we headed westward to a small cheese farm...
that I first read about on Kirk's blog (post linked at the end)...
I know there's tons more cheese places to go to in the Sonoma Area (they even call it the Cheese Trail) but we only went to one and what a good choice this was, The Joe Matos Cheese Factory (which is really a farm).
Joe Matos and his family have run this farm for over 30 years and hail from Sao Jorge (St. Jorge), a town in the Azores Islands in Portugal. You need to drive down the dirt road and take the right fork. Drive all the way to the end until you see this building. When you open the door, there is a really loud alarm that gets set off, letting the family know to come to the counter. Depending on who's there, you may even run into Mr. Joe Matos himself, his wife, daughter or granddaughter (whom we saw the day of our visit).
On the wall were photos detailing the cheesemaking process as well as decor from the motherland.
The back room holds dozens upon dozens wheels of the only cheese they make. There are two varieties, a younger cheese (3 months) and the aged version(6 months).
We were given two samples of their cheese and after trying both, decided on the younger variety. We bought one pound ($9.00/lb). The older cheese tasted more "sharp" which was okay, but we preferred the younger cheese.
Our one pound wedge (which she eyeballed when cutting) nicely wrapped up...
The cows on their farm...
Our visit was pretty short. The grand daughter was very nice to us. Unlike her grandmother, she spoke English and didn't seem to mind answering our questions about the cheese since there was no language barrier.
We were hoping to see their cat (it's on the photos for yelp, titled, "Rough looking cat has seen it all") but their dog was there...
Here's a video someone made six years ago (glad he didn't crash the car while videotaping this, geez):
This was our first visit to an actual cheese farm and while our visit was pretty quick, we looked forward to having the cheese later that day (we were prepared with crackers and cut up fruit).
Here is Kirk's post on this place
"The Cheese Trail - Nicasio Valley Cheese Company, The Marin French Cheese Co., and Matos Cheese Factory", October 2015
plus another post by Pechluck, a Portland blogger, "Holidays - Sonoma local cheese"
Joe Matos Cheese Factory
3669 Llamo Road
Santa Rosa, CA 95407
(707) 823-4454
FB page + the reviews from that place and tripadvisor
We would be returning to Sebastopol (Bert's choice on our "wish" list) to check out some unique local artwork on a particular street....
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