Langston University in OK. Langston has an internationally acclaimed Goat Research Center
and is a leader in the often under represented fields of goat management and health.
The course covered many goat related subjects from biosecurity to milking, reproduction, cheesemaking, facility development, marketing and much more. We thank Langston for offering this course. Click here to learn more about the Dairy Goat Producer Certification Course.
And Even MORE Awards
ADGA Awards Superior Genetics Titles
11/30/17 Once again The American Dairy Goat Association (ADGA) has announced that more of our goats have received their Superior Genetics Title (SG). We are very proud of these goats for being so productive and beautiful. Awards have been given to Charlotte, Onyx, Legacy, Finale, our senior herd sire Gideon, and posthumously to our late herd queen, Celeste. Congratulations to these fine animals.
Even More Awards
Award Winning Fudge, Nuts, and Fudge Sauce
11/19/17 Black Mesa Ranch took home seven ribbons (6 first place and one second place!) at this year’s Arizona State Fair in the Professional – Culinary division for our confections. Our Goats Milk Fudges stole the show with 3 first place awards in 3 different confection categories and our Spiced Pecans brought home 2 first places in the snacking categories. Our Fudge Sauces took both the first and second place awards in the syrups category.
It was our first year entering the competition and we are, of course, thrilled with the results!
Results:
- Belgian dark Chocolate Fudge: First place Chocolate Fudge
- Belgian dark Chocolate Fudge with Walnuts: First place Chocolate Cooked Fudge
- Belgian dark Chocolate Fudge with Chiles & Pecans: First place Chocolate with Nuts Fudge
- Orange Spiced Pecans: First place Snack Mix
- Chipotle Chile Spiced Pecans: First place Other Snacks
- Dark Chocolate Fudge Sauce: First Place Syrups
- Chiles & Chocolate Fudge Sauce: Second Place Syrups
These award winning items and much more can be purchased online from our Ranch Market page.
Now That's HOT
BMR Wins At The Scovie Awards!
10/20/17 David, the chef at Black Mesa Ranch, entered 4 of his spicy food products for the 2018 Scovie Awards - and ALL FOUR took awards!
Here are the results from the Scovies.
1st Place White Cheese: Goats Milk Feta Marinated with Hot Peppers & Garlic
1st Place Sweet Heat Sauce: Chile & Chocolate Fudge Sauce
3rd Place Sweet Heat (Candy/Cakes/Pastries/Cookies): Goats Milk Fudge with Chiles and Pecans
3rd Place Snack Nuts: Chipotle Spiced Pecans
About the Scovie Awards
The Scovie Awards (also known as the "Scovies") are an annual international spicy foods competition that originated in 1996. Based in New Mexico the contest sees entries coming in from across the globe, as far away as from Australia. The Scovies are named to honor the memory of Wilbur Scoville, the scientist who invented the Scoville Organoleptic Test in 1912 to determine the heat scale of chile peppers.
Scovie Award winners are determined by a panel of 80 to 100 judges, mostly food professionals, who sample over 800 products in about 20 categories in blind tastings. Products are judged according to eye appeal, aroma, flavor, and heat scale.
Well Earned Awards
Top Ten Breed Leaders
8/31/17 The USDA list of Elite does and bucks has come out. Again Black Mesa Ranch goats are well represented. Reese, Obsidian, Snowflake, and Detroit are again rated as some of the best goats in the country, and our girl, Abby, has now earned her Superior Genetics title! Great work, girls!
Today The American Dairy Goat Association list of 2016 Top Ten Breed Leaders came out and two of our does are on it!
SG Black Mesa Tally’s Reese is listed as #1 Nubian in butterfat and SG Black Mesa Celestial Night Sky is listed as tied for 7th place in butterfat. That’s some awesomely rich, high quality milk those girls produce!
Congratulations to all our hard working goats!
Time For Treats
It's Always "Fudge Season"!
5/27/17 While Fudge is great any time, it has traditionally been eaten more during the warmer months of the year.
- In the US, National Fudge Day is June 16th.
- Mackinaw Island MI (the self-proclaimed Fudge Capital of the World) hold its annual Fudge Festival in August.
- Black Mesa Ranch celebrates Fudge Season from mid-May through October when the average highs in much of Arizona reach into the 90's (warm by just about any definition!)
To read more about Black Mesa Goats Milk Fudge and more about fudge in general, click here. To buy some our wonderful, creamy fudge, go to our Market Basket.
American Culinary Federation's National Convention
BMR's Chef David Sets The Food World On Fire
8/2/16 David is back from the American Culinary Federation's National Convention in Phoenix. He went to introduce our line of confections to some of the best and most influential chefs in the country, connect with some regional distribution channels and just hang out with the "cool kids" in the industry. It was a huge success and he ended up staying a day longer than planned (5 days total).
David brought 3 flavors of our AZ-Grown Spiced Pecans (Cinnamon, Spicy Chipotle and Orange Spice) and 2 flavors of our goats milk fudge (Chocolate-Walnut and "AZ Fudge On Fire" (made with locally grown Concho chiles)). Everything was extremely well received but the Fudge on Fire stole the show. Even chefs, guests & exhibitors from Michigan's Mackinaw Island (the fudge capitol of the world) couldn't get enough of the samples.
Other highlights of the convention:
- Dozens of top quality workshops, guest speakers, seminars and discussion groups including: "Pairings Lab: Wine and Cheese", "Hog Butchery & Basic Curing", "The Umami of Cheese", "Great Cheese, Now What?", and my personal favorite… "Chocolate: From the Ground Up" (exploring sustainable chocolate craft, from bean to bar, with chocolate tasting).
- The USA Chef of the Year Competition (including Chef Lenard Rubin from the Country Club at DC Ranch in Phoenix)
- Huge 2-day Food Service Trade Show featuring nearly 100 exhibitors, student and professional cooking competitions, products demonstrations and LOTS of food sampling.
- Impressive social media involvement across the 5 days of the convention with #CookCraftCreate, #GoatsMilkFudge, and #AZpecans hashtags used by over a thousand participants.
Click here to read more about the event.
