| |
Direct:
Visit the Barinaga Ranch website at www.barinagaranch.com and sign up to receive their Product Information List and other updates.
Retail:
Cheese is seasonally available from late June through March at Tomales Bay Foods in Point Reyes Station; Oliver’s Markets in Santa Rosa, The Cheese Board and The Pasta Shop in Berkeley and Oakland; Raymond & Company; and other Bay Area cheese shops.
Restaurants:
Osteria Stellina, Point Reyes Station; Olema Farm House, Olema; Nick’s Cove, Marshall; Quince, San Francisco; Restaurant Marche, Menlo Park; Sierra Mar, Big Sur
|
| |
Marcia Barinaga’s flock of dairy ewes graze year-round on organically certified pastures at the Barinaga Ranch in Marshall. From April through September, Marcia handcrafts their rich milk into Basque-inspired, aged raw-milk sheep cheeses. Marcia grew up in Schenectady, New York, but has shepherding in her blood: her father’s family are sheep ranchers in Idaho, and her Basque relatives in Spain raise sheep and make traditional sheep-milk cheeses. After a career as a biologist and science journalist, Marcia founded Barinaga Ranch Farmstead Sheep Milk Cheese in 2009 on the 800-acre ranch that she owns with her husband, Corey Goodman. Marcia manages her flock of dairy ewes with special attention to animal husbandry and health. Marcia is passionate about her sheep—they are all her dear friends as well as her producers. Their lambs are born in March just as the West Marin pastures are growing lush and green. They lead pampered lives, spending their first month with their mothers, before they transition to grazing. The daughters of the best milkers stay on to join the milking flock, and the rest of the lambs are humanely harvested for local restaurants. In addition to Marcia’s sheep, the Barinaga Ranch is also home to beef cattle owned by Hicks Valley Grass-Fed Beef.
|
