Associated Press
06-07-06
Goat cheese operation keeps woman busy
By D. LANCE LUNSFORD / Associated Press
Got milk? The kind that comes from a bleating goat on a small farm on Lubbock's
outskirts?
There's a small herd of them kept in a pen near Desire Dunn's budding goat
cheese operation where milking takes place twice a day — once well before
twilight and again in the late afternoon.
For Dunn, getting Cou Rouge Cheese Co. off the ground is no small feat. The
complexity of making cheese is one thing. Marketing the goat cheese product
around a narrow prejudice that comes with anything including the word "goat" in
the name has been another.
"Cou is French for neck," Dunn said, allowing a moment for two-and-two to
mesh. "And of course, rouge is French for red."
In French, unlike English, the noun comes before the adjective, and Dunn breaks
her serious, no-nonsense facade with a slight smile. Her "Redneck" Cheese Co.
is now in full swing after receiving special pasteurization equipment from Europe.
Dunn's babbling kids call their attention to any movement around the pen, their
bleats filling an open area where they spend most of their day waiting to be
milked or fed. Climbing inside with them is not a dirty venture of battling flies or
soiled hooves. Instead, the goats are gentle and curious, poking with their wet
noses like curious puppies.
Dunn thinks the area's limited goat cheese production may give her just the
opportunity she needs to make a name for the product.
The idea to start the Cou Rouge operation came as Dunn looked to expand her
horizons, which already included raising horses.
"Basically, I was trying to mesh two loves together. I have a love of animals. And
I love to cook. We really tried to mesh those things together," Dunn said.
While it may be a love that draws her to work every day, it's still work — and
plenty of it.
"It's labor intensive," Dunn said.
Milking twice a day, Dunn takes the milk to cool before it goes through the
pasteurizer. Then it is cooled again for a length of time depending on the type of
cheese she wants to make. It is left to sit so that a curd forms. Then, it's cut and
molded, and the whey is drained away. And it sits again to form more whey.
Drained again, the cheese is then wrapped, labeled and refrigerated.
Getting dairy goats pregnant to keep milk flowing is not exactly easy in West
Texas either. Dunn said she takes goats to New Mexico or Dallas to mate with
male dairy goats or get artificially inseminated.
Having a buck dairy goat on the property is too costly, Dunn said.
"Actually, the taste of the milk comes from what the goats smell. A buck has a
very pungent odor. It's part of their mating ritual. When the does smell that, it
affects their milk," Dunn said.
Keeping an eye on flavor is already going a long way for Dunn's burgeoning
business.
Twain Henry, owner of Twain's Creole House at 2001 Broadway, began using a
Cou Rouge feta cheese for a bourbon chicken salad and a creole house shrimp
salad.
"I had it before, and it's just outstanding. (Dunn) brought me a sample by last
week, and told me she was local, so it was just a matter of clearing out what I
had. It's fantastic," Henry said.
Though supporting local producers of food products can be a priority for Henry,
that's not the end of the equation. "You still want the quality," he said.
According to a report from Iowa State University, the U.S. Department of
Agriculture accounts for 30,000 dairy goats in Texas. Many of the operations and
organizations are in Central Texas.
Worldwide, goat dairy is a commodity of high demand. The American Dairy Goat
Association says more people drink goat milk worldwide than any other kind of
milk. The ADGA also says goat milk has a more easily digestible fat and protein
content than cow milk.
la Medlock, executive chef at City Bank's executive dining and conference facility
and president of the South Plains Chef's Association, said goat cheese began
building popularity in the U.S. in the last 10 years with gourmet recipes dedicated
to new dishes.
"The smaller individually-run, family-run goat cheese operations are usually the
better cheeses," Medlock said. "Everyone looks for the little twists that make
theirs different. They're willing to think outside the box a little bit."
Dunn produces sun-dried tomato goat cheese as well as citrus rosemary goat
cheese. The cheeses are among a collection Dunn has been mastering since
August when she devised her plan to start the Cou Rouge Cheese Co.
Medlock said the experimentation is just getting started.
"I don't think it's a hip culinary trend that's leaving anytime soon," she said.