What an amazing and magical place to spend a day. Thank you for showing us your incredible farm and…read moresharing your delicious cheese. Loved every second. Highly recommend a visit to all in the area!

We have been happy CSA members of Tara Firma Farms for 3+ years now and highly recommend for anyone…read morelooking for a local, sustainable farm co-op! The eggs are wonderful, delivery prompt, online store very accessible, and they conveniently partner with other local farms to provide veggies + fruit in addition to their sustainable meats (most CSAs will only provide one or the other). We came across Tara Firma initially via online / yelp searches shortly after moving to the Bay Area in 2016. When my husband and I initially started looking into vegetarianism for animal welfare reasons, I suggested we visit a farm that employs best practices of ethically and sustainably raised meat to help inform our decision. Tara Firma offers free educational tours every weekend and so we drove up one day with our 2 dogs (leashed dogs welcome!) and another family with their 3 (non furry) children for a fun Petaluma outing. The tour was informative and our guide was clearly super passionate about their mission. The farm was very beautiful and the lands idyllic -- we loved the fact that the cows were so free range that we could just barely make them out as a tiny dot in the distant hills. We all enjoyed observing the chicken dynamics around their mobile coop with their rooster guard, and they showed us how unperturbed the hens were when removing the eggs from the nest-- evening letting the children carefully take a couple out. Ultimately, we decided to pursue a vegetarian diet (especially after my husband met the pigs there), but we joined the CSA for their eggs and veggie share + cheeses (sourced from partner farms). We also have purchased meat occasionally for visiting carnivore families and friends, as we wanted to ensure if they were going to eat meat -- they were getting it from a farm like Tara Firma that does it in the right way. The best part of the CSA was their pet share as we realized buying offal from this farm would be a great compromise for our dogs (who were rebelling against our plant-based diet experiment) as we just wanted to provide our dogs protein with leftovers / byproduct without creating additional demand on the meat industry. Our pet share included amazing proteins like heart, tongue, cheeks, as well as more indulgent items like liver and kidney. Even the trotters and bones I would use to make broth in order to flavor / disguise our dogs' vegetarian kibble haha :) We also occasionally received some freezer burn meats, which cannot be sold for human consumption but safe (and very drool-worthy) for our dogs! Unfortunately, the pet share program has been discontinued but there are still plenty of diverse offal options in the farm store! Overall, a great local farm to support and highly recommend a visit!

We've just picked up our third purchase from Stemple Creek Ranch - a half beef this time. The…read morequality of this beef is consistently outstanding. This ranch provides animals with excellent care that shows in the meat. They're also great to do business with and communicate quite well. If you haven't tried getting meat directly from a rancher, this is one to try! You won't regret it. The flavor is so deep and the character of the meat is quite different from conventional ranchers. Try it!

Stopped by Stemple Creek this morning at the Farmers Market to inquire about beef Tenderloin…read morefilets. They are asking $40.00 for an 8 oz filet. That makes the Filets $80.00 a pound. WELL that is just outrageous, and in my opinion, all they are doing is ripping out the public. Needless to say, I didn't buy any. I used to buy from them. But no more .SHAME on them.

The tour was worth every penny! Audrey was so passionate and clearly has the best interest of the…read moreanimals in mind with every decision made. We learned so much and got to brush and pet the sweet baby buffalo! The tasting was fresh and delicious and we made sure to buy some while we could :)

Disclaimer: I've never been on another cheese tour, so I can't make comparisons. However, this tour…read moreis special and is quite an experience. The tour is more expensive in comparison to other cheese tours that we've seen in Petaluma, $35 plus tax, but those cheese aren't made with water buffalo milk. With this tour, you get a super informative history/back story of the founders. It is quite the story and could be made into a Hallmark movie. Their story is really inspiring and you can see how passionate they are about their company, product, and water buffaloes. The owner, Audrey, has a hand in every part of the business, and does most of the work, with help from a handful of employees. Please schedule a tour here to support this small company that has ethical and sustainable business practices. I believe every dollar from the tour really helps with their bottom line and I think they really need it as the owner does most of the work herself to cut cost. The highlight of the tour, other than the cheese tasting was getting to pet and brush the water buffaloes until they'd fall over from euphoria.

My friend organized a private weekday tour and tasting here to celebrate my birthday. Our group of…read more7 had a fantastic time! it started with a presentation on the overview and history of this family farm, then a tour of the cheesemaking facilities and barn where the dairy and beef cows hang out. We met their farm dogs, took photos with the sweet cows, and saw the family working around the property. We then ended with a tasting of their products: cheese, curds, and kefir (all delicious!) Since it was a birthday party, my friend brought a picnic lunch which we enjoyed along with the cheese. We ended by choosing to buy a selection of the cheeses we liked, to take home and share. I was thrilled to find they sell at my local farmers market - I plan to buy more of the Herby Curds when I've run out of cheese next!

My husband and two kids did the farm tour this weekend. While it was very interesting to get such a…read moreclose up view of a family owned and run working dairy farm, I do not recommend this tour for families. While they sell discounted tickets for kids 5-12 and kids under 5 are free, we and all the other families there found the tour to be a real struggle for our little ones. We all felt a little misled about the experience based on the online description. It's a lot of standing very still (in rooms with equipment that shouldn't be contaminated by guests, or next to equipment that has cow poop on it), listening to the owner talk for long stretches. We expected more movement around the farm and time outdoors, instead of something closer to a lecture with a large group in tight spaces. It also ran over time (to 2 hours!) ending with a nice close up visit with the cows and some small cheese samples. We did really enjoy meeting the cows and learning the details of how cheese making works. It is a real labor of love. I think there's a lot of potential here; the Achadinha tour has all the ingredients for an awesome visit but could use some editing. This tour could easily be 30 minutes, an hour tops. We would've liked to stay and buy some cheese but by 1pm we were all starving and fled to find lunch elsewhere. Other parents shared they would've had a great time there on a date, but definitely wouldn't go with small kids again. I'll also flag that they require you to step through a decontamination footbath to go inside the facilities. There were a lot of miserable people in sandals who had to get their feet wet in the chemicals. Closed toed shoes that can get wet recommended for this tour.

Along Highway 1 in Sonoma County is the pleasant town of Valley Ford and there is a nice upscale…read morecountry store there worth your stop should you need supplies for your picknic-king or just a place to get some food and much more. This smart looking store has a lot of choices for wine, a nice well-stocked veggie section, all the stuff you'd find as a small corner store, a deli where fresh sandwiches and food are made, and best of all, a small ice cream counter. I suppose I admit that I'm an ice cream lover and they serve the Rainbow brand, a San Francisco product. It is a great joint, clean and everything is nicely presented. It's a great place should you need a place to take a break from your drive, stretch your legs and at the very least, a bathroom stop.

We stopped here on the way to the beach for some sandwiches and were met with the most unpleasant…read morewoman behind the counter. I asked how the ordering process for custom sandwiches worked. She looked at me rolled her eyes and looked up at where the menu was on the wall without saying a word. I lost my appetite and we ended up not eating them the only saving grace was a man who checked us out and was pleasant. Overall I could not tell you if they were good but the food environment was less than proper customer service.

Beautiful Farm to stroll in the morning and take pictures. Reservation is required. We didn't know…read morethat. But Rick is real nice and let us in. BTW, entrance fee has raised to $20.

What a wonderful lavender bee farm!!…read more I've visited much bigger lavender farms in Texas in the past. This farmer is not big by any means in comparison but it's so well maintained, charming, and so beautiful. They only open for about a month during lavender season in early summer. So pencil that in on your calendar to email or call b/c it's by appointment only. The tour is $15 per person and it's well worth it. The owners JoAnn and Rick gave a very informative tour of the property, lavender fields, bee-keeping, and the history of the farm. There are plenty of photo ops and you'll also get to meet Bob who is the master dog at the lavender bee farm. The best part of the tour is the tasting in the end IMO. JoAnn served us samples of local artisan cheese and fresh watermelon drizzled with lavender honey. OMG they tasted sooooo freaking fantastic!!! And how can I forget about that lavender lemonade. WOWZ!!! After the tour, you are free to explore on your own and/or buy honey and gifts from the small gift shop. I picked up a bottle of lavender honey for $18. I can't wait to return next year and take my parents there, too! Love love!!

Organic, self serve, honor's system farm stand with beautiful produce. Must do if you're in the…read morearea. Remember to check the fridge too as it frequently has asian veggies like mizuna.

Someone mentioned this place in passing to me so I decided to venture way over to the other side of…read moretown (it takes so long it's like driving to the city next door. ha ha). Live Oak Farm is a certified organic self-serve farm stand. The produce is fresh and delicious! They have a refrigerator for storage of some produce that require it. On the day I came there were fresh herbs, orange carrots, rainbow carrots, & several other items in the refrigerator. Not refrigerated were huge heirloom tomatoes, garlic and a few other times. I came around 4pm in the afternoon so there wasn't as much produce. A friend of mine had been there a few weeks earlier and said they got other produce such as kale. On this day I purchased a bundle of orange carrots, rainbow carrots & heirloom tomatoes and I can tell you that they were all delicious! So fresh, so full of flavor! There is a surveillance camera and a sign stating so. You write what you are purchasing in a log book along with the price (everything has a price listed so there's no guessing) and then there is a tin box that you put your money in and make change if you need change. In the log book you can also put your email address down to receive information from them. Their hours are Monday through Saturday 9:00am to 5:00pm, and again it is self-service and it's all on the honor system. Though they are completely out of my way, I will continue to come here to get produce as I enjoy fresh, delicious & organic produce and supporting local farmers in my town.

Great stop on the road! This Farmer's Market is especially…read moregood for Coffee, Baked Goods (oh man the cinnamon rolls, spring rolls, fresh bread!) and random hand crafts. More so than most, it's always surprised me how many different vendors/craftsmen show up one weekend and are never seen again - but that keeps it interesting!