The colorful history of San Francisco is closely linked with the early days of Marin French Cheese Company. Begun in 1865 in Petaluma, California, Marin French Cheese is the oldest continually operating cheese factory in the United States.
Many miners, disappointed in their luck in the mid-century California Gold Rush, poured back into the port of Yerba Buena (now known as San Francisco). Saloons thrived offering a “free lunch” which often included pickled eggs, to be washed down by pints of beer. The rapid increase in customers, meant a shortage of eggs, and Jefferson Thompson seized the opportunity.
By horse-drawn wagon and then steamer ship across San Francisco Bay, he transported his fresh cheese (still made, and called now Breakfast Cheese) from Petaluma to Yerba Buena. In the early 1900’s the Thompson family incorporated their cheese factory as Marin French Cheese. In addition to the original fresh cheese, they began making aged cheese, such as Camembert, Schloss and related soft-ripened cheeses, marking the start of the production of European styled soft-ripened cheese in California.
During the Great Depression of the 1930’s, the company decided to focus on cheesemaking, discontinue milking their own herd, and support neighboring farmers by buying their milk. All the milk used by Marin French Cheese today is still from neighboring cow and goat herds and is the highest quality rBST-free milk.
The cheeses made under Marin French Cheese’s Rouge et Noir brand are similar to French and European varieties but reflect the characteristics of Northern California, resulting in a unique regional style. Rouge et Noir brand cheeses have won top awards at the Sacramento State Fair and the American Cheese Society, as well as Gold medals at the World Cheese Awards. In 2005 the Rouge et Noir Triple Crème Brie beat the French in the world-renowned competition.
The new Grand Artisan series cheeses are currently produced as a triple cream cow, triple cream blue veined cow, goat milk brie and camembert, and blue veined goat milk cheese.
While modern computer and transportation methods play a role in the business these days, Marin French Cheese is still made by hand at the same historic location in Petaluma. “We remain dedicated to a rich heritage of artisan craftsmanship that has been passed down through the generations,” owner and CEO Jim Boyce says proudly. “Marin French Cheese Company now produces more than 40 different styles and varieties of cheese, yet each is hand made the same patient way, one cheese at a time, aged in the original hand dug cellar, and then hand weighed and packaged.”
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