PETALUMA, Calif. — As you drive north of San Francisco into Marin and Sonoma counties, the countryside begins to unfold before you. Green pastures, oak and chaparral-covered hillsides and small canyons of redwood trees reveal themselves. Red-tailed hawks and osprey fly overhead, deer graze in the hills and at sunset, bobcats survey the terrain. A setting so lovely that you can’t help but think cheese
Wait — not wine? Perhaps that too, but we’re talking here about the Sonoma Marin Cheese Trail that winds through the countryside, connecting family farms and food artisans that create batches of distinctive cheeses from local grass-fed cows, goats and sheep.
Like wine, cheese reflects the terroir, or flavors, of the soil, as well as the climate, humidity and environment of the place where it’s made, and the green grasses of spring in Sonoma and Marin counties contribute to the sweetest milk and cheeses.
7500 Red Hill Road, Petaluma, Calif.; (800) 292-6001, http://www.marinfrenchcheese.com. Tours at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Mondays-Fridays.
Cowgirl Creamery
Artisans at Cowgirl Creamery at the Tomales Bay Food Co., in the four-block-long village of Point Reyes Station, hand-make and sell organic semi-soft cheeses using milk from nearby dairies. Curd-making demonstrations on Wednesdays and Fridays include tastings of cheeses named after local features. Red Hawk, which honors red-tailed hawks, is a distinctive pungent — some say “stinky” — variety that gets its reddish rind from a native bacteria. Mt. Tam, named for Marin County’s dominant peak, 2,572-foot Mt. Tamalpais, has an earthy flavor described as “reminiscent of white mushrooms.” Pierce Point, named for a peninsula in nearby Point Reyes National Seashore, is washed in muscato wine and rolled in dried herbs. St. Pat has a green rind — made by wrapping cheese in organically grown local stinging nettles that have been frozen so the sting disappears — and represents the green hills of spring, the season when this cheese is made.
80 4th St., Point Reyes Station, Calif.; (415) 663 9335, http://www.cowgirlcreamery.com
Matos Cheese Factory
At the other extreme of artisan cheese-making is Matos: 40 cows, one farm, one family, one cheese. The family brought the recipe from São Jorge in the Azores in the 1970s and now sells wedges of St. George’s cheese at its unassuming farm near Sebastopol.
3669 Llano Road, Santa Rosa, Calif.; (707) 584-5283
Nicasio Valley Cheese Co.
The Lafranchi family makes eight varieties of farmstead cheese using organic milk from its own cows. Their small store, open seven days a week, offer tastes of Foggy Morning, Foggy Morning with Basil & Garlic, Halleck Creek, Nicasio Square and others.
5300 Nicasio Valley Road, Nicasio, Calif.; (415) 662-6200, http://www.nicasiocheese.com
The Epicurean Connection
Just off Sonoma’s historic town square, this combination cheese factory, café, deli and wine-and-beer bar also holds monthly cheese-making classes.
122 W. Napa St., Sonoma, Calif.; (707) 935-7960, http://www.theepicureanconnection.com
Vella Cheese Co.
The third and fourth generations of this artisan cheese-making family produce and sell several varieties of jack, cheddar and Italian-style cheeses in their tiny shop two blocks northeast of Sonoma Square (also called Sonoma Plaza). The plaza is surrounded by galleries, trendy shops, restaurants and Mission Solano, built in 1823.
315 2nd St. East, Sonoma, Calif.; (800) 848-0505 or (707) 938-3232, http://www.vellacheese.com