What better than St. Patrick's Day week (a multi-day extravaganza of all things earthy, tasty and green) for adventuring out west to the wilds of Tomales Bay and a visit to picturesque Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company?
A light appearance of March drizzle, such a rarity right now, cast a moody, gorgeous filter over still green rolling hills and cattle studded pasture land as traveling companion and fellow cheese enthusiast Marnie and I made our way out of town in search of some of the tastiest artisan cheese in a region that spoils us for choice when it comes to fresh and original California fromage.
Marnie's visit from her home in London, was prompted by an English winter reading of several tantalizing chapters of my book, Fog Valley Crush — in particular the cheesemaker's section.
Timing for taking a week to explore was designed to corner at least a taste of the 9th Annual California Artisan Cheese Festival — ground zero of which is Petaluma and out to the cheese wheel-dotted coastal west.
I wanted to show Marnie around our New World artisan cheese country just a little bit ahead of the crowds that pour into southern Sonoma County and west Marin for the festival.
And the Giacomini family's lauded Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company, overlooking Tomales Bay between Point Reyes Station and Marshall on land dairy farmed by the family since 1959 is quite simply — as good as it gets.
I'm a firm devotee of the Giacomini's 15-year-established Original Blue Cheese (the first vat was made in the year 2ooo), avid weekly consumer of the cheese company's hand crafted Mozzarella and a mad fan of its every day Toma, Italian for "cheese made by the farmer himself."
This penchant for all cheese Point Reyes Farmhouse stamped has me often in a conundrum at the cheese counter in the Petaluma Market or Whole Foods. Much as I swoon over Cowgirl Creamery's decadent little wheels of wonderfulness, Bellwether Farms melt-in-the-mouth creamy Carmody and sheep's cheeses, all the other amazing offerings from the area, my hand instinctively reaches for a wedge of the wickedly delicious Toma. Sometimes I am able to dissuade the instincts and enjoy a bit of variety, but often, it's this stand alone cheese, that, touted to "play well with others" that makes its way to the dinner table alongside a staple of olives and my favorite, seasonal fruits and fresh baked local breads.
One of the most interesting things I learned during this visit was that Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company has recently celebrated its monumental milestone of making a million pounds of cheese per year.
In comparison to annual production of less than half of that by one of the world's best known blue cheeses, Roquefort — a sheep milk blue cheese from the south of France, this peaceful and private Blue Cheese blaze trailer is putting Northern California on the global tastemaker's map.
This was my second visit to the farm. Marnie's first. What a revelation to be taken on an extremely rare behind-the-scenes tour from pasture to milking barn viewing room to feed barns and a peek through the windows of the pristine, on-site cheese making facility itself.
Of course we had to stop for a visit with these adorable month-old beauties, farm dog Bella, leading the way.
Pictured here, expectant moos, having a pleasant afternoon munch. A cow's gestation period is nine months, just like a human mommy, but their babies are much bigger, as we witnessed with a particularly appealing, wobbly but walking, one week old calf.
These cows eat on average 120 pounds of organic, harvested silage feed each day and are (rye) pasture raised on the farm's 720 acres, grazing in winter and spring.
State of the art milking keeps track of a cow's productivity via computer, so that the herd manager is able to carefully monitor all 365 milkers of a 900 cow herd.
Cows are milked 15 at a time, filtering in to the dulcet tones of pleasantly piped surround sound, mostly Spanish music!
It takes five to six minutes to milk each cow, with twice daily milking at the wee hours of 2 am and 2 pm.
Each cow produces up to 10 gallons of milk each day. If you take a look at the 10 gallon milk can pictured below, it gives you a good idea of the productivity taking place.
It takes one gallon of milk to make a pound of cheese.
The Giacomini's and their close-knit, extended family of dairy managers, cheesemakers, sales, marketing and Fork (events facility pictured below) workers are extremely proud of their reputation as the region's early innovators in sustainability and land stewardship.
Patriarch Bob's grandfather Tobias Giacomini landed in the region from Italy, with a dream of raising cows and chickens. Two generations later, Bob and his late wife, Dean, and their four daughters turned a lifetime dairyman's dream of utilizing the farm's fabulous milk instead of trucking it away. A cheesemaking enterprise to lead the way for regional neighbors was born.
A methane gas digester converts all of the unavoidable bi-product of manure into useable energy that powers the bulk of dairy and cheese plant operations. The farmstead cheese company is a role model for dairies around the world looking to increase the adoption of cutting edge technology to assist with water management, animal husbandry and cheesemaking operations.
Remote it may be, but the farm and its good people love company. Bob and the visionary Giacomini women (all four daughters operate the company) enjoy nothing more than sharing the bounty of their heritage. They created The Fork as an inviting, custom-built facility with a huge, gleaming, professional kitchen, light and airy family-style dining room, edible garden and outdoor patio. Farm to table educational experiences, cooking classes, far tours, tastings and monthly farm dinners (and occasional brunches) are no secret and sell out fast.
Catering, team building, educational programs are customized to suit specific needs.
A whopping 500 wheels of Original Blue Cheese (served at the White House over the 2014 holidays) is made each day. Toma, I learned, is, (fortuitously for fans such as myself) made from whatever is left over of the milk.
It doesn't take a long as I would have imagined to mature a wheel of blue cheese. Don't be fooled by long maturation claims when cheese shopping, I learned that is a bit of a gimmick by some companies. Point Reyes cheeses take no longer than five months to mature and be ready for table.
Our tour led us into the lovely dining room for a tasting inside The Fork, perfectly peaceful on a misty Monday afternoon.
Pictured from left to right: Toma, Point Reyes rustic Bay Blue and the Original Blue. The correct way to taste cheese is mildest to strongest.
Bay Blue is made from pasteurized cow's milk, with a mild blue mold, sweet, caramel finish and a fudge like texture with a natural rind whereas the Original Blue is made from raw cow's milk, has an ultra creamy texture, is milky white in color with blue-green veins and has no rind.
Toma, if you've never tasted it, is a semi-hard cheese, creamy in texture with a buttery, grassy-tanged flavor.
This was as far from the madding crowds of Napa Valley as could be for wine country. Rather than take Marnie wine and cheese tasting, I'd taken her cheese and beer tasting. With plentiful wine at home, it was refreshing to share The Fork's tradition of more casual Sonoma/Marin style pairing of local Lagunitas cult-status micro brewed beers with its farmstead cheeses.
Hop Stoopid packs the punch of a double barrel dose of malt and hops and a perfect companion for this stellar flight of farmstead cheeses.
We all know that California cows are happy cows, but Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company's cows enjoy a relationship between the dairy and the microbrewery. Bi-product brewer's malt comes into play in cow feed here from Petaluma-based Lagunitas Brewery on a regular basis.
Marnie declared the Point Reyes blue even better than a slice of good, old, Great British Stilton. And though I was raised not more than 15 miles from Stilton and am naturally fond of this famous cheese, I'm a California convert, too.
Tearing ourselves away from a slice of cheese heaven was no small feat.
Cheeses are available to order (click here) for shipping directly from the farm.
Cheese Festival tour goers get to visit the farm for a tour and lunch via busloads. Festival tours are always the first to sell out and it has been no exception this year.
There are still tickets available for various events and highlights during the 2015 three day extravaganza. I will be signing, along with several other authors whose books are featured at the festival via Copperfield's Book Store, throughout the weekend. Click here to check out the complete line up of events on the website for the festival.
Click here for more information on upcoming farm tours, classes dinners and brunch. Be sure to book ahead as space in this sublime coastal facility is limited and demand is so very high.
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