Cheese Judging at the AZ State Fair

I was honored to be asked to be a judge at this year's Goat Cheese Competition at the fair. They had twice as many entries as last year. The only thing missing was a doggie bag to take some of the entries home with me! Debbie Emholtz of Jacob's Pride made a goat milk cajeta that I absolutely loved. Could have sat and eaten the whole jar right there! The cajeta was almost as sweet as Debbie :-) She and her husband are some of the nicest people. Two of our does are from her breeding program. Anyway, another hit was the pesto pine nut chevre. Sandy Van Ecko (spelling?) made that and it was amazing. She also made a desert cheese that was made with walnuts and cherries. Mmmmmmm. Now, if I can just get those recipes from them! Congratulations to both on their blue ribbons. Farm markets have been doing great! We are at quite a few during the week. Check out our updated website for more info ... http://www.crowsdairy.com/ Well, time to go milk the does and hang my chevre.

David Lee

Our youngest son, David Lee, has always loved to hang out with animals. I found this picture a few days ago. It really brought back some "goat" memories. The goat kid in this picture is out of our goat that was named Eclipse. She was a dairy goat that we bought and she would never raise her own kids. It was because of Eclipse -- and a couple of her friends -- that I became a very good hand milker. David would feed the kids afterward. Now, he is my main feeder for all of our animals. I appreciate him so much! Hard work is in his blood. In the current picture you can still see he loves his girls! Ha ha! Arvilla is his favorite and the other one that is staring at him is Charlotte.

Comet's Dam Does It Again!

We want to thank Martin and Louise McClure of Six M Galaxy for the opportunity to own one of Noel's bucks. Our Comet is doing a great job here in AZ! His dam is in the top ten milkers for the 4th year in a row. We couldn't be happier with the kid crop that Comet produced for us this year. We are getting ready to breed him again to some of the girls. Wow! I am so glad we drove all the way to San Francisco to get our guy when he was just a few weeks old :-) Below is his dam's pedigree and milk records.

Noel ~ 4 Time National Top Ten Milker SG Six M Galaxy Nova's Sonia Noel 10*M 2008 Nubian National Top Ten #4 in milk, #5 in protein 2007 Nubian National Top Ten #10 in milk 2006 Nubian National Top Ten#1 in milk, #5 in protein2005 Nubian National Top Ten#3 in milk, #9 in butterfat, and #1 in protein (tie)2009 USDA Elite Doe ~ 99th Percentile 2008 USDA Elite Doe ~ 99th Percentile 2007 USDA Elite Doe ~ 99th Percentile 2006 USDA Elite Doe ~ 99th Percentile 2005 USDA Elite Doe ~ 99th Percentile Linear AppraisalAge 2 V V V V 85Age 3 V E E V 89Age 4 E E E V 91DHIR01-11 304 2970 124 11202-11 305 3680 143 123 (ext. 316 3730 145 126)03-11 305 4030 163 141 (ext. 363 4390 178 158)05-02 305 3400 117 118 (complete)06-01 287 3450 120 118 (complete) 07-00 116 1950 63 64 (in progress) LIFETIME 1691 19890 747 696 Sire: SG +*B Six-M-Galaxy Poseys BF Nova Dam: SG Six-M-Galaxy Pistachio's Sonia 9*M

Farmers Market

Our first official family/friend customer was Pam Boettcher Bray. She and Wendell went to Underdown Junior High together and we were all classmates at Tolleson High School when it was just one school and not a district. However, Pam hasn't stayed in the West Valley. Wendell went all the way to a market in Ahwatukee for this sale. She also became our first return customer at the same market this past weekend. I think she really liked it because this time she bought a pound instead of 4 ounces!

Thanks go to her and ALL of our friends and family that have become an integral part of this business. Being in the Valley of the Sun for 5 generations has its perks. I have a picture of my great grandparents (must scan and post) with their favorite Holstein cow in Buckeye taken in 1930. They had moved from Chandler to a piece of land in Buckeye where they homesteaded some property not that far from where our dairy is today! Seems like we are related to everyone here. Because of that we have lots of wonderful promoters out there. Many of them are on facebook, too. Happy to say that we are selling out at the markets. Sometimes with 2 or 3 hours of market time left all of the product is gone!

The 'girls' are finally paying their feed bill :-) A lot of you have been asking so many questions. I must apologize for the lack of communication here, on the web site and on facebook. Erik and I are doing our best to keep you in touch. We have just so many hats to wear. The fact is that we are still waiting to do any press releases until we get our ag exempt status approved. Yet one more hop through the LEGAL hoops. I am a rules girl though and we are doing things the right way! Currently, we are in the last month or two of the application process and things are moving right along. Then, and only then, can we install our perimeter fencing that we have to have before we can have on-farm sales. Right now we are having a heck of a time just keeping Luna contained. When she sees a coyote or such, she somehow wiggles right through the goat's feeder. She is very people friendly though. Luna just does her job very well. No dog, coyote, bobcat or other critter is allowed near her charges. In fact, she even chases birds away. Though frustrating, she is really an amazing dog. Just smart enough to get out when she feels the goats are threatened. Keep an eye out for Wendell, Erik, David, Charlotte and Becky at the Farmers Markets. Erik does a good job at keeping those we will be attending posted on our facebook page. I really hope they see some more of you there. I, on the other hand, will be in the barn milking or in "Johnny Crow's Kitchen" making the cheese. Text me!

Back from North Carolina

I am so happy to be back in my barn! I sure missed my goats and I think Wendell missed me ;-) For the past couple of weeks I have been in the Raleigh area visiting Carol, Wendell's sister. I took this opportunity to stay at the Celebrity Dairy Inn in Siler City. Carol and I had a great time staying with Brit and Fleming Pfann. They have been making goat cheese for 22 years and I learned so much from them. Since my 5-day Farmstead Cheese Course at Cal Poly in 2002, and all of the many other courses I have rooted out, I find there is still so much to learn. We attended the ADGA conference in San Francisco last year and thought we had done most of our homework. But, with each visit, conference, or book, I am finding that there is always more to learn. Then I remember, after all of the study and research, it has finally paid off. The fact is that we have acheived a long-held dream. Remember? We are official! Orders are coming in left and right and we have not even done our first press release. The many teachers that came on field trips are starting to hear whispers of our new operation being open. Not to the public yet! But, we are hoping/planning to have all ready for a January open house. We will see. In the meantime, it is good to be home where I love what I do! Give me the goats, the public is Wendell's specialty anyway. Got to go work on the web site some more. Boy is it out of date! January will be here before I know it!

First Retail Feta

Wendell made our first batch of Feta last night. He was cutting the curd at 3am! A very tired cheese whiz he is :-) This cheese will age for one month before it will be ready for sale. All of the does are doing their job, too. We have had good production considering it has been a long hot summer. We are all looking forward to the cooler weather.

Our cheese will be on a menu soon!

The next step has been taken. We have now sold cheese to our first customers! Our cheese will be available on the menu at Calistro California Bistro 18221 N. Pima Rd. in Scottsdale http://www.calistrocaliforniabistro.com/ . Or, you can purchase it at Cheuvront Restaurant and Wine Bar 1326 N. Central in Phoenix http://www.cheuvronts.com/ and also at The Meat Shop 202 E. Buckeye Rd. in Phoenix http://www.themeatshopaz.com/

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Facebook | Crow's Dairy

Facebook Crow's Dairy: "Praise God! A huge thanks to everyone for their prayers, labor, time, talents and love! We can't begin to list the family and friends that have supported and helped us get to this point."

We are OFFICIAL!

We had our final inspection this morning and we are now a lisenced dairy in AZ! The inspector said, "Looks first-class" and "One of the nicest setups" that he has seen.

We have had many challenges and are finally glad to see the fruits of our labor. Thank God for this wonderful opportunity to do what we love for a living :-)

Smile and the world smiles with you!

I just had to share this picture of Arvilla. She is the sweetest goat we have. She may have a wry nose, and she is missing some baby teeth, but we love her so much. I didn't know that goats lose their baby teeth 2 at a time each year. Next year she will lose the teeth next to the ones missing and so on. Thanks to my friend Kathryn Heininger for that little tidbit. Kathryn is my goat mentor and I always learn a thing or two from her when we visit.

The lack of posts lately tells the story. We are so busy! Since our grandson was born, we have all been working overtime here. Cruz keeps all of us hopping :-) We are so close to getting the cheese up for sale. It just seems that every time you think you are done, some other hoop needs jumped through. We are now waiting for the dairy inspector to calibrate our pasteurizer.

The goats are doing well in spite of the heat. Wendell and Erik are finishing the construction. I am milking and feeding the little ones. David Lee is our clean up guy. What ever job needs done, he is on that duty. Lately he has been helping me in the barn doing the wash up after milking among other chores. It is so nice to have him back from his summer tour! His band was gone for six weeks. They went as far north as Maine and as far south as Miami, FL with stops all along the way. It's just great to have him back safe and sound.

First visit to the dairy

The newest goat farmer in town. Well, it only took him 12 days to come to the farm :-) This is our newest grandson, Cruz. He slept through most of his visit to our house today. We are so excited to have a new milker coming up and Mary and Erik are so proud of this little guy (as are we)! Just had to share the latest pic of our new grandKID!

Kids of a different kind

I am going to post about some of the new "kids" that have been born to friends and family this year. The first one being Haley Jewel. This picture says it all. You can really see true love in the eyes of Haley and Grandma Gaye. We spent most of last summer in Montrose, CO caring for a dear friend that was losing his long battle with cancer. Through him we have become very close with some of the most wonderful people. Doug & Gaye, Tim & Amber, Tyler, Marilyn, Verna, Walter ... just to name a few. When Jack was close to the end, Tim and Amber found out that they were expecting. It was such a bittersweet time in their lives. Losing their Uncle Jack and finding out they were to be blessed with a new life. This baby would have been the apple of her Uncle Jack's eye! Oh, how I wish he could have seen this future Cover Girl. I miss Montrose!