| Rarely you find people who make no compromises in quality. But once in a while you get lucky. I got lucky when David Heininger left me a goat cheese sampler. I was on my way to a trip on the San Juan River and tucked into my refrigerator I found this luscious goat cheese. So I took it along and we enjoyed it out under the desert ramada before we pushed off. Since then I’ve been serving Black Mesa Ranch goat cheeses on our Arizona cheese plate and on many elegant catering platters. Black Mesa Ranch cheese is pure joy, and pure good value.
Black Mesa Ranch is a 280-acre working goat ranch located just east of the historic pioneer town of Snowflake in the beautiful White Mountains. Approved for cheese-making by the State Department of Agriculture in 2003, it remains the only certified goat dairy in the state. Black Mesa Ranch is “off-grid” and generates all its own electricity, primarily from solar and wind sources and proudly follows sustainable agricultural principles. The Ranch is Certified Naturally Grown and is in the process of obtaining the coveted Humanely Raised and Handled Certification as well.
David and Kathryn Heininger, the owner-operators and sole employees of the Company, make and sell a variety of fine artisan and farmstead products including Goat Cheeses, Candies, Soaps, seasonal farm-fresh Produce, Herbs, and Eggs.
I am more and more interested in their candy. David is the candy-maker at the Ranch. As a highly trained and experienced former professional chef and current active member of the White Mountain Chapter of the American Culinary Federation, he enjoys the opportunity for a change of pace from his other major duties as Cheese Maker.
Many of the candy recipes David uses are family heirlooms (really!) and he uses only fine Belgian chocolate in producing his exquisite Butter Almond Toffee, Chocolate Truffles, Cream Caramels, and Chocolate Barks & Rubbles, many of which also use the cream and milk products from their own dairy.
This attention to quality has not gone unnoticed. For the second year in a row Black Mesa Ranch took home both the first and second place prizes in the annual ADGA National Goat Products Competition (October 2005, Kansas City, MO) in the professional confections division. They also took home a first, two seconds and a third for their farmstead goat cheeses at the same event.
You can order and learn a lot more about Black Mesa Ranch from their web site at http://www.BlackMesaRanchOnline.com. It even has pictures of their very cute goat herd. David can be reached at (928) 536-7759 or by email at d@BlackMesaRanchOnline.com
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