Fiore di Capra
"flower of the goat"
Grade A Goat Dairy and Creamery

Please scroll down to see the most recent news including available cheese selections
and where to buy Raw Milk!

Goat's Milk Soaps and Lotions are here!

Our cheese and milk website is www.goatmilkandcheese.com

We receive many e-mails and phone calls from others who are interested in building a Grade A Dairy. Please realize that you MUST work with the Dairy Control department in your state.  We are not in a position to give out plans, procedures etc.  Each state is different and what is acceptable in one area would never be allowed in other areas! 

Below are notes on some of the steps we took over almost 4 years to
complete our dairy and cheese plant.
 

July 2003 Update:  With Mike stuck in Italy for the past 8 1/2  months, not much progress has been made on the dairy.  We are hoping he will be home in August and that we can proceed with our next step, the block walls.  We have the stem wall, rough in plumbing and the "pit" where we will be milking completed.

     Trusses going on the doe barn.                                Dairy walls going up

December 2003 Update: The barn is complete!!!  We are anxious to move the goats in over Christmas vacation!!  The dairy is on its way, and is ready for the roof trusses.  We have our 12 stanchion milking system on order, and a 50 gallon vat pasteurizer purchased.  We're getting closer!!

January 2004 Update: The roof is going on the dairy and should be complete by the end of January.  The does are all settled into the barn with growing tummies.

March 2004: We have the inside of the dairy framed now.  We also have our bulk tank coming the end of this month for installation. Our milking system will be installed the last week of March as well.  We hope to be milking in the new milk room by the first week of April.

April 2004: Our milk system has been installed.  We are still on the waiting list for the electric company.  Our walk in cooler is in place and we have our bulk tank and clean in place set up.

July 2004 : The building was stuccoed and some of the electric wire has been run.  A nice porch was built around the majority of the building.

September 2004: We finally have our electric hooked up!!  We had some permit issues that have been resolved and we are finishing the wiring.  Next it will be time to do the dry wall. 

   
 
The milk system is a straight 12 DeLaval Pipeline system.  We have left space on the opposite side to add an additional 12 station system if needed for expansion.

May 2005: Things have moved even slower than we thought they would.  We have finished the electrical and the dry wall is up.  The sanding of the joints took forever.  It has to be very smooth.  We have ordered the Epoxy paint that will help to waterproof the walls.  We found out that we have to have our property "re-zoned" in order to have a commercial building.  Mike has been working with the planning and zoning department and our project will go before the county Board of Directors in July.

July 2005: Our rezoning has been approved by the Cochise County Board of Directors! We were also approved for a Special Use Permit.

September 2005: We painted the outside of the dairy.  It looks great!

October 2005: We filed the appropriate paperwork to incorporate "Fiore di Capra".  We also made "Altrece LaManchas" a Limited Liability Company. Fiore di Capra Inc. will be purchasing milk from Altrece LaManchas LLC to make cheese with.

November 2005: Pictured above are the milk parlor and the milk processing room with the walls finished.  More work has been done since these photos were taken.  We've stained the concrete floors and all we need to do is put the rubber "baseboard" up.

This is the cheesemaking kitchen.  It's ready for the draining table, countertops and an island.  To the left we have a refrigerated walk in box and to the right is our 50 gallon vat pastuerizer and a small room with our hot water heater, water softening system and washer/dryer.

December 2005: All of the "finish" plumbing has been completed.  Sinks are hooked up and functioning as is the septic system and toilet. If you are considering building a dairy, make sure that the person who does your concrete work slopes the floor to the drains properly.  We had to lower our drains by chiseling away about 12 inches of concrete around them.  It took several hours and more materials to correct the problem.

January 2006: We have only a few small things left to do to open the dairy.  This includes painting the outside doors a nice color, putting a floor border of tile in the office, etc.  We still need to buy some stainless counters and shelves, trash cans, soap dispensers and towels.

AZ Dairy Control will be inspecting us March 9th.  Our does start to freshen around February 15th, so hopefully everything will be approved.  We have worked very closely with our inspector throughout this project which enabled us to make changes and corrections as we built.

February 2006:  The photo below left shows the turquoise stain on the parlour floor.  We used a brown stain in the processing room where we have our bulk tank (middle photo).  The photo on the right shows our 50 gallon vat pasteurizer.
 

March 16, 2006:  After almost four years, our farm, Altrece LaManchas LLC was certified as a Grade A Goat Dairy!  Fiore di Capra Inc. was certified as a Cheese Manufacturing Plant!  We are the only Grade A Goat Dairy in the state of Arizona.

March 25, 2006: We used the milk system for the first time.  The does did great considering they have never been milked in this fashion.  Below are a few photos of the first milking.

April 3, 2006-Just when we thought we were finally ready, we have another delay.  Our new bottler that we were expecting by the end of March will not arrive until the end of April.  We apologize to those of you who have contacted us for milk.  If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please send your name and e-mail address to Lee at altrece@hughes.net.  We will be sending out an announcement once we have product available.  

July 20, 2006-We had to purchase a different bottler as we never received the one we were expecting (after making payment in full).  *DO NOT DEAL WITH MID-STATE DAIRY SYSTEMS.* This has caused a huge delay in the production of bottled milk.  The new bottler that we found does not have a capper so we are now having one made for it.  We are experimenting with our cheese recipes and should have cheese available soon. 

Nov 1, 2006-Our new bottler and capper is here and working great! A huge thank you to Dave Asedo of Grassmere Dairy Systems in Queen Creek, AZ and his crew for their work on this project.

Nov 10, 2006-Our milk labels have been submitted for approval to the state. We should know on Monday if any corrections need to be made. Our bottles and caps are here and ready for milk!

Jan 11, 2007-We are approved to sell Grade A Raw Milk!  Unfortunately, the does are drying up so we only have enough milk to make cheese right now.  New kids start arriving on January 17th, and with new kids comes fresh milk. We hope to have enough milk to start bottling in February.

Mar 1, 2007-Raw milk is now available! You may purchase milk at the Farmer's Markets or at several health food stores in Tucson.  Currently, we have milk in 3 New Life Health Centers (Speedway, Broadway and Oracle locations), and at Aqua Vita on Country Club.  We were approved as vendors by Wild Oats (soon to be Whole Foods), so please tell them if you would like them to carry our milk.  We expect to have milk in the Food Conspiracy Co-op on 4th Avenue by March 20th.

Mar 14, 2007-Many people ask what we might have done differently in constructing our dairy.  When Mike first drew the plans, I thought he was making the building larger than necessary.  Now that it's done, we could have used an additional room for our bottler, which is an antique and takes up a lot of space.   We hope to be able to add a room onto the back of our building for bottling in the future. I would also like the "bulk tank room" to be a bit larger in case we ever want to add an additional tank.  We currently have a 300 gallon tank, the bottler, a 2 compartment sink, handwashing sink and a shelving unit in this room.  We are required to have the bottler in this room because all raw milk has to stay in one place and there must be a door between the room with raw milk and the cheese room where we have pastuerized milk.
 

1962 Creamery Package Bottler The bottler has four valves and rotates around as the bottles fill.  We sell our milk in half gallon plastic jugs. You can see the long chute that comes off of the right side where the caps are loaded.  They slide onto the bottles as they rotate into the last position and then get pushed down onto the bottles.

One big problem that we currently have is that we did not plan for a storage area for our empty bottles.  They are plastic, half gallon bottles that we buy 1000 at a time.  They are currently taking up the entire dairy office, as they need to be kept in a clean area that is at least somewhat temperature controlled.  We are considering purchasing a tractor trailer to store them.  We will have to run a cooling unit to the tractor trailer for several months of the year as the heat can damage the bottles.  We would have loved to bottle in glass, but it was cost prohibitive.
 
 

Making Chevre! We process about 50 gallons of milk at one time for our batches of chevre. In this photo it is hanging in cheesecloth bags over our cheese vat.  The whey collects in the bottom and is then removed through a valve and fed to the older goat kids or pigs.  This vat comes in really handy.  It has stainless steel bars that span the width of the vat and hook over the sides.  We can slide them wherever needed and they clean-up easily in between batches.

 

Cheese and milk are available at the following markets:
~Fridays in Tucson on the UofA Mall-this market runs from 9-1 every Friday. This market ends April 26 and will resume in August 2008 when school begins again. CLOSED FOR SUMMER!  ~Sundays in Tucson at the St. Phillips Farmer's Market from 8-12.  The market is on the corner of Campbell and River. Retail Markets: Aqua Vita, Food Conspiracy and 3 of the New Life Health Food (Broadway, Speedway and Oracle) stores are now carrying our cheese and raw milk.	Chevre Logs
We are currently producing: ~Feta-sold in small blocks and crumbles (herbed or plain). ~Raw Feta-Aged over 90 days in brine.  Sharp and very flavorful. ~Chevre Spreads in the following flavors: Plain, Roasted Red Pepper, Spinach, Lemon Dill, Garlic and Chive, Chipotle, Jalapeno Cilantro, Honey Walnut, Mixed Berry and Garden Vegetable.  Not all flavors are available every week.  Call us with your requests! ~Chevre Logs-Traditional logs either plain or rolled in Tuscan Herb, Herbs de Provence, Paprika or Pepper Blend. ~Marinated Chevre in three flavors: Sun Dried Tomato with Pine Nuts and Italian Herbs in Olive oil  Bay, Rosemary, Black Peppercorn and Juniper Berry in Grapeseed Oil   Spicy Pepper Blend with Parsley, Rosemary and Cilantro in Sunflower oil. ~Marinated Queso, Mediterranean style.  Cubes of plain queso blanco in olive oil with kalamata and green Spanish olives, herbs and spices. ~Chevre Torte-Sun Dried Tomatoes, Chevre, Pesto, then more Chevre! A great layered cheese appetizer to serve with crakers, baugette slices or vegetables. ~Dessert Torte-Fruit and nuts in various combinations layered between plain chevre. ~Fromage Blanc-smooth and creamy round of cheese covered with fresh herbs. ~Queso Blanco in plain, green olive, chipotle and jalapeno. A traditional Latin cheese that does not melt and takes on the flavor of the food it is cooked with.  An excellent substitute for tofu in stir fry's and salads or just to snack on.
Marinated Chevre	We have been selling out of several cheeses each week.  If you would like something set aside for you, feel free to call 520 582 2081 or e-mail altrece@q.com to reserve your cheese for market pick-up.

Bloomy Rind cheeses are in the works!