The Nicasio Valley Cheese Company’s store and creamery, California’s only organic farmstead cow’s-milk cheese producer, occupies a converted barn just outside town. Most days, cheesemaker Jeremy Catrambone, dressed in the customary cheesemaker’s bright white pants and shirt, cap and hair net, can be seen at work through the shop’s back window. He adds rennet to the heated milk, forms the curds, separates out the whey and places the fresh cheeses into molds. From there he tucks them into the ripening room (converted from a shipping container), where, depending on the cheese, they spend anywhere from days to weeks.
Nicasio Valley Cheese makes Swiss-style cheeses known for their full, nutty and buttery flavors that aren’t overpowering. Each one is a state or national award-winner, evidenced by the colorful ribbons that hang proudly from display shelves. Store manager Melisa Williams expertly describes each of the nine different cheese’s characteristics and nuances to anyone who walks through the door. The shop (open 10 to 5 daily), also sells local supplies for a picnic (sausage, bread, chocolates) and a kitchen pantry (olive oil, ranch eggs, vinegars, herbs).
The ranch and creamery are owned by the Lafranchi family, whose history in Nicasio spans more than a century. In 1910, at the age of 17, Fredolino Lafranchi immigrated to Northern California from Maggia, Switzerland, a southern village near the Italian border. Sponsored by his uncle, Fredolino worked for several years on what is now the McEvoy olive ranch outside Petaluma, to pay off his passage. In 1919 he started running a dairy on land owned by the Pacheco family and, in 1937, he and his wife, Zelma Dolcini, purchased the property.
In the 1960s, their son, Will, and his wife, Mary, took over operations. Today, their six children together manage the 1,150-acre, certified-organic ranch that comprises the original dairy and, since 1985, adjacent land purchased with help from the Marin Agricultural Land Trust. The expansion provided more pasture and the space to build a creamery.
The siblings have grown from their first jobs of cleaning the milk lines and shoveling out the barns, dividing the many responsibilities. Randy oversees the dairy operation, the autumn pumpkin patch and the 3,000 chickens whose eggs are sold throughout the Bay Area. De is in charge of two of the farmers’ markets. Jan and Kim supervise with store visits, farmers’ markets and help wherever they are needed. Scott, the company’s first cheesemaker, is the chief financial officer and runs the creamery. Rick is head of sales and marketing. Their work is assisted by their 20 employees, many of whom have worked for them for decades.
A closed herd of 470 Holsteins—their preferred breed, as they produce a higher volume of milk and require less feed—are rotationally grazed and milked twice a day. The bulk of the approximately 3,500 gallons produced daily is sold to Clover Stornetta, but about 15 percent of the cows’ morning milk—the freshest available at the time of production—is used to produce around 150,000 pounds of cheese a year.
In the early 1970s, Will, after sampling some local cheeses during a family visit to Maggia, remarked how it would be great if they could make similar cheese back home. Decades later, under the consistent pressure of fluctuating milk prices, Will’s children made real their father’s wishes and sought to create cheeses aligned with their Swiss heritage. In Switzerland, a cousin introduced them to a local cheesemaker, Maurizio Lorenzetti, who agreed to come to West Marin to consult on their new endeavor. As Rick succinctly states, “We went back for our future.”
They sold their first cheeses in 2010. Their distinctive product filled a void in West Marin as the only cheese produced in the Swiss style. The entire family has participated in coming up with names: some have Swiss connections, like Locarno, named after a town near Maggia, and Tomino and Formagella, which are traditional cheeses. Others made local associations, including Foggy Morning, Halleck and San Geronimo.
The Lafranchi family feels honored to carry on the farming tradition in West Marin, where the combination of fog, sun and rainfall offers a unique environment for dairying, with high-quality grasses and a long growing season. The family has implemented a carbon farm plan to enhance the soil and preserve the terroir, partnering with West Marin Compost to fertilize the fields with waste from their own cows and chickens, local horse farms and green sources. They regularly support local nonprofits, schools, fairs, 4-H and MALT, and they believe West Marin should be better known nationally for its cutting-edge and sustainable agriculture.
This recipe from Jan uses two Nicasio Valley Cheeses—Foggy Morning, the first cheese they made, a fromage blanc-style cheese that is ready to eat after four days, and Nicasio Reserve, a classis Swiss Italian mountain cheese that’s aged for at least five months.