The third-generation dairy farmer had spent his life working with cows. He had some
preconceived notions about goats, as many Americans do, he said. He didn't think much
of goats, or their milk for that matter.
When the Crows sold their farm on Broadway Road in the West Valley in 2006, they
moved to Buckeye. The couple took some time studying cheese making and deciding
what the next chapter of their lives would look like.
Then Wendell made the leap he never expected to make, based on a special
encouraging factor: his wife, Rhonda.
"She always wanted goats," he said.
She didn't just get a couple of goats. They started their new farm with 25 Nubian
goats. Now they have more than 80.
Crow's Dairy is back in operation with a whole new focus. Wendell and Rhonda Crow
work with their son-in-law Erik Hernandez from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. each day, caring for
and milking goats and making fresh cheeses.
"We're milking 43 now and raising another 40," Hernandez said.
It's nothing like the cow dairy, where the animals were recognized by identification numbers. The goats are like pets to Rhonda.
"I know them all by name," she said. "They're all named after family and friends."
Rhonda calls the goats in by name a few at a time to be milked. They file in excitedly. Farming has come a long way since her family started in Arizona in 1912, though. Rhonda plays with her cell phone, checking Facebook and Twitter in her spare moments.
She's protective of her herd. She admits she doesn't even want help from the men during the 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. milking sessions.
"We get in trouble for helping. They are her babies," Wendell said. "She'll lay out here all night with one getting ready to have a kid, too."
Goats have a five-month gestation period and Crow's Dairy has had about 98 kids born. The dairy can potentially operate with about 300 goats some day.
Say cheese!
While Rhonda was interested in goats, her husband was interested in the art of cheese making. It was during their travels, which included tours, tastings and classes in cheese making, that he was converted. The goats were in.
"I never would have dreamed goat milk could taste better than a cow's milk, but it's all in how you handle it," he said. "And you can't make good cheese out of bad milk."
The key is to not put the milk through too much processing. Goats' milk is sensitive and the molecules can break down easily, changing the taste. Also, the Bucks must be kept away from the milking does because the males secrete a pungent oil that can taint the milk.
Just inside the goats' milking station on the 5-acre Buckeye farm is a room where milk turns to cheese. The Crows have custom-made equipment from Europe, including 180-gallon and 80-gallon vats where the milk goes.
"I have a hard time staying out of it, it's so good," Wendell said.
"I tell him, 'That's a $5 glass of milk you're having!'" Hernandez joked of the milk's value in the cheese-making business.
In that custom farm kitchen, cultures and seasonings are used to explore the many cheeses that are possible out of the fresh goat milk.
Feta is one of the most commonly known cheeses from goat milk. Crow's Dairy is also making chevre and quark and creating some recipes of their own. Hernandez recently created a concoction he's dubbed "Buckeye Breeze," which is like a smooth sour cream.
The products are sold for use at about 10 high-end restaurants in the Valley, including Red's Steakhouse at the Wigwam Resort in Litchfield Park. Crow's Dairy is also offering cheeses at several farmers markets including the Twilight Farmers Market from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesdays at 19420 N. 59th Ave., Glendale.
The next step is opening the farm to visitors and cheese sales. A grand opening is planned for Oct. 2. Go to www.crowsdairy.com for information.
The possibilities are endless. There are so many kinds of cheeses and so many flavor combinations, such as peppercorn feta and dill quark.
"It's insane how many thousands of cheeses there are," Hernandez said.
Valley residents can expect to see many more varieties come out of Crow's Dairy in coming years, as long as the family doesn't eat too much of the potential profits.
"We've always got crackers out here and taste it. You get hungry sitting here waiting. Cheese making is a lot of waiting," Hernandez said.
The trio of goat farmers work long days, but are excited about what they're doing these days, Wendell said. He's happy to be back in business, holding up the heritage his grandfather started in Glendale in 1919.
"I'm the first to milk goats in the family," he said. "I love it. They are like big dogs. Goats want to come love on you."
Thank you to everyone in the community who came to the meeting on May 14th. We know it's hard to take time from your family and the Sun's game (Go Suns!) to come to the meeting, and we appreciate it. We had some great questions and concerns that were brought up. We didn't get all our questions answered, but rest assured they will be researched and not forgotten. Also, Thank you to Mr. Cagle and Rainbow Valley Elementary School for allowing us to use the school cafeteria for our meetings and sending home notices. We want to thank the Griffith's for the use of their PA system. I would like to personally thank all the members of The Rainbow Valley Citizen's Group for their time, hardwork and sometimes money for flyers etc. Thank you, Thank you..............thank you.
We want to extend a special thanks to Terri Leija, Executive Assistant to Mary Rose Wilcox, Darren Gerard, Deputy Director-Planning and Development Dept., Richard Wallace of Maricopa County Dept. of Transportation and The Buckeye Valley Fire District. Thank you for supporting our efforts and listening to our concerns here in Rainbow Valley.
Ms. Leija talked to the community about what a great job we are doing coming together and working to improve our community. She also mentioned that the Rainbow Valley Citizen's Group can apply for a grant to help clean up our community. We are very excited about the opportunity and we will keep you updated on the process. Again, many questions were answered, not always what we want to hear, but it is better than not knowing. Ms. Leija and Ms. Wilcox care about Rainbow Valley and are actively helping us make things happen and for that we are very excited and appreciative.
Mr. Gerard recapped the Aurora Valley plans and confirmed the stipulations that were added.
He answered many questions about the rezoning process and took away a lot of questions to
research, we will keep you posted.
Mr. Wallace of Maricopa County Dept. of Transportation fielded a lot of tough questions about the condition of
the roads and plans to handle the growth. Together with Ms. Leija they agreed to schedule an Open House to
answer questions about future dust abatement plans and road improvements. We were excited to learn that the
stop sign at Arlington and Tuthill will be corrected to flow with the rest of the traffic on Tuthill. We do not
have a time frame yet, but understand that it will be changed to a four way stop for 30 days and then the stop
signs for Tuthill will be removed leaving a two-way stop on Arlington. Many residents commented that they want
it to remain a four-way stop and Mr. Wallace agreed to look into that possibility. Concern was also expressed about the same stop-sign situation at Ray Rd and Tuthill, again Mr. Wallace will look into the situation. Again....we are making a difference.
Another big issue that came up yesterday was a NOTICE that many of us received from the Postal Service. Many were surprised yesterday to receive notice that said: Due to the deterioration of your road condition, and the safety of the Postal Carrier your mailbox will have to be relocated to the County maintained portion of road. We will be contacting the Postal Service and with the promised help from Ms. Leija will get some answers as quickly as possible. Stayed tuned for more on this subject!
The Buckeye Valley Fire District came and handed out lots of great material about fire safety and preparing your home for the wild fire season. The Fire Dept had to leave for an emergency so they did not get a chance to talk to the community, but we really appreciate them coming out to support us.
We need to take fire safety very seriously! It's going to be another long, dry summer and our wonderful, unique community is very vulnerable to fire danger. We have extra brochures that we will leave at the Rainbow Valley School office if you could not attend and you want a copy. Firewise Landscaping Checklist and Firewise Construction Checklist.
The community was excited to learn about a new reward program that is being developed to fight the graffiti problem here in Rainbow. Chip and Dee Nassoiy have generously offered to donate graffiti paint AND a $100 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of someone defacing property with graffiti. The excitement continued when the $100 reward was matched by Rainbow Resident, John Hoffman making an incredible $200 REWARD. Let's stop this destruction of our community! We will be sending out more information about how you can participate in cleaning up and stopping graffiti. *Quick special recognition and thank you to Dave Wright who has been painting over the graffiti on the Jackrabbit bridge for quite some time.
Chari Poteet is heading up a Fence Design sub-committee to work with the developer of Aurora Valley. If you would like to join this group please contact Chari for more information.
The next road clean up is scheduled for Saturday June 9th. We will meet at Tuthill and Narramore at 7:00am. We provide safety vests, gloves and bags. As we go out each time to clean, we are seeing a difference in the amount of garbage we collect. Visit the Clean Up page for details on how many bags we have collected and you can see the number is going down.
One thing we ask is that you DO NOT put your personal trash out to be collected with our orange bags. We work hard to clean up the roads and the County is only supposed to pick up the orange bags. Don't abuse the program by adding personal trash to the piles.
We also appreciate the many thanks our fellow residents yell out their windows as they drive by on clean up days. But, what we really want is to have you stop and help. Even if you just come and collect one bag of trash, you would be making a difference. Think about it, if everyone (12 and older) picked up just one or two bags of trash a year, that would make a difference, don't you agree! So come join us!
I'm sure I didn't capture everything that was discussed last night, but again it was another great meeting. We would like to welcome Marge LaScola to The Rainbow Valley Citizen's Group and encourage everyone to join in on one of the many upcoming volunteer events. Together we are making an already great community even better.
Do you have questions, comments or concerns? Please post them on the Guest Book page and include your email or contact information if you want a personal response.
Sincerely,
Kiara Mitchell
Rainbow Valley Arizona Webmaster
Great Turnout - Picture from May 14th meeting.
Saving You Money.....did you know?
That you can arrange for trash pick up through Parks and Sons for only $48 per quarter and a one time $50 deposit! http://www.parksandsons.com/ Phone: (623) 974-4791. That's about half price of Allied Waste!
Our hearts and prayers go out to some of our fellow Rainbow Valley neighbors........please ride safe folks, this can happen to anyone!
3 on horseback rescued from running wash
Three people were rescued in Buckeye Friday afternoon after getting trapped while trying to cross a wash on horseback. One of the horses, however, may not have made it. The wash is about five feet deep and may have swollen deeper than normal because of this winter's rainstorms.
Around 1 p.m. the three tried to cross a flooded wash near 222nd Avenue and Eagle Mountain Road in Buckeye, roughly 35 miles southwest of central Phoenix, said Doug Matteson, spokesperson for the Sheriff's Office.
Images shot from a television helicopter showed the people were holding onto trees in the wash and a horse wandering around in the shallower water. Rescuers pulled the three to safety. The horses took more time to be rescued.
Six to eight men worked together to pull one horse to safety. A second horse was swept away and went under water a couple of times before scrambling to a perch in shallower water, eventually making it to higher ground and getting rescued.
The third, however, had difficulty finding a place to stand and appeared not to be moving. It was later reported that the horse had suffered a broken leg and had to be put down, said Matteson.
www.azcentral.com
Way to go Colorado
The Flying Horse
A horse that was stranded on a Gila River sandbar in Rainbow Valley and was rescued by a helicopter made an appearance at a Cave Creek benefit for horse-rescue agencies. Colorado, the "Flying Horse," made headlines when he was airlifted to safety in west Buckeye on March 16. The fundraiser celebrated Big Bronco's 10th anniversary, and a portion of proceeds went to the Luv Shack Ranch Horse Rescue and the Arizona Equine Rescue Organization, which helped save Colorado.
Aug. 4 at Crow’s Dairy in Rainbow Valley. Formerly the owners of a dairy for cows, the Crows have a new facility for milking goats and making goat cheese.
Web site Designed by Kiara Mitchell -The contents and design of this web site are the property of Kiara Mitchell and RainbowValleyAZ.com.
Rainbow Valley citizens have a wonderful opportunity, It's called "Bountiful Baskets". It is a wonderful organization that provides a service to Rainbow Valley that soon will become extinct if we do not get more participants. It's a farmers/co-op fruit and veggies organization that lets the public purchase these items at a huge discount savings ($15 a week for a basket). Rainbow Valley residents need to increase their participation with this organization or else they are going to cancel our pick up at the Fire Station. Then current participants will have to drive all the way over to Tartesso or Veraddo area. We are trying to put the word out about this organization and get people to understand that it is not a Food Bank or Charity. It is real food provided by the "Bountiful Baskets" organization for a great price and they even have baked goods from time to time.
See below for more information or visit their web site www.bountifulbaskets.org. Today (Monday the 22nd), the website opens up for ordering and pick up is on Saturday the 27th. Please pass the word on to everyone you know in Rainbow Valley!
If you look out your window and there is snow covering the ground, or you note that your plants are withering in 115 degree heat we probably are not getting a lot of produce from where you are right now. Does that mean never? No… That means not right now. It’s not harvest season in your neck of the woods right now. So where does Bountiful food come from?
About Bountiful Baskets Co-op
Bountiful Baskets is not a business. It is a group of people who work together for mutual benefit. Bountiful Baskets Food Co-op is constantly growing to reach new areas as people want to have a site close to their home. They train with an existing Volunteer Site Coordinator and then go open the new site. We run at least every two weeks at each site. Some sites run weekly. We are completely volunteer-run and make no profit. Please see our locations page for a complete listing of current sites as well as which week they run.
This is a Co-op. This is a grass roots, all volunteer, no contracts, no catch co-operative. Without volunteers this co-op wouldn’t happen, so you will need to help as you are able. There are many opportunities to help!
Reasons to Participate
This is a great deal and you are helping others get a great deal, too. With the conventional produce offering, you get approximately $50 worth of grocery store-quality produce. This co-op encourages a healthier lifestyle. You meet great people!
How the Co-op works
As a group, we purchase items at deep discounts. Items are then distributed evenly among participants. For produce baskets, we purchase the same produce you would get from a restaurant or store.
Basket contents
We get a variety of high-quality seasonal produce. We balance variety with seasonality in order to get the most appealing and cost-effective basket possible. We choose to use local produce first when available, then regional produce if it is not.
