Biography and Profile Images by Ben Davidson:

It's a Family Affair at Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese

Set high in the grassy hills above pristine Tomales Bay, the sprawling, 714-acre Giacomini ranch is home to the esteemed Giacomini Dairy, producers of Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese and operators of the Fork, a culinary facility dedicated to food education though farm tours, culinary classes and focused tastings.

For the Giacomini clan, cheese is more than just cheese. “It’s a way,” they say, “to share, to connect, to relax, to savor the good taste—and good friends—in life.”

Bob Giacomini, the family patriarch and an influential figure in the West Marin ranching scene, is an integral part of the operation and three of his daughters are the third generation of Giacominis to manage the farm.

Giacomini was raised on his family farm outside Point Reyes Station. His grandfather, Tobias Giacomini, immigrated to northern California from Italy more than a century ago. Bob Giacomini and his wife Dean bought his current ranch in 1959 and started dairy farming with a herd of 125 cows. Today, the Giacomini farm milks about 400 head—all descended from the 1959 original herd.

Bob’s dream of making cheese from his high quality West Marin milk took shape some 16 years ago, when the first rounds of his Point Reyes Original Blue were produced.

“All the raw product that goes into our cheese comes from our farm. We feel this is very special and that’s why we call it “farmstead cheese”. “We think the North Bay is a special, special area for dairies to be in the state—and in the country—mainly because of our climate. It doesn’t get too hot or too cold, and the cows love that.”

Sister Act

Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese is a family affair, run mainly by three Giacomini siblings: Lynn Giacomini Stray heads up operations and sales; Jill Giacomini Basch oversees marketing and communications and runs the Fork; and Diana Giacomini Hagan is the dairy’s company’s CFO.

After immersing themselves in their own career paths, the sisters eventually returned to the farm to help run the family business. “We came back to the farm for the same reason,” says Lynn, “the fact that we love cheese and it was an opportunity to work with our parents and continue the legacy of our farm in a direction that was very personal to us, which is (making) cheese and taking the great quality milk and having a finished product.” “We are living out our father’s dream of having another farmstead product here on the farm.”

Jill adds, “We had the ability and freedom to go off the farm and leave as young adults without worrying about the farm’s future at the time. We all developed our own business careers, traveled and really focused on education for ourselves as individuals. Lynn was in sales, I was in advertising and marketing and Diana was in finance and real estate. Wouldn’t you know that we decided to come back to the farm later in life, kind of an Act II for each us. We had these great skills sets that together we could bring to the table to write the business plan, to start the business and then to continue into to the successful state that it is operating in now.”

“We’re very much a collaborative group,” adds her sister Lynn. “We want to engage with our customers, engage with our employees, it’s really a family business.

Farm Treasures: Stellar cheeses, an innovative cheesemaker and a masterful chef

Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese produces their award-winning Original Blue, Bay Blue, a popular Toma and limited quantities of fresh, creamy Mozzarella and Aged Gouda. Point Reyes Farmstead’s all natural Original Blue won Best Cheese/Dairy Product at the 2011 Fancy Food Show in Washington DC (awarded by the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, NASFT).

Featuring creamy, layers of full flavor, made with raw milk, Original Blue is gluten-free and made with microbial (vegetarian) rennet. It’s sweet with a medium-to-strong punch of blue flavor. Original Blue is a great cheese course, perfect for salads, dressings, dips, in a sauce for steak and grilled vegetables and partners well with sweet foods such as honey, figs, stone fruit, berries, and savory foods such as salads, pastas, red meat, vegetables, and sparkling wine, sweeter white wines such as Viognier, full bodied reds such as Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon and vintage port.

Diana Giacomini says “When we first started looking into making cheese, we did a lot of research into determining what was the best cheese as our first step. In talking to a lot of retailers and restaurants…we discovered there wasn’t a blue cheese being made in California at the time and there was a real demand for that, which led us to making Original Blue.” “Blue cheese is very labor intensive, takes several months to have the product age out and ready to taste.”

The man behind the cheese is Point Reyes Farmstead’s master cheesemaker, Kuba Hemmerling, who has been with Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese since 2009. A native of Poland, Hemmerling, says Diana ”has brought us to the next level making our original Blue. Our core flagship product is better than it’s ever been and we are also expanding our product line.”

Hemmerling’s wife, Jennifer Luttrell, is the executive chef for the Fork, the farm’s education center for the farm-to-table movement that opened in 2010. Luttrell received her culinary education at the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York, and today works closely with Courtney Caldwell, the hospitality coordinator at the Fork, to host events in the farm’s spacious indoor dining room and scenic outdoor patio.

Luttrell manages their state-of-the-art kitchen, preparing tasting menus with a focus on farm-fresh flavors using regionally-produced, all-natural ingredients.  “I’m responsible for creating menus that work for all of our different types of clientele. We have people come here for small events like focused cheese tastings and tours and people who come to celebrate a really special occasion like a 40th wedding anniversary or their wedding.” “I create the menus to match their event, working closely with local farmers and our own gardener here to use ingredients that are fresh and local.” The Fork is a remarkable and impressive culmination of Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company’s efforts to showcase their take on West Marin’s wide and varied farm-to-table renaissance.