Grade A Dairy

I was really happy this morning reading the Saturday paper when lo and behold there was an article about a new Grade A goat dairy in Colorado! It's in Canon City which is probably 3-4 hrs South of us? and it's the ONLY Grade A goat dairy in the state.

Mini Moos and Kids Too is the dairy name. They make a variety of goat cheese, including soft, semi-soft and aged varieties that range in flavors from plain to fiery red pepper or a more subtle lemon pepper.

Right now they sell to Southern Colorado markets and restaurants so I haven't seen their product this far North... yet. They don't have a website right now and I didn't see any mention of one in the article. I was hoping they took online orders. I really hope they make it!

People sometimes ask me why I'm not a grade A dairy. I don't know all the specific ins and outs of why, only that I know it'd be really, really, really, really, really expensive and time consuming.

Here is a blurb from the newspaper article originally printed in The Pueblo Chieftain by Tracy Harmon: "...she had to aquire a wall full of state licenses to get the business going. And with licensing came the need for plenty of expensive equipment. But $250,000 worth of investments later, the couple has created the state's only Grade A goat dairy. .... the milking parlor and pasteurizing facility have their own strict requirements to follow: endless scrubbing before and after each milking and lots of bookkeeping. When health inspectors come every 3 to 6 months, Anderson has to prove how she has handled, stored and processed the milk. Strict temperature requirements have to be met, or the batch goes into the trash..."

yeah - see? No way I'm becoming a Grade A dairy. I don't have enough space to aquire a herd of goats large enough to justify it!