CHEESE OR DAIRY PRODUCT
TIE
POINT REYES FARMSTEAD CHEESE CO.
Toma
A TWO-TIME SOFI WINNER IN THE CHEESE OR DAIRY PRODUCT CATEGORY and
this year also taking home Outstanding New Product for its Bay Blue (see p. S5),
Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co. clearly knows how to produce a winning cheese.
Following its classic-style Original Blue, Point Reyes developed Toma, a semihard farmstead cheese that is creamy in texture, buttery in flavor and finishes with
a subtle grassy tang, which comes directly from the grass on which the cows graze.
"We wanted our second cheese to be very much like the milk and the history of this region," says
Jill Giacomini Basch, one of the four sisters who help run the third-generation family dairy.
The Giacomini family has been milking cows for almost a century, starting with great-grandfather
Tobias who came to Northern California from Italy with a dream of raising cows. Tending to the
family farm since 1959, grandson Bob Giacomini had his own dream—making cheese—so he urged his
four daughters back to the farm to start Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co. in August 2000.
Toma, which is Italian for "cheese made by the farmer himself," pays tribute to the family's history of
producing farm-fresh foods. It is made from pasteurized rBST-free cow's milk and aged for a minimum
of 90 days. Suggested retail price: $18/pound (10-pound wheel). Contact: Jill Giacomini Basch, Point
Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co.; 415.663.8880; jill@pointreyescheese.com; pointreyescheese.com.—S.N.
➊ BELLWETHER FARMS
Vanilla Sheep Milk Yogurt
Contact: Diane Callahan
707.763.0993
bfcheese@pacbell.net
bellwetherfarms.com
➋ WORLD'S BEST CHEESES ➌ WORLD'S BEST CHEESES
Casa Lusa Zimbro
Contact: Stephanie Ciano
914.273.1400, ext. 116;
617.488.7627
stephanie@wbcheese.com
cheezwhse.com
Luigi Gufanti Robiola
Tre Latte
Contact: Stephanie Ciano
914.273.1400, ext. 116;
617.488.7627
stephanie@wbcheese.com
cheezwhse.com
SEPTEMBER 2013
S13
