Touring Paradise

View of the LaFranchi Ranch

Tours of the dairy farms and creameries in Sonoma and West Marin are always the sell-out attraction of the annual California Artisan Cheese Festival, held each Spring in Petaluma, CA. 

During the 2012 Festival, I was grateful to lead the tour entitled, “California's Cheesemaking Counties: Sonoma to Marin”. Limousine service was provided by Pure Luxury.  Reggie, our wonderful chauffeur, wafted us for a full day between three farmstead cheesemakers covering cow, goat, and sheep milk types.

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Curious Girl ~ Achadinha Morning Milk

Achadinha Cheese Company 
Starting with the Pacheco Family Dairy and Achadinha Cheese Company, we arrived just in time to see “the girls”, as Donna Pacheco affectionately refers to her goats, line up for their morning shift in the milking parlour.

They were as curious about us as we were about them! More than 1000 strong and of various breeds including, Alpines, Saanens, Toggenburgs, la Manchas, Oberhaslis, floppy-eared Nubians, and mixes of all types, it was easy to see how smart and socially savvy these girls are.

While playing with newborn kids, we learned that “Nanny” goats really are just that!  Mother goats take turns watching over piles of babies.  When one “Nanny” ends her shift, another wanders in to take her place. The babies are never alone.

Achadinha Kids in a Cuddle

Highlighting our visit was a creamery tour that explained every step in the process of making Achadinha’s expanding selection of goat and mixed milk cheeses from fresh feta to year old hand pressed wheels.  Along the way, we tasted every cheese and met every member of the Pacheo family, a wonderful welcome at the start of our day.





Achadinha Cheese Company Links:Achadinha Cheese Company ; Novato Patch; Yelp Reviews

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Nicasio Valley Cheese Company 

View of the LaFranchi Dairy

Our next stop was the LaFranchi family’s organic dairy and Nicasio Valley Cheese Company where we first enjoyed a locally sourced lunch while overlooking the gorgeous green hills of West Marin.

Scott Lafranchi ~ Nicasio Square

Established by Fredolino LaFranchi  in 1919, the cattle ranch and dairy are among the oldest in the county.  In 2007, as a tribute to their Swiss heritage, the family began making cheese under the guidance of Swiss master cheesemaker Maurizio Lorenzetti and the venture has become an award winning success.

Sold in leading grocery and specialty stores throughout the Bay Area, Nicasio Valley cheeses are also available in the family’s own delightful shop next to the creamery.  Our tour enjoyed lingering there for nearly an hour over a tasting and discussion of the family’s signature Italian-Swiss cheeses.

Nicasio Valley Cheese Links:Nicasio Valley Cheese ; North Bay Business Journal ; Novato Patch

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Barinaga Ranch 

Spring Lambs at Barinaga Ranch

The tour finale at Barinaga Ranch in Marshall could not have been more exciting.  Just as we arrived, a ewe went into hard labor and so we followed Marcia Barinaga, the ranch owner and cheesemaker, into the barn where she helped to deliver twin lambs.

Marica is one of Marin’s most recent converts to ranching and cheesemaking.  Both she and her husband, Corey Goodman, are molecular biologists who planned to use the ranch as a place to retire. But for Marica, an avocation soon became a new full-time career.

Ewes and Lambs at Barinaga Ranch

Located on a hillside above the east shore of Tomales Bay with views of Point Reyes and the Pacific beyond, the Barinaga Ranch is a spectacular member of the Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT), the first land trust in the United States dedicated to preserving farmland and maintaining it for productive agriculture. Along with an experienced ranching staff and four Great Pyrenees shepherd dogs,

Marcia raises flocks of East Friesian and Katahdin sheep and is experimenting with a crossbreed of the two.  Once the lambs are weaned in the Spring, she begins milking the ewes twice a day in order to produce a Basque style cheese that harkens back to her family heritage.

In 1900, Marcia’s grandfather immigrated from a Basque village to the mountains of Idaho where he became a sheep rancher.   Although he didn’t make cheese with his sheep milk, Marcia saw Basque cheesemaking as a natural tribute to her ancestral lifestyle.  In 2007, she went to the Basque country and learned to make their traditional cheeses.  Produced by hand and in limited quantities, Marcia's cheeses are now among the most celebrated in the country.
Barinaga Ranch Links:Barinaga Ranch ; Bay Area Bites ;Culture Magazine

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Cuddle with a Cute Kid!

The California Artisan Cheese Festival
Visit the Festival Website: (artisancheesefestival.com) for schedule and registration details. Tours sell-out fast! Get tickets now or get on the waiting list.  An adventure of the heart is calling!

Copper Cais ~ The Milk of Ireland Ripened in the Heart of Butte

Veronica Steele

In 2010, I took a break from work in the digital world to explore the ancient, multi-sensory realm of artisan cheesemaking.

While employed as a cheesemonger at Cowgirl Creamery in Northern California's Point Reyes Station, I read an article in Culture magazine about County Cork and Irish farmhouse cheesemakers on the Beara Peninsula who make a variety of “washed-rind” cheeses with a distinctive red hued rind. It struck me that the color much resembled that  of smelted red copper which is the economic mainstay of Butte, Montana, where I grew up.

The Irish immigrants who worked in the copper mines of Butte more than a hundred years ago mostly came from County Cork. Thinking it would be wonderful to introduce Butte to this savory variation of copper, I wrote to Veronica Steele of Milleens Cheese in Eyeries, Ireland, and asked about her willingness to teach cheesemaking classes during An Ri Ra 2013, Butte’s annual Irish Festival. Her response opened a whole new understanding for me about the Butte - County Cork connection.

Hi, Cynthia, It would be amazing to go to Butte, Montana to conduct a class. This area of Ireland has huge connections to Butte. It's spoken of as though it were the next village. If you ever get the resources together, I'll be over in a shot! Best wishes, Veronica

Allihies Copper Ends - Butte Copper Begins

 Allihies, Ireland

Everyone with Irish ancestry in Butte grows up hearing about County Cork, but no common mention is made about the bulk of Irish miners coming from Allihies, a small copper-mining village on the southwestern reaches of the Beara Peninsula.

Beara Ancestry Record

Copper mining began in Allihies as early as the Bronze Age. In the Industrial Era of the 1800's, it became a full-scale commercial production.  Then, in the 1870's, the veins began to play out just as the Copper Kings in Butte, half a world away, were getting started.

With enticement from copper barons like Marcus Daly, the exodus of miners from Allihies seemed to take place overnight. Veronica's comment about Butte being "spoken of as though it were the next village" was no exaggeration. This story captured my imagination. Six months later I was seated with Veronica at a table in her house, enjoying Milleens Cheese and learning about the very people I knew while growing up.

Midway through our visit, Veronica and her husband Norman introduced me to volumes of Beara family histories compiled by Riobard O'Dwyer.  Called "My Ancestors (Annals of Beara)", the words "Butte, Montana" echoed through the pages like a supplication. That day, Veronica and I outlined a nascent plan, called the Copper Cais Project. Cais is the Gaelic word for cheese. Given that the most common association to Ireland in Butte is about alcohol, we intended to diversify that bond with the addition of fine food.

The Milk of Ireland Ripened in the Heart of Butte

From Allihies, I went straight to Butte and began laying the foundation for Veronica to conduct cheesemaking and cultural history classes there the next year. As a long-term economic incentive, we also proposed to experiment with using an old Butte copper mine as an aging cave for cheese made in Ireland. Abandoned mines have been used successfully as aging caves throughout the world so this was an achievable dream. In fact, our slogan - The Milk of Ireland Ripened in the Heart of Butte - had the ring of a perfect marketing campaign.

I built a project website, made arrangements for Veronica's classes, and even scouted an old Butte mine shaft as a possible affinage site. Back in Ireland, Veronica researched ways to bring her cheese through customs without fear of confiscation. All was proceeding on target until fate took control of our plan. Less than a year after I met Veronica, she developed Multiple System Atrophy (MSA), a fatal neurological disease. Though we tried to move forward with modifications, it was soon obvious that our vision was no longer possible.

Veronica and I kept in touch over the internet as she survived a few more years. Despite extreme physical and psychological challenge, she remained an active member of her family and community. Cheesemakers from around the world paid ongoing tribute to her.

Of course, I felt deep disappointment at the loss of a new and magical friendship with Veronica whose depth and force of capability created an international legacy, all from a remote farmhouse on an ancient island; and of the opportunity to share her inspiration in the place where I grew up. But the insight to be gained from such turns lies in appreciating the voyage from a wider view.

Locations at the outer reaches of Ireland are served by infrequent public transportation. Most people simply rely on car rides with others. So Veronica and Norman arranged for me to stay overnight in their daughter's house in Allihies before returning to Cork City. (The Steele family, by the way, personifies the kind of relationship that will only be an aspiration for most of us.)

North Star beckons to Allihies

In a small village with no artificial night light, Polaris shone bright above the black horizon of the North Atlantic. It called my attention to the West, and I saw what they once saw, those ancestors who braved their way from Allihies to Butte. The phrase "beacon of hope" will never have a more fitting rendition in my mind.

Now I'm taking this experience to life through animation.  The working title is CopperMind.  Let the stars be my guide.