Rancho Santa Marína

There is an organic farmers' market that is open on Saturdays in San Miguel de Allende in the La Carpa near the Aurora.  One of the times Jo Ann and I were visiting the market, we stopped and talked with a vendor who was selling organic cheese made from sheep's milk.  He explained to us that they age the cheese in caves using techniques that have been followed for many years.  As we talked we both thought that this would be a fun road trip and he agreed that we could come on down to tour his rancho.

So last week a group of us took off from San Miguel heading towards Atongo, which is in the state of Querétaro, not far off of the toll road that heads to Mexico City.  We had called in advance to ensure we could take a tour and everything seemed ready.

We arrived at Rancho Santa Marína right on time, but alas the gate was locked and we called and called to no avail.  Finally I started honking the horn on our car and someone came out and told us that the person we were suppose to meet was not there.  However shortly after that this young lady came out and introduced herself as Deanna, who was the on site veterinarian, and she would be able to give us our tour.

We started the tour by walking through the automatic milking facilities.  Unlike cows, the sheep only get milked once a day and that would not be commencing until after 1p or so.  Deanna said that we could be able to return to see the facility in full swing.

The next stop of our tour was to visit with some of various herds of sheep.  They are kept in distinct groups so they can manage the production of milk.  Here are a couple of photos of the various herds of sheep.

The rancho is certified organic and produce all of their own feed so they can ensure that the sheep are feed only the highest quality foods and grains.

After touring some of the various herds (there are over 300 sheep on the rancho), we went to the gardens surrounding the main house on the rancho.  The gardens are very beautiful and have a great mixture of flowers, native plants and fruit trees.

After the gardens we went to the building where the make the cheese and where the cave is that is used to age the cheese.  The production facility is very modern and very sanitary looking.  It is run by one woman who was very focused in what she did.

Then we got to see the cave, which has a big glass wall so people can look in on the various cheese.  I was lucky enough to be invited in with my camera to take some photos of the cheeses in the cave.  All I can tell you is the aroma of the cheeses was absolutely fabulous.  Here a couple of photos to give you an idea of what they looked like, but there is no way that I can duplicate the aroma.

Deanna told us that the cheeses are aged for three months in the caves.  What is interesting is that it takes the milk from ten sheep to make one kilo of cheese, so you can do your own math to understand that this is not a very large production business.

So after so much temptation, we were finally given the opportunity to taste the cheeses.  What was interesting is that we were able to taste the cheese of two different ages, one that was in the cave for only two months and one in for the entire three months.  There was a significant difference between the two, much fuller and much more tasty.

Our final stop was to go back to the automatic milking stations, where they were in full swing for the afternoon milking.  You can see for yourself how this process works.

So the plan is to try to organize another tour of this rancho for the Down to Earth garden club of San Miguel sometime in October.  The owners of the rancho are offering us a full tour together with a tasting of cheese and wine for 100 pesos per person.  This tour and tasting was great fun and I think that the entire group will greatly enjoy the trip.  If you are interested in coming please visit the Down to Earth Garden Club web site at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gardensma/.