Organic Greens & Blue Cheese Tour

Join CUESA on this bus tour of two picturesque Marin County farms: County Line Harvest and Point Reyes Cheese Company.

The tour begins in the pasturelands overlooking Tomales Bay, where we’ll meet the cows that produce milk for Point Reyes Cheese Company’s Original Blue and other farmstead cheeses. We’ll hear about the family farm’s 52-year history, its humane animal management practices, and sustainability on the farm (they use a methane digester to generate energy from waste). Our guides will explain how the handmade cheeses are crafted and will lead our group through a tasting of each one. We’ll then sit down to a delicious lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches and fresh salad.

Our bus will then take us over the hills to County Line Harvest, situated in a valley west of Petaluma, where farmer David Retsky and his team raise a diverse array of organic vegetables for farmers markets, restaurants, and a weekly Community Supported Agriculture box. The farm’s specialties are heirloom lettuces, chicories and specialty Italian greens, but they also offer a variety of roots, herbs, tomatoes, brassicas, strawberries and alliums. We’ll hear about County Line’s sustainable practices, from cover cropping to natural pest control, and about the landowners’ agricultural easement, a legal agreement that protects the land (both County Line's and Point Reyes Cheese Company's) from future development.

Sorry, children under 12 are not allowed on the tour.

Where to meet: Meet at the Ferry Building (in front, south side of the clocktower). Be there between 8:30 and 8:45; we leave at 9:00 am sharp. Please be prompt! We cannot wait for stragglers.

Note: The weather could be very dry and hot. We will spend time both outdoors and indoors. The bus is air conditioned.

What to bring: water bottle, sun protection, layered clothing, and comfortable, closed-toed shoes for walking uneven terrain. Also consider bringing snacks, a camera, a book or other entertainment for the bus, and money for purchases.

We will do our best to return by 5:30 pm, but traffic conditions can be unpredictable and we can't guarantee punctual arrival.

This tour is organized by CUESA, the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture, as part of our mission to cultivate a sustainable food system. CUESA organizes 5-6 tours each year to Ferry Plaza Farmers Market farms and artisan food businesses in order to give eaters a first hand look at where their food comes from and how it is produced. For more information or to sign up for our weekly email newsletter, visit www.cuesa.org.

We sincerely thank our farm tour sponsor, First National Bank of Northern California, for underwriting tour costs and Coach 21 for providing a discount on the bus charter fee.