Nicasio Valley Cheese Company Tour
On November 7, 2014, CUESA visited Nicasio Valley Cheese Company as part of “The Perfect Pair: Bread and Cheese Tour in Sonoma.” Thanks to our volunteer Jenn Heflin and intern Laura Westman for the taking photos and notes in this slideshow.
Nicasio Valley Cheese Company produces organic cow’s milk cheeses in Marin County, an area that has a long and rich history of sustainable dairy farming. All the cheese is made with milk from Lafranchi Ranch, about one mile from the creamery.
The ranch and creamery are owned by third-generation farmer Rick Lafranchi and his family. All aspects of the business are handled by the six brothers and sisters, most of whom live on the property.
The Lafranchi family has a long lineage of ranching, starting with Rick’s grandfather who emigrated from Italy to Nicasio in 1919 with a dream of dairy farming. Most of the structures on the property were built by Swiss-Italian immigrants and are still in use today.
The Lafranchis' 1,150 acres of farmland are certified organic, as are their cheeses. Rick says that Nicasio Valley Cheese Company is the only organic farmstead cow’s milk cheesemaker in California.
The Lafranchis completed their transition to organic in 2006. Not only are they proud of their certification because it is better for the environment, but they say that the demand for organic saved their farm.
The Lafranchis have over 500 cows, all Holstein. The cows spend their entire productive lives on the ranch. The herd is closed, meaning no new animals are introduced, which helps protect the herd from outside diseases. The animals are bred with artificial insemination, changing the bulls every year to mix the blood lines.
The cows are rotationally grazed between 150 and 200 days a year. They move to new pasture once a day, allowing the grass to regenerate.
In addition to grazing on pasture and hay, the cows are fed TMR (total mixed ration), an organic mix of alfalfa, corn, barley, and almond hulls that is blended in a trailer on site.
Each cow is fed 60 to 80 pounds of feed and 30 to 50 gallons of water per day.
The Lafranchis started a large composting operation to recycle the waste from their livestock. The compost, which is applied to the fields, helps retain water and carbon in the soil, protecting the pasture against drought and helping mitigate climate change.
Humane animal treatment is a passion of the Lafranchis. “We have a strong motivation to treat animals with the utmost respect and care,” says Rick. “If you don’t love animals, you’re in the wrong profession.”
The calves are raised individually for sanitation reasons and to provide individualized care as they are growing.
The cows are milked twice a day, once at 2 am and once at 2 pm. Each cow produces 8 to 9 gallons of milk. The majority of the milk goes to the Petaluma-based company Clover Stornetta, and about 25% goes down the road to the Lafranchis' creamery to be made into their own cheese.
The Lafranchis started making cheese about five years ago, when they wanted to find a value-added use for their milk. The brothers loved the cheese they'd had in Switzerland, so they brought a Swiss mentor named Maurizio Lorenzetti (who lives in the same Swiss village their grandfather emigrated from over 100 years ago) to the creamery to teach them about cheesemaking.
Each day, the creamery uses 450 gallons of milk fresh from the Lafranchis’ herds. At 6:30 am the milk is transported from the ranch in a huge vat at 38°F. At the creamery, cheese is made five days a week by just a few workers.
Nicasio Valley currently makes eight different cheeses, but they are experimenting with adding more styles, including mixed goat milk and cow’s milk cheeses. Their cheeses have been honored by the Good Food Awards and American Cheese Society.
They make fresh cheeses (Foggy Morning), bloomy rind cheeses (Formagella), natural rind cheeses (Nicasio Reserve), and washed rind cheeses (Nicasio Square). All of their cheeses are pasteurized, except Nicasio Reserve, which is raw.
Concluding our tour, we enjoyed sampling the variety of cheeses at the shop and tasting room at 5300 Nicasio Valley Road. Thank you to the Lafranchis!
