Number one on the Sonoma Marin Cheese Trail heading west from Petaluma is Achadinha Cheese Company, (pronounded Osh-a-deen-a), a Pacheco farm Family-run, artisan cheese business, located along scenic Chileno Valley Road. The Pacheco's sell their pasturized goat and cow's milk cheeses (pictured above) and curds at 90 farmers markets throughout Northern California.
My first pit-stop at the 8th Annual California Artisan Cheese Festival was opening day's Meet The Cheesemaker reception, a cavalcade of all-things curds and whey (wine and beer too), and a warm and welcoming introduction to a weekend of delicious tastes and discoveries at the Sheraton Petaluma.
Tamara Hicks and David Jablons are producing delicious goat, sheep and cow cheeses at one-year-old Tomales Farmstead Creamery on their 160 acre Marin Land Trust protected goat and sheep farm in Tomales. This enterprising couple offers farm tours, cheese-making classes and other educational experiences, including programs for urban youth, out at the farm. Visit Toluma Farms at a monthly tour, or one conducted by MALT as part its popular Hikes, Tours & Tastings program.
Tomales Farmstead Cheeses (available locally at Oliver's Markets, Palace Market, Point Reyes, Point Reyes Farmers Market and San Rafael Farmers Market), are named after the Coastal Miwok, in honor of the land.
- Kenne (meaning "one"): A soft ripened cheese with one type of milk (goat).
- Liwa (meaning "water"): Two day fresh goat cheese
- Atika (meaning "two"): A soft ripened cheese with two types of milk (goat and sheep).
- Teleeka (meaning "three"): A soft ripened cheese with three types of milk (goat, sheep and cow).
Made with love and whimsy in Valley Ford, another of the more recent artisan cheese operations to pop up (not without considerable preparation, of course) in this neck of the woods, is Gypsy Cheese Company.
Jon (not pictured) and Lauren Browne (above right) decamped their life as lawyers in San Francisco to craft cheese by hand in small batches with the best milk available from rural Valley Ford area family farms.
Gypsy Rose - A washed-rind raw goat cheese, which is aged 60-90 days, is produced in 3-4 pound squares.
Caravan - A feta-style cheese made from raw goat-milk and aged 60-90 days in a whey-brine is produced in .75 pound rounds.
Caravan Gold - Caravan cheese marinated in Sonoma County olive oil, fresh rosemary and herbs, and packed into 8 ounce mason jars.
One of the easiest ways to source Gypsy Cheese Company and other delicious wares is via The Good Egg website.
Good Eggs opened for business in February of 2013. This is a website and delivery service that taps into the local food movement through technology, allowing customers in the Sf Bay Area and Brooklyn to order food from local farmers and artisanal food makers. Shoppers browse through dozens of virtual stands, searching by type of item, including dairy, meats, baked goods, produce and more, or by farm. Orders are fulfilled and assembled on-demand, delivered to your door or a free pick up location.
For artisan food lovers living in New Orleans or Los Angeles, The Good Egg is piloting marketplaces and deliveries in each of those cities, with more offerings launching soon.
Day two and my assignment for Saturday morning of the Cheese Festival was to attend Seminar 16 - A Tale of Two Milksheds: Tasting the Cheese of Tomales Bay and Driftless (Wisconsin) with the Cowgirls.
Anyone who knows anything at all about California artisan cheese is well aware that Peggy Smith and Sue Conley, founders and co-owners of iconic Cowgirl Creamery are what we Brits fondly refer to as "The Bee's Knees" - in just about every respect that relates to the evolution of the artisan cheese movement, not just in the Sonoma and Marin County super-cluster of now 30 cheesemakers, but as 'curators' of many of the finest handcrafted cheeses in the United States and beyond.
Peggy and Sue might well be considered as Artisan Cheese world elite, but you'd be hard pushed to find a more grounded, generous and inspiring pair of uber-professionals within the local and global cheese scene. The Cowgirls, who started making cheese in Point Reyes Station, West Marin, 17 years ago, led an early coalition of dairy farmers within the Tomales Bay Milkshed to co-create the State's most significant artisan cheese making region. Without the collaborative vision and efforts of Peggy, Sue and leading local family dairy farmers having established a support network and culture for organic cheese making in the area, today's rank of 30 artisan cheesemakers from West Marin into Sonoma County would simply not have found such robust footing.
As Wholesale Cheese Distributers of dozens more distinguished cheeses, the Cowgirls, whose main bases are in Point Reyes Station and Petaluma, are literally all over the map.
Though accessible and approachable, funny and friendly, Peggy and Sue are two of the busiest people in the American artisan cheese movement. And so the chance to take a pew and hear them speak at the Sheraton in Petaluma, was simply too good to miss.
I hadn't bargained on cheese pairing with wines at 9.30 am in the morning, but over an hour and a half, the spread you see above, proved the perfect breakfast treat, with the late arrival of a pretty fabulous Pinot Noir in what was, at the time I snapped this shot, the empty glass to the right. The Pinot was Handley Cellars Anderson Valley, whom, to the left, made a wonderful cheese pairing Riesling, too.
When tasting cheese with wine, these are two varietals that tend to compliment cheese best. Syrah is good too, but its a good rule of thumb stay away from most other red wines for cheese pairings, unless fortified, such as port or sherry.
Now I know not to confuse the taste buds with too much, too soon. When reaching for a slice of cheese to sample with a wine, take a bite of cheese first, let it reach the roof and sides of your mouth before eating. Try the wine, then try both together. Crackers and breads will add to the dynamics, try cheese first without.
The Cowgirls taste cheese once a week. A lot of cheese. Yet still they prove the most impassioned in their on-going, generous educating of cheese aficionados, new cheesemakers and industry experts alike.
Seminar-goers from around the country had arrived with their assemblage of Starbucks coffee-cups-to-go, but I didn't spot too much sipping of more typical Saturday morning standard, given the mouthwatering and rarified display set before each attendee.
When cheesemakers operate in a cluster, most naturally collaborate with one another and with other farm goods producers in the area, consolidating shipping and sharing tables at farmers markets. By calling attention to their region, cheesemakers are sharing the personality, geography and flavor uniqueness of their part of the world.
By tasting and studying eight artisan cheeses (a Bohemian Blue Cheese from Hidden Springs in the Driftless Milkshed was a bonus taste at the end) from two different regions of the United States, the Milkshed concept within cheese making emerges as similar to that of varying wine appellations.
It simply would not be possible to replicate an artisan cheese recipe by making the same style cheese in Driftless, Wisconsin as one aged naturally in the Pacific oceanic environment of Point Reyes. Terroir with cheese is every bit as evident as in wine. The grasses and spring flowers in pasture, the air the cows, goat and cheese breathe, the individual cheesemaker's personal technique in touch of hand.
I'm more than familiar with Cowgirl Creamery Cheeses, living and shopping in the heart of California artisan cheese country, so while I enjoyed the pairing experience of the company's always outstanding Tomales Bay Milkshed cheeses, it was fun to compare and contrast with the cheeses sourced from Driftless.
Inspired by her Basque sheepherding and cheesemaking heritage, Marcia Barinaga and her husband Corey Goodman purchased a farm in the rolling hills overlooking Tomales Bay. After attending a cheesemaking class in Vermont, they accompanied Marcia's Dad pm a trip to the Pyrenees to learn the secrets of cheesemaking from the Basque masters. At their ranch in West Marin, sheep graze on pasture all year long. Marcia's first cheese is Baserri, named for the ancient tile-roof huts in the Pyrenees where herders make milk in the traditional ways. Pictured above, bottom row, left, Baserri was a rich, nutty stand-out amongst this extraordinary flight of cheeses. Aged for at least sixty days, it is available seasonally, directly from the farm.
Despite my penchant for Petaluma-area cheeses, locavore that I am, as a Brit-at-heart, I still hold a candle for a good, strong Cheddar. For more than three decades, Tony and Julie Hook of Hooks Cheese Company, Mineral Point, Wisconsin, have been making their award winning Cheddar and Swiss cheeses, later adding Colby and Monterey Jack to the mix.
Hooks 5-Year Cheddar is made in 5-pound blocks that develop rich, complex flavors over time. Now, here is an American-made Cheddar to rival the best of Britain's most popular cheeses, a varietal dating back to the 12th Century and the village of Cheddar in Somerset. Apparently, the second most popular cheese in the U.S. (after mozzarella), there are somewhere in the region of 80 cheese companies in Wisconsin alone that produce some version of Cheddar.
For the Cowgirls to select Hooks 5-Year Cheddar as an artisan example of the Driftless Milkshed spoke volumes on its quality. I wasn't disappointed.
Download a free California Cheese Trail app for the Sonoma/Marin Cheese Trail. Visit a cheese maker, take a farm tour and learn about the wide variety of cheeses available in this outstanding artisan cheese region.
