One day while eating lunch at Tiffany's Pizza & Deli Coffee Shop in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Chris Slaveck asked his waitress what kind of mozzarella cheese the eatery used.

"She said, "It just says F&A on it,'" said Slaveck, vice president of marketing and sales for F&A Dairy, which makes cheese on the West Mesa. "From their window you could look out and see our plant (in the distance.) I pointed it out to her and said, "That's where the cheese came from.'"

Now the facility, which supplies cheese to a variety of Las Cruces businesses as well as to customers nationwide, is about to expand by 40,000 square feet and double its capacity. The move will also allow the company to increase its Las Cruces work force, which stands at 100, by about 40 employees.

F&A Dairy, which also has a facility in Wisconsin, invited City Manager Terrence Moore, City Councilor Dolores Connor and a few other people to its plant at 355 Crawford Blvd. on Wednesday to try some pizza made with its product and also show off the work under way that will expand the plant from about 150,000 square feet to 190,000.

The $15 million project will also include a system to deal with the 300,000 gallons of "cow water" the company will produce every day. Cow water is the water left over from milk when cheese is made. F&A has leased nearby land from the New Mexico State Land Office where the water will be used to irrigate an as-yet-to-be determined crop to be grown on the land.

"This is not only about economic development, but everybody involved (is) contributing to innovation," Moore said.

A New Product

Owner Jeff Terranova said that F&A Dairy produces about 4 million pounds of cheese a month, about 70 percent of which is mozzarella. The company also makes provolone and muenster and sells an asadero cheese as well. The expansion will allow the company to produce the softer, whiter, fresh mozzarella that comes in a ball shape.

"Fresh mozzarella is a whole different type of cheese," Terranova said.

Bob Snyder, vice president of New Mexico operations for F&A, said customers requested the product.

"A lot of our people that we sell regular cheese too also had fresh mozzarella and the obvious question was: "Do you make it?'" he said.

Expansion

The company plans to install a new brine system — the cheese is soaked in the salty solution to preserve it — and the space where the old brine system was located will be set up with the new ball mozzarella line.

"It's kind of coming in phases," Terranova said. "We hope to have the brine system for the existing plant operational by end of February or the first part of March. That will allow us to move forward on the fresh mozzarella ball line expansion and that hopefully will happen in the later part of March."

He said the hiring of new employees will also come in stages.

"We've started some of that now, in a small way, getting some people in training," he said.

The positions will mostly be for line workers, but there will also be foreman and supervisor type jobs as well, Terranova said.

Snyder said people can apply for work with the company at the plant.

Water System

As for the water system, Tony Schaefer with Schaefer Group Enterprises is overseeing the work.

"We'll run a minimum of 16,000 feet of pipe to the fields," he said. "Once the fields are leveled, we'll run additional pipe."

He said the company does not know what crop will be grown, but said "we're looking to get the fields planted in mid-April to early May."

As many as 200 of the 1,200 acres being leased could be used for agriculture.

Dennis Garcia, deputy commissioner with the State Land Office, said his department found the concept very interesting.

"The water will be used for natural and organic farming operations so there are some benefits for the land," he said. "It's a 40-year lease, so we're hoping they are around for a long time."

Garcia said the base cost of the lease is $10,000 per year with a 2 percent escalator, although he was not sure if the cost of the lease will rise every year.

Buying Cheese

Snyder said most of the company's cheese is not sold retail, but there are places it can be purchased in Las Cruces.

"We have F&A," said Dena Wilbee, manager of Toucan Market at 1701 E University Ave. "We carry their mozzarella, muenster and asadero."

Slaveck said Sam's Club carries F&A products in the form of Cheese Crafters muenster and asadero.

In addition, Snyder said a variety of restaurants and delis in Las Cruces have F&A products.

Barbara Rammos, owner of Tiffany's, said she still uses F&A mozzarella while Vince Vaccaro who owns three Lorenzo's Italian restaurants in Las Cruces, said he has used F&A products, "for at least 12 years.

"They have the best cheese I can find," Vaccaro said. "They do an excellent job."

Source: Las Cruces Sun-News (N.M.)