An array of local foods featured on the Flavors of West Marin Tour including Cowgirl Creamery cheeses, Point Reyes Vineyard Wines, burgers
from Marin Sun Farms Restaurant & Butcher Shop, fresh loaves from Brickmaiden Breads and BBQ Oysters from Hog Island Oyster Company.
Straus Family Dairy in nearby
Marshall.
The idea for Cowgirl Creamery first took hold in 1993
when visionary friends Sue
Conley and Peggy Smith (of
Bette's Diner and Chez Panisse
fame) bought an abandoned
hay barn near downtown Point
Reyes Station. The entrepreneurial pair transformed the
space into Tomales Bay Foods,
a destination retail hub featur-
"There's a mouth-watering
gourmet goat burger piled with
grilled mushrooms, onions, and
As Hill explains the cheesemaking process, we begin
tasting. First in line are soft,
fresh cheeses — a slightly tangy
Creme Fraiche and Fromage
Blanc — followed by four premiere aged cow's milk varietals.
goat cheese as well as a lamb
First up is Mt. Tam, a decadently
burger with bacon chimichuri
lowed by Pierce Point, made
and melted Manchego cheese."
ing artisan products from more
rich triple cream favorite. Folseasonally from Jersey milk
and finished with fresh herbs;
Wagon Wheel, a semi-firm
cheese specially developed to
than sixty local producers. Smitten with the idea of cheesemak-
top pizzas at San Francisco's popular Zuni Cafe; and Red Hawk, a
ing, they added a small creamery to the facility in 1997 and be-
pungent, washed-rind varietal that depends on naturally occurring
gan making their own artisan offerings. Though Cowgirl Cream-
bacteria in the coastal air to ripen.
ery has since expanded to a Petaluma location to meet growing
We take one final look into Cowgirl's "make" room and adjacent
demand, a portion of the company's cheese is still produced in
aging chamber, stacked with trays of ripening rounds, before stroll-
this original space.
ing around the corner to our next stop at Brick Maiden Breads.
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FLOURISH • FALL 2013
