Licon's Dairy Asaderos
Overview
Licon's Dairy Asaderos is a charming, deeply historic family-owned agritourism farm and legendary artisanal cheese kitchen located in the rural valley community of San Elizario near El Paso. Operating for generations, the farm is nationally famous for crafting authentic, perfectly melting Mexican 'asadero' string cheese by hand using time-honored traditional techniques and farm-fresh dairy milk. Traveling families can step into the rustic farm store to sample the hot cheese treats, visit a delightful onsite petting zoo filled with friendly goats, camels, and llamas, or fish at the park's private stock pond. It provides a highly therapeutic, unforgettable agricultural adventure that offers tourists a genuine, satisfying taste of authentic South Texas ranching culture.
Practical Info
Travel Tips
- Shuttering completely on Mondays and Tuesdays, their legacy handmade Asadero cheese logs routinely sell out completely by 12:30 PM daily due to wholesale runs; target early morning arrivals to secure stock.
- The rural unpaved access drive surrounding the petting zoo and stock ponds turns into deep mud tracks after heavy storms; low-clearance urban cars face high undercarriage trapping risks on the un-graveled soil layers.
- The packaging halls emit intense concentration of natural dairy curd fermentation aromas and open pasture odors; diners holding highly sensitive respiratory tracks should utilize peripheral unsheltered canopy rows exclusively.
Reviews
- An incredibly authentic century-old family farm near El Paso; their handmade traditional Mexican Asadero cheese is of premium quality and highly praised.
- More than just a cheese shop, the farm features a wonderful free petting zoo where kids can hand-feed alpacas, peacocks, and deer, providing great fun.
- Boasts a beautiful, calm private fishing pond surrounded by rustic Texan farm relics, cultivating a deeply tranquil and peaceful country lifestyle vibe.
- Pricing is highly economical compared to urban chains with zero pressure; fronted by a massive grass parking lot perfect for a budget family road trip.
- Located on the distant rural desert fringe in San Elizario, requiring a long drive from downtown El Paso with zero public transit access links.
- As an authentic working livestock farm, the air around the animal pens naturally carries a pungent, heavy musk of animal manure and muddy odors.
- The outdoor campus suffers from a critical lack of natural tree shade or canopies; visiting in brutal 100°F+ desert summer middays poses a heatstroke risk.
- All product labels are exclusively in English and Spanish; restrooms in peripheral sections look dated and suffer from a lack of frequent sanitation.