farm tour

Look at that beautiful, green pasture. For a city-dwelling, parking lot warrior, this gives me life.

The farm sits on a hill at the back of the property, so I drove right past it and almost got lost. I had no phone service, but luckily, I spotted the buffalo when I circled back. Phew!

Audrey explained, in impressive detail, her story of how she and her husband got involved with Italian water buffalo. Fun fact: she's both an architect and a farmer.

Displayed by the production room is a chart of the entire family. They started with only 5 buffalo which they found on Craigslist (What?!). It's a story that's best told by Audrey.

Somehow I missed the part about bringing your own picnic and drinks, which was stated clearly in the tour details. Grumpy face.

Audrey brought out a plate for each table, and I happen to be the only person at my table. DOUBLE SCORE!

They seemed to enjoy it. No surprise there.

Got to see beautiful scenery, listen to Audrey's inspiring story, eat delicious mozzarella, and cuddle with baby buffalo. Totally worth the $25!

Is it like this most of the year? It's glorious!

I'm right on time for their free noon tour!

Brandon, our tour guide, walked us through pretty much the entire operation so that we saw all the animals in their habitat, while he shared with us the how-to on pasture based rotational grazing.

It's a unique opportunity to be able to see the animals alive, living comfortable lives. At Tara Firma, it's included for free. How would you compare that with factory meat sold at the supermarket?

Headed towards the ocean to my next farm.

I arrived at Toluma Farms and forgot to snap a shot of their sign, but here's the streetview on Google. The middle structure is actually their farm house that's available for rent through Airbnb.

It wasn't a tour day, but Jenny, one of their cheesemakers, was nice enough to show me around the property. Here's a look inside their production room.

Got some play time with the baby goats in their warming house, which also keeps them safe and dry during the winter.

As Jenny explained, they give some of the leftover wool to the pigs, who don't seem to mind.

Toluma offers a tour on the first Sunday each month, allowing guests a chance to visit the animals and learn about their organic pasture management system.

I made a quick visit to Nicasio Valley Cheese. They have a cute little tasting room situated right off the road, near their farm.

Walked in and I'm at the starting line of their tasting table. READY

Halfway through the tasting at the end of the table is a huge glass window so I can peer through and watch the cheese being made. That's kind of awesome.

After stuffing my face with cheese cubes, I bought a few wedges and headed over to the farm to get a glimpse of the milkers. Thank you, ladies.

Happy me :)

I didn't see any farm signs, which was a bummer, but at least they're happy cows, unlike the ones that I would see next :(

Anyone who has taken the I-5 between SF and LA can probably recognize this. Or if you recall smelling death in the air, it most likely came from this place, Harris Ranch.

These photos of the feedlot were taken from my car. I didn't stop because 1) they don't even allow pedestrians near the lot boundary, 2) a police vehicle was present and I didn't want to get arrested, and 3) by this point, I was too nauseous from the sight and smell to respond properly.

I decided to include photos of this place because it's important to learn and understand the difference between farm and factory. Big companies don't show you this reality because you wouldn't buy their products if they did and they have huge profit goals to meet. Support the farms who do it right, so that one day, we can see these cows on green pasture.

Find farms using Cherish Your Food's directory!