19 7 6 13 5 25 17 4 Sonoma 20 County 27 23 24 18 10 26 14 8 11 116 22 21 1 2 d 3 a o R 12 a m lu eta es-P 16 ey R t. P

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R o a d Marin County

Cheesemakers of Marin and Sonoma County

+ Achadinha Company McClelland Dairy + Andante Cheese + Nicasio Valley Cheese Company + Barinaga Ranch Farmstead + Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company Cheese Pugs Leap Bellwether Farms + Ramini Mozzarella Bleating Heart Cheese Redwood Hill Farm & Creamery Bodega Artisan Cheese Saint Benoit Bohemian Creamery Spring Hill Cheese Company Clover Stornetta Farms + Straus Family Creamery + Toluma Farms Epicurean Connection Two Rock Valley Cheese ’s Chevre + Valley Ford Cheese Company Marin French Cheese Company Vella Cheese Company Matos Cheese Factory Weirauch Farm & Creamery Open Locations + Protected Farmland Driving Tours Marin County Tour Sonoma County Tour Novato to Nicasio and Point Reyes Station (about 50 miles) Petaluma to Sonoma to Sebastopol (about 50 miles) Driving Directions Driving Directions Start at the Marin French Cheese Company right outside Novato, Starting in the historic agricultural town of Petaluma, with its where you can take a tour, picnic, and taste their award-winning charming turn-of-the-century buildings and quaint downtown, Rouge et Noir brie. Then travel west on the Point Reyes-Petaluma stop by the Petaluma Creamery where you can sample Spring Hill Road, make a quick detour onto Nicasio Valley Road to the quaint Cheese (for tours of their creamery please call ahead). Then head village of Nicasio. There you’ll findNicasio Valley Cheese Company. east out of town via Highway 116 and follow signs to Sonoma. The Lafranchi family produces fantastic farmstead in the To visit one of the oldest cheesemakers in the area, stop by Vella artisanal tradition of their Swiss-Italian cousins in . Then Cheese Company, known for their famous aged dry Jack. While retrace your steps to the Point Reyes-Petaluma Road and into the still in Sonoma drop by the Epicurean Connection for the flavors of town of Point Reyes to Tomales Bay Foods (also known as Cowgirl fresh and soft cheeses and more local fare. For more, travel north Creamery) where you can watch through the window out of town on Highway 12 to Sebastopol to the Matos Cheese or take a more formal cheese class (reservations required). At the Factory to sample their St. George, a buttery semi-hard cheese cheese counter taste Cowgirl cheeses and other local artisan cheeses. made in the style of the Azores. 8. Clover Stornetta Farms 15. Nicasio Valley Cheese 22. Straus Family Creamery Petaluma Company Marshall Explore the Sonoma 707-778-8448 5300 Nicasio Valley Road 707-776-2887 Marin Cheese Trail cloverstornetta.com Nicasio www.strausfamilycreamery.com C 415-662-6200 C FM O A A family-owned and operated business, Clover nicasiocheese.com A family-owned organic creamery, Straus Stornetta Farms works closely with select C FM F M P O A produces milk, ice cream, yogurt, butter, frozen family farms in Sonoma, Marin and Mendocino The Lafranchi family enjoyed the traditional yogurt and soft-serve ice cream with cows’ milk 1. Achadinha Cheese Company counties. It processes and distributes their cheeses of their Swiss homeland and dreamed sourced from its own dairy in the hills above Petaluma high-quality dairy products under the Clover of making their own. Their organic dairy Tomales Bay and from three other local family 707-763-1025 Stornetta and Clover Organic Farms brands. was the perfect resource to enable them to farms. For tours, check malt.org. www.achadinha.com pay homage to their heritage. They made G FM F A 9. Cowgirl Creamery their first cheese in 2010 with Swiss mentor 23. Toluma Farms

Jim and Donna Pacheco’s 900 graze 80 Fourth Street Maurizio Lorenzetti. Tomales year-round on verdant pastures at the Pacheco Point Reyes Station 707-878-2041 415-663-9335 16. Point Reyes Farmstead tolumafarms.com Family Dairy. The grass is supplemented with alfalfa and brewers’ grain from local www.cowgirlcreamery.com Cheese Company G S FM F A breweries. Donna handcrafts all cheeses. C FM M P O A Point Reyes Station David Jablons and Tamara Hicks purchased Achadinha also sells its own smoked summer In 1997, Sue Conley and built 415-663-8880 their dairy in 2003, restored the land and goat sausage. a small creamery in downtown Point Reyes pointreyescheese.com protected it with an agricultural conservation easement. They began milking 200 goats in Station and began making handcrafted cheese theforkatpointreyes.com 2. Andante Cheese with local organic milk. They now produce C FM F M A 2007, and plan to start producing goat and three fresh and six aged cheeses, and have a mixed-milk cheeses in 2011. Petaluma The Giacomini family makes classic Point second creamery in Petaluma. 707-769-1379 Reyes Original Blue and semi-hard Point www.andantedairy.com Reyes Toma with milk from their own cows— 24. Two Rock Valley C G FM processed within hours of milking. They offer Two Rock Valley Goa 10. Epicurean Connection k t C oc h R e 122 West Napa Street 707-762-6182 o e hands-on and demo-style cooking classes at s Soyoung Scanlan—dairy scientist, music lover, w e Sonoma The Fork Culinary Center on their ranch. T DD and former biochemist—gives musical names G FM F M A DeBernardi Dairy, Inc. 707-935-7960 to her creamery and cheeses. Her products Dairyman Don DeBernardi’s desire to make are designed to reveal the essence of the www.sheanadavis.com 17. Pugs Leap Swiss cheese like the type made by his relatives terroir, or microclimate, in which the milk and C G FM M P Petaluma in Switzerland led him to transition from multi- cheese are produced. is a cheesemaker and proprietor 707-876-3300 generational dairy farming to producing a goat [email protected] milk cheese aged on site at the DeBernardi of the Epicurean Connection shop, selling 3. Barinaga Ranch artisan and farmstead cheeses, plus regionally G FM F A Dairy. Farmstead Sheep Milk Cheese and sustainably produced products. After After running their goat dairy, White Whale 20 years of enthusiastic support for local Farm, for several years, Anna and Dan Conner 25. Valley Ford Cheese Company Marshall cheesemakers, she introduced her own artisan www.barinagaranch.com were eager to enter the cheese world. They took Valley Ford cheese line in 2009. S F M over Pugs Leap in 2010, continuing the high- 707-293-5636 quality cheesemaking tradition of the previous valleyfordcheeseco.com Barinaga Ranch continues the shepherding 11. Laura Chenel’s Chèvre owners. Their herd is Certified Humane. C FM F A traditions of Marcia Barinaga’s Basque Sonoma ancestors in Spain. Sheep graze year-round on 707-996-4477 Five generations of the Bianchi/Grossi family more than 100 acres of pasture overlooking 18. Ramini Mozzarella have raised dairy cows on this prime farmland www.laurachenel.com Tomales Tomales Bay. The rich, raw milk is made into a in Sonoma County. Karen Bianchi Moreda Basque-style cheese from April to October. G 415-690-6633 and her son Joe now make Swiss-Italian-style Laura Chenel pioneered American goat raminimozzarella.com cheese from the milk of their Certified Humane cheesemaking. From small batches made on W F Raised & Handled Jersey herd. 4. Bellwether Farms her Sebastopol farm in the 1970s to the new Petaluma Inspired by Italian mozzarella di bufala, Craig Sonoma creamery owned by French artisan Ramini will use 100% buffalo milk to 707-478-8067 cheese producer Rians Group, the brand 26. Vella Cheese Company www.bellwetherfarms.com produce a handcrafted cheese for his new 315 2nd Street East continues to bring increased appreciation of company which is now in start-up mode. C S FM M goat cheese to the U.S. Sonoma Ramini Mozzarella is scheduled to be available 707-938-3232 • 800-848-0505 The Callahan family owns and operates in 2012. vellacheese.com Bellwether Farms in the heart of Sonoma 12. Marin French Cheese County. They began milking their sheep and C M P Company 19. Redwood Hill Farm & The Vella family has made cheese in a producing handcrafted cheeses in 1990, 7500 Red Hill Road stonewalled building on the historic Sonoma making them one of the first to be part of the Petaluma Creamery Sebastopol square since the company’s founding in 1931 by revival of American artisan cheesemaking. 800-292-6001 707-823-8250 Gaetano Vella. The cultures, the care and the www.marinfrenchcheese.com redwoodhill.com personal hands-on techniques are the same as 5. Bleating Heart Cheese C G M P A Sebastopol G FM M A they were then. The oldest continuously operating cheese www.bleatingheart.com Located among picturesque redwoods, family- factory in America, Marin French has C S FM owned and operated Redwood Hill Farm has 27. Weirauch Farm & Creamery specialized in handmade Brie and produced award-winning goat milk cheese Petaluma Fat Bottom Girl, a sheep cheese, was first since 1865. In 2005, it was the first American since 1978. Their Certified Humane Raised weirauchfarm.com produced by Bleating Heart in 2009. Sonoma producer to best France and other European & Handled herd benefits from a diversified Toma, a cow’s milk cheese, followed soon after. countries in international competitions. C S FM F M O A In 2010, Bleating Heart partnered with Sonoma breeding program, and their cheese, yogurt Joel and Carleen Weirauch raise dairy sheep County ranchers Rex and Kerry Williams to and kefir are minimally processed. for a seasonal raw aged cheese. They also establish California’s fifth sheep dairy. 13. Matos Cheese Factory 3669 Llano Road produce organic cow cheese from local Jersey Santa Rosa 20. Saint Benoît Yogurt milk. They’ve made creative, green re-use of 6. Bodega Artisan Cheese 707-584-5283 Two Rock two portable classrooms for their creamery 530-400-4701 Bodega C F P and milking parlor. Their operation is Animal 707-876-3483 stbenoit.com Welfare Approved. www.BodegaArtisanCheese.com Joe and Mary Matos grew up in the C FM O A C G FM F M A Portuguese Azores on the lush volcanic island of Sao Jorge, noted for its delicious cheeses. Saint Benoît is a small, family-owned business Key to the Cheesemakers In keeping with farmstead traditions They relocated to Santa Rosa in the 1970s, handcrafting organic, cream-top, French- worldwide, Bodega’s “country” cheeses are carrying the recipe for their native cheese style yogurt from the milk of Jersey cows. C Cow All products are made in small batches using produced in small batches from one-to-two with them. G Goat day old milk, then immediately made into locally sourced fruits and honey. They’re sold cheese. This seals in the fresh, mild flavor, in distinctive reusable crocks and jars. S Sheep even in the aged cheeses. 14. McClelland Dairy Petaluma W Water Buffalo 707-664-0452 21. Spring Hill Cheese Company FM Available at 7. Bohemian Creamery www.mcclellandsdairy.com 711 Western Avenue Petaluma Farmers’ Markets Sebastopol C FM F M P www.bohemiancreamery.com 707-762-9038 F Farmstead C G F M This third-generation family dairy was founded springhillcheese.com by Robert McClelland, an Irish immigrant. It’s M Mail Order C FM F M P O A Lisa Gottreich and Miriam Block decided to now operated by his son George, George’s P Open to the Public break out of their midlife and fill new Rich, organic 100% Jersey milk is the secret of wife Dora, and their daughter Jana. They O Organic ones with innovative and compelling . specialize in European Style Organic Artisan Larry Peter’s handcrafted gourmet cheeses. They make a variety of Italian-style cheeses on Butter and have plans for other products in Spring Hill Jersey cheeses are made on his A Tours by Appointment their farm in Sebastopol. the future. farm just west of Petaluma.

The following organizations Agricultural Institute of Marin, California Milk Advisory Board, Marin Convention & Visitors Bureau, provided generous Marin County Board of Supervisors, Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District, support. www.SonomaCounty.com, Sonoma Land Trust.

A PROJECT OF THE MARIN ECONOMIC FORUM . Production: Vivien Straus and Ellie Rilla . Design: Lisa Krieshok . Copy: Elisabeth Ptak Tour the heart of artisan cheesemaking country in Sonoma and Marin counties It’s been called the Normandy of Northern with them from Switzerland, Italy, the Azores, Portugal California after the famous French cheese- and Ireland, and began producing modest quantities producing region. View a beautiful agricultural on the farm or through cooperative creameries. But landscape of family farms and working ranches, during WW II, small-scale manufacturing gave way to mass production to meet much of it protected from development with the needs of national agricultural conservation easements. Experience defense and a growing historic towns and villages, Point Reyes National population. Seashore, nearby oyster operations and world- Today, artisan renowned wineries in the 12 wine-growing cheesemaking is regions of Sonoma County. experiencing a renaissance as both long- Open for Visits Not all artisan producers are open time dairy families and to the public, so we’ve created two tours to sites that young, passionate cheese welcome visitors. Meet some of the cheesemakers, entrepreneurs enter the learn about the animals, and maybe even see cheese marketplace to meet being made…and don’t forget to ask for a taste! an increasing consumer Make sure to call ahead or check company websites desire for distinctive, listed on the back for hours. handcrafted cheese. Marin and Sonoma counties are home to the A Working Landscape largest concentration of artisan cheesemakers Cheesemaking has long been a part of world cultures, in California. In but in the U.S., it dates back only about 200 years. In combination with Marin and Sonoma counties, Spanish priests first made conscientious cheese from the milk of mission animal husbandry practices, they emphasize quality livestock in the early 1800s. over quantity. Like vintners who attribute the distinct During the Gold Rush, European characteristics of their wines to the terroir in which immigrants built dairies on the they’re produced, cheesemakers here say the Point Reyes peninsula to supply air, cooling fogs and butter and cheese to gold miners abundant grasslands To make one pound of in San Francisco. The peninsula where their animals graze make their cheeses unlike cheese, it takes about five Popular goat breeds include Alpine, became known as “cow heaven” Saanen, Nubian and LaMancha for its moderate climate and any others. pounds of sheep’s milk, or verdant grasslands, and dairy ranches soon sprang up seven pounds of goat milk, throughout Marin, making the county the top dairy Protecting or 10 pounds of cow’s milk. producer in California for several decades. As demand grew, the story repeated itself in Sonoma County. Farmland Settlers in both counties brought cheesemaking skills This beautiful farmland located so close to San Francisco is under constant threat from sprawl and non-agricultural development. With your help, 22,000 acres of land in Marin and conservation organizations in Marin and Sonoma Sonoma are dedicated to making cheese can protect at-risk farmland. For more information and fermented milk products. and to see how you can help, visit malt.org, sonomalandtrust.org and sonomaopenspace.org. Solar-powered milking parlors, on-farm methane digesters & composting systems are ways some local cheesemakers lessen their environmental impact.

Water buffalo are a new addition to the region

Types of Cheese Fresh: Retains fresh milk flavors with little or no aging Semi-soft: Retains fresh milk flavors, but has pliable texture and a bit of pungency About 9,000 acres of land in Marin and Sonoma Soft-ripened: A beneficial sprayed on or added to used for farmstead cheesemaking are protected ripening cheese creates a bloomy rind by agricultural conservation easements. Surface-ripened: A wrinkly, surface-ripened rind or a thin rind barely contains the runny cheese Semi-hard: Complex taste with a firm, sometimes crumbly, Cheese Glossary texture that’s good for melting Affineur: A French term for the person who cares Aged (hard): Crumbly, sweet, pungent, low in moisture, and for the maturing and ripening of cheese. good for grating Washed rind: Characteristically creamy and smelly with a Artisan: Cheese made primarily by hand in small tacky surface and pinkish or orange-colored rind batches with special attention paid to the tradition of the cheesemaker’s art. Blue (pierced): A mold added during the cheesemaking and piercing process creates various types of blue veining Cheesemonger: A knowledgeable person who sells cheese. College of Marin Curds and : Milk naturally thickens and began offering forms curds when left in a warm place or when a coagulant like is added. Cutting the curds an Artisan allows them to release water (whey). Eventually the Cheesemaking whey is poured off, leaving only curds, which are Certificate then formed or pressed into rounds or other shapes. in 2010. Farmstead: Cheese made on the farm with milk from the farmer’s own herd. Where to Buy Partial List of Local Retailers: Almost 100 different types of artisan cheeses are made here. Andronico’s Oliver’s Markets Terroir is Andy’s Market Pacific & Fiesta French for Markets The best way to store cheese is the interplay Bodega Country of soil, Store Paradise Foods to wrap it in wax or butcher climate & paper, then put it in the geography Cheese Shop of Petaluma that make an Healdsburg Market refrigerator vegetable crisper. agricultural area unique Cowgirl Raley’s Markets Creamery United Markets G&G Market Valley Ford Market Mollie Stones Whole Foods Markets And many farmers’ markets where you can often meet the cheesemakers themselves.

This map is available for download at www.cheesetrail.org