Flourish Magazine

I t's the spring flush at Bivalve Dairy, where the grass is tall, the udders are full and the heifers are calving. Karen Taylor stands at the kitchen sink of the old ranch house, just as her mother did, and looks out the window to the springer lot. When a heifer goes into labor, Karen checks every 15 minutes to ensure all is progressing as it should. If something looks amiss, she calls in husband John to con- sult. Any commotion brings the children living on the ranch – their three and the employee's children – to watch the wonder of life unfold. The first to the lot is usually their eight-year-old son, Billy Joe, who is autistic and continually demonstrates his uncanny affinity and connection to animals. The pull of nature, and the family's deep roots in West Marin County, is what brought Karen, John and their young family back to the Bianchini Ranch where she grew up. Eight years ago, they were living a frenetic, urban life in the East Bay; John worked as an industrial manager for General Electric and Karen taught school. The Taylors committed to returning to the Marin coast in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Pennsylvania. That morning, Karen was home in Discovery Bay caring for her first-born, five-week-old Camilla, when she witnessed, as it unfolded, the cataclysmic collapse of New York's Twin Towers. "This is crazy," Karen thought. "This is not the world I want [my child] to enter or be a part of." Karen's Portuguese family has operated in the dairy industry for five generations and her return with family in tow in 2005 comforts Karen's mother, Sharon Bianchini, who is fighting cancer and shares life on the ranch. It's also been a godsend to Billy Joe, who comes home from a long day at school, drops his backpack and heads for the pasture. Everyone and everything, it seems, is thriving, including what was once a group of 75 misfit heifers inherited and now producing, along with their offspring, organic milk that meets among the highest standards in the industry. Bivalve supplies Clover Stornetta and soon will be the source of Taylor-made cheese and butter, aided by Cowgirl Creamery's industry know-how. Considering the events from 2001 forward, "we feel everything happens for a reason," Karen said. From Bianchini to Bivalve Sharon and Bill Bianchini bought the 800 acres above Tomales Bay in 1973, the year Karen was born. Her father died when she was 10, leaving Sharon a widow in a man's world, a world in which she would become a respected community steward serving on the Coastal Commission and the Marin Agricultural Land Trust, including a term as its chair. She remarried and over the years planted a vineyard with her second husband Steve Doughty. By 2005, it was too difficult to handle both vines and cattle. SUMMER 2013 • FLOURISH 29

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