The Giacomini family has been dairy farming in Point Reyes since 1938, when co-owner and COO Lynn Giacomini-Stray’s grandfather Waldo moved from nearby Petaluma to Point Reyes and purchased land that would become Giacomini Dairy. He worked as a dairyman for 50 years, joined by his son Bob (Lynn’s father) in 1959, when the family purchased a second piece of land on the bay.
In the late 1990’s, Bob and his wife Dean were in the early days of succession planning after spending over 30 years in the dairy business. Their herd of 500 cows was too large for the 720-acre farm, so they needed to think about selling or scaling down the business. In 2000, the family transitioned the farm to an artisan cheesemaking facility, and Lynn and two of her sisters, Jill and Karen, took on leadership and operational roles. In 2009, the fourth sister, Diana, joined as CFO. Karen retired in 2010.
Sisters (L to R) Lynn Giacomini-Stray, Jill Giacomini-Basch, and Diana Giacomini-Hagan run the business together. Photo courtesy Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company
Today, Lynn, Jill, and Diana are co-owners and co-CEO’s, with each focusing respectively on operations, marketing, and finance. For all three sisters, stewardship comes first. “Our foundation is really based on our best practices in sustainability,” says Lynn. Their grandfather was a founding partner of a resource conservation district — caring for the land is a big part of their family history.
In 2000, Waldo Giacomini’s original dairy was sold to the National Park Service, which embarked on a wetland restoration project on the land. The project included tearing down a levee built in the mid-1900s to hold water back and improve the land for cattle grazing. By 2008, the Park Service’s restoration of the 550 acres back to wetlands was mostly complete. Today, the site, known as the Giacomini Wetlands, is home to a range of flora and fauna (including some rare and endangered species), and is a birdwatching and kayaking destination.
The family is also closely involved with the Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT), the first farmland trust in the country, founded in 1980. MALT permanently protects agricultural land from development and has protected close to 60,000 acres of Marin farmland to date, including Point Reyes Cheese Company. “That was a way for us to really secure that future and peace of mind,” says Lynn.
In addition to thoughtful stewardship of the land, “we’re all about animal husbandry and welfare,” says Lynn. Care of both land and animals is translated through the cheeses made on site, whose flavors express the terroir of the place, she says.
In 2000, the newly formed cheese company debuted with one product, now called Original Blue, and has since expanded the line to include over a dozen cheeses and spreads in various styles. Under the guidance of head cheesemaker and VP of Operations Kuba Hemmerling, who has been with the company for 15 years, Point Reyes cheeses have won dozens and dozens of awards.
Many of these decorated wedges and wheels find their way into Bon Appétit cafés around the Bay Area, where Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company is a well-known brand. Although most of their cheese is sold through distributors, Point Reyes makes an effort to build connections and community with Bon Appétit accounts like Nvidia, Chase Center, University of San Francisco, and Pinterest, through visiting those accounts for trainings and tastings or hosting teams at their culinary education center, The Fork.
“We’ve built things on relationships,” says Lynn. “To have such a long-term relationship means the world.”