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Just north of San Francis-co along the coast of Sonoma and Marin Counties you will find some of the most beau-tiful scenery in the United States. Within this area, thou-sands of acres of land are ded-icated to organic, sustainable farming and the art of mak-ing artisan cheeses and olive oils. Throughout both coun-ties, local farmer’s markets offer  fruits, vegetables, herbs, flowers, meats, fish and eggs from small regional farmers and ranchers.  Come with us to explore these farms and see for yourself how these farmers, cheesemakers and ranchers do

their stuff.

[ Viviani Destination Management ][ 707.265.1940 ][ www.viviani.com ]2

Creamery ToursFarm Tours

The focus is on local produce and products. Take a tour of farms and farmer’s markets in Sonoma and Marin Counties, the hot bed of organic, sustain-able farming. There are numer-ous choices depending on your tastes. The tour can be tailored to the client’s wishes and tastes to include stops at local Farm-er’s Markets, Organic Farms, an Oyster Farm and a Cheesemak-

ing Creamery.

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Take a tour of the Sonoma/West Marin artisan cheese making sites while driving through some of the most beautiful scenery in California – or for that matter, the world. There are more than 25 cheese makers in the area. See cheese making at its most down to earth level and speak with the cheese makers of arti-sanal cow, goat and sheep milk

cheeses.

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[ Viviani Destination Management ][ 707.265.1940 ][ www.viviani.com ]3

Tara Firma FarmsPetaluma, Ca

❚ 300 Acre Ranch ❚ Established in 2009 ❚ Organic Sustainable Farming

In 2008 Tara and Craig Smith were handed Mi-chael Pollan’s book “Omnivores Dilemma” by

their 16 year old, Jake.

Both Tara and Craig had spent 15+ years in the Long Term Care industry and had little knowl-edge about the food industry let alone farming experience.

The shock and dismay as they investigated fur-ther created the spark that launched a 180 degree career change for Tara. After discovering the Joel Salatin, soil building, carbon sequestering, pasture managing, community based farming books, she put away the business suits in exchange for muddy boots and leapt.

Creating a vision of a farm that would be trans-parent, sustainable, profitable, serve the local

community with grass fed beef, pastured chicken, pork, turkey and eggs, and a veritable vegetable garden, she began looking for land that would allow for such an endeavor. In April of 2009, Tara Firma Farms was opened in the beautiful hills of southern Petaluma, CA. Easy access from both Sonoma and Marin county offers the communi-ties to come and enjoy the 300 acres and attend weekend tours. The tours offer a basic under-standing of carbon sequestering, building soil, growing perennial grasses, understanding pasture management and the most fun parts of holding tiny chicks, scratching the belly of a piglet, stand-ing eye to eye with a turkey and sizing up a black angus cow. Also with tours came a demand for healthy food. With that the farm was underway and feeds over 600+ families a month.

[ Viviani Destination Management ][ 707.265.1940 ][ www.viviani.com ]4

Hog Island Oyster Co.Tomales, Ca

❚ 3 million oysters raised annually ❚ Established in 1983 ❚ French ‘rack and bag’ method for cultivating oysters

Location is key to growing delicious, healthy oysters. Forty-nine miles north of San Francis-co, Tomales Bay is a pristine estuary where coastal rivers flow into the Pacific Ocean. Ex-

treme tides and cold, clean, brackish waters create an oyster’s paradise.

Today, Hog Island Oyster Farm leases 160 acres in Tomales Bay where we raise over 3 million Pacific, Kumamoto and Atlantic oysters per year as well as Manila clams and mussels.

As advocates for the oceans and environment, we are proud that Hog Island oysters and shell-fish are on the Super Green List of sustainable seafoods: good for you and good for the oceans!

[ Viviani Destination Management ][ 707.265.1940 ][ www.viviani.com ]5

Cow Track RanchNicasio, Ca

❚ Organic Farm ❚ Handmade Soaps ❚ Bed and Breakfast available on property

Liz Daniels grows organic produce, fruits and flowers on her Cow Track Ranch in Nicasio. Her plants are all started from organic seed in the green-

house and are then set out among the 15 or so various plots that surround the her home, her various barns, her husband’s veterinary office and their B&B. Lem-ons, cucumbers, heirloom tomatoes and cherry belle radishes are a few of her award-winning specialties. Her secret? Her love for farming and her devotion to organic methods.

Marin Farmers MarketMarin, Ca

❚ 200 Participating Farmers ❚ Established in 1987 ❚ Available year round

The mission of the Marin Farmes Market is to promote a viable food system, to educate the public about the benefits of buying fresh and locally grown

food, and to bring farmers and communities together. Touring farmers market is sure to be a fresh experience for your senses. You’ll meet farmers and learn how they grow crops, where they’re from, what’s in season, and why they farm. You’ll get to know local artisans, bakers and food purveyors.

[ Viviani Destination Management ][ 707.265.1940 ][ www.viviani.com ]6

McEvoy Olive Oil RanchPetaluma, Ca

❚ 550 acre olive oil ranch ❚ 100% wind powered ❚ CCOF Organic Certified

Every great story has a beginning, and ours starts with Nan McEvoy and her search for

a “wonderful place in the country”. On her quest for a place where her grandchildren could fully experience the beauty of Northern California, she fell in love with a sprawling 550 acres in Pet-aluma, previously a dairy farm and strictly zoned for agriculture.

Inspired by her love of Tuscan olive oil and The Feast of the Olive by Maggie Klein (a book giv-en to her by her son, Nion), she met with one of Italy’s foremost experts on the subject, Maurizio Castelli. Three days later he was on the ranch (or so the story goes…). Despite the obvious challenges involved in producing olive oil in Marin County, and against the advice of many,

Nan imported 1000 seedlings from Tuscany. Her renegade decision-making has been a boon and a benefit to all those who have discovered the ranch and its abundance.

Our oils are the result of a mindful and pas-sionate dedication to excellence, from orchard to bottle and are certified organic by California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF). Our olives are grown, harvested, milled, blended and bot-tled entirely on the ranch. At Tuscan agronomist and olive oil production consultant Maurizio Castelli’s recommendation, in 1997 we imported the “Maserati of olive oil mills” (our state-of-the-art Rapanelli frantoio), now an integral part of the cold-process production unique to McEvoy Ranch.

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Cow Girl CreameryPetaluma, Point Reyes Station, San Fraoncisco, Ca

❚ Established 1997 ❚ 3,000 Lbs Produced per Week ❚ Award Winning Cheeses

In 1997, Sue Conley and Peggy Smith opened Cowgirl Creamery in Pt. Reyes

Station, a picturesque postage-stamp-of-a-town on the coast about an hour north of San Francisco. They started with an old barn, made it beautiful, put in a small plant for making hand-crafted cheese, bought organic milk from the neighbor, Straus Family Creamery... and before long the world found them! From the begin-ning, they wanted to make delicious, artisan cheese, to be environmentally responsible, and they also wanted to sup-port their cheesemaking friends in being sustainable land stewards. Today, Cowgirl Creamery continues to make just a small collection of cheese -- four, soft aged and three fresh, totaling about 3,000 pounds per week. However, their circle of chee-semaking friends has grown like wildfire and they now distribute extraordinary artisan cheeses from over 60 of America’s and Europe’s most prized producers.

Farmstead cheese from small-scale pro-ducers always has a story, quite unlike commodity cheeses, and can be com-pared to making fine wine. It is possible to name the cheesemaker, identify the pasture where the animals grazed, and to name the breed of cow, sheep or goat whose milk was used. Artisan cheese comes with a sense of place, ecological values, and a unique relationship between the artisan and the raw materials. All of the cheesemakers we work with have great respect for the land and the ani-mals they are the custodians of. In buying farmstead cheese rather than industrially produced cheese, you will support the fine art of farmstead cheesemaking, enjoy a wide range of distinctive cheeses that are full of nuance and flavor, help to en-sure jobs in rural areas, and contribute to protecting farmlands from development.

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Achadinha Cheese CompanyPetaluma, Ca

❚ Fine Goat Cheeses ❚ All Handmade by Donna Pacheco ❚ Established in 1955

Achadinha Cheese Company is owned by Jim and Donna Pacheco of Pacheco

Family Dairy. Established in 1955 in Bode-ga Bay then relocated to Petaluma in 1969 by Jim’s father. Jim and Donna reside on the ranch with their four children to carry on his family legacy.

In 1997, Jim and Donna sold their cows and bought dairy goats. They now have close to 1600 goats. The girls are able to eat pasture all year long on 290 acres and eat all of the

brewer’s grain from the local breweries they want. When it rains and they refuse to go out, then they are supplemented with alfalfa hay. Along with the goats, Jim and Donna have dogs, horses, beef cows, pigs, sheep, and chickens .

At Achadinha Cheese Company, we are dedicated to the education and the impor-tance of the knowledge of where our food comes from as well as sustaining a family farm.

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Redwood Hill Farm & CreameryPetaluma, Point Reyes Station, San Fraoncisco, Ca

❚ Award Winning Dairy Products Since 1968 ❚ Established in 1968 ❚ Quality and Sustainable Goat Milk Cheeses, Yogurts and Milk

Located among the picturesque red-woods of western Sonoma Coun-

ty, California, sixty miles north of San Francisco, Redwood Hill Farm is a different kind of dairy. A small family farm, we have been producing delicious, award-winning goat milk dairy products since 1968 when owner, Jennifer Lynn Bice’s parents first decided to build their grade A goat dairy in Sonoma County providing fresh goat milk to the public.

In 1978, Jennifer assumed ownership of the farm with her late husband Ste-ven Schack, expanding the business to produce a greater variety of goat milk products, and diversifying the dairy goat breeding program.

Promoting the benefits of goat milk prod-ucts and developing a genetics program of excellence has been a top priority and Jennifer’s work has positioned Redwood Hill Farm at the forefront of the goat

dairy industry. Today the herd is exhib-ited at major shows, holding National Champions in four of the five breeds. Redwood Hill Farm furnishes stock to dairy goat breeders across North and South America.

Quality and sustainability have been the guiding principles as Redwood Hill Farm has grown over the years. We are honored that the Business Environmental Alliance of Sonoma County has awarded Redwood Hill Farm & Creamery the Best Practices Award in recognition of environmentally sound business practices and we are the first Certified Humane goat dairy.

Because we want our products to be as natural and unprocessed as possible, we do not standardize or homogenize our milk. Our products are free of sugar, col-oring, preservatives, stabilizers or pow-dered milk.

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❚ Known for their Original Blue™ ❚ Family farming for over 100 years ❚ Certified Organic

The Giacomini commitment to producing superior quality, farmstead dairy products be-

gan over 100 years ago in the mountains of Italy. Today Bob Giacomini and his family continue the family tradition with their Point Reyes Original Blue™.

Bob began milking cows on his Point Reyes dairy in 1959. Over the years, Bob and his wife Dean, together with their four daughters, Karen, Diana, Lynn and Jill, developed a shared vision of bring-ing an all-natural farmstead product directly from their ranch to the consumer’s table. This dream was realized in August, 2000 when they founded Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company and pro-duced the first vat of Original Blue™.

The cheese production begins with the morning milking at about 2:00 am. Around 4:00 a.m., the fluid milk is pumped directly into stainless steel vats in the cheese production facility adjacent to the milking barn, guaranteeing a freshness that can’t be duplicated. Several natural ingredients are

added to the Grade A, raw milk: cultures for fla-vor and to increase acidity, enzymes in order for the curd to form, kosher salt for flavor and mold (penicillium roqueforti) to create the blue veins in the cheese. When the milk reaches a specific pH level and the curd feels right (a combination of science and art), the curd is cut, the whey is drained from the curds and the curds are hooped (poured) into forms to make the wheels.

The following day the cheese is removed from the forms and taken to a curing room for about 3 weeks. In the curing room the wheels are hand-salted, turned numerous times by hand and punched with stainless steel needles to introduce oxygen into the body of the cheese. The oxygen is needed to activate the mold and create the blue veins found in Original Blue. The last step is the aging room. Here the wheels are left for 5-6 months. During this long aging process the creamy texture and full-flavors develop.

Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese CompanyPoint Reyes, Ca

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