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The Marin French Cheese Co. Heritage Trail
As part of our 160th Anniversary celebration in 2025, we built a Heritage Trail on the property to offer visitors a unique way to experience the Marin French story while exploring our beautiful ranch.
The Heritage Trail gives historic context to today’s working landscape with carefully selected stops that showcase Marin County’s natural beauty and speak to our history via informative totems. Walking the Heritage Trail allows you to engage with the land, the people, and the craft that have sustained our ranch and creamery for over 160 years. We’ve designed the trail in a way that invites you to slow down, enjoy the views, and linger at each stop. Take pictures, stop for a conversation, or find a quiet spot to draw, journal, or even snooze. Let the trail create memorable moments with history, nature, community, or just for yourself.
Our Land
An artfully framed view of a landscape that hasn’t changed much in the 160 years since Marin French was founded. Enjoy a restful moment on the bench crafted from locally sourced lumber and let the sweeping views transport you to a time before cars or electricity, when this same stunning vista captivated our founding family with its wild promise and potential.
Our Wildlife
Local artist Briona Hendren designed and built our striking Blue Heron sculpture, brought to life from the trunk of a dead redwood tree. Giving the tree new life in this form is our way of paying tribute to the rich wildlife that surrounds us: the roots and trunk remain grounded in the land, while the heron itself draws attention up toward the rolling hills and sky above, poised to take flight. Noticeable from the road both to and from Marin French, when you get up close to the sculpture, you’ll find a secret seat – and one of the best views on the ranch!
Our Milk
Great cheese starts with great milk, and great milk starts with healthy animals raised by caring farmers. Fresh local milk from family-owned California dairies is delivered to our creamery each morning. Our cheesemakers take great care to preserve and enhance this natural ingredient, gently transforming it into our signature artisan cheeses. This stop brings visitors to the other side of the property, where you can better see the footprint of the shop and creamery – and the tanks where we receive milk!
Our Cheese
The craft of cheesemaking is part science, part art, and a lot of time. Our recipes and processes haven’t changed much for over 160 years, even as modern equipment has allowed us to grow. We hand-make cheese in small batches so our cheesemakers can oversee the whole process, from pasteurization to aging.
Before electricity, cheeses were aged in a cool cellar below the creamery; today they ripen in aging rooms with carefully controlled temperature and humidity levels.
Looking directly ahead from this stop, you are facing the original, hand-dug aging caves that lie right below the creamery.
Come Walk the Trail!
We invite and encourage you to walk the Heritage Trail, take in the views and information at each stop, and identify the perfect place for your picnic. Start in our shop for an overview of the trail and, of course, to taste what it’s always been about – the cheese!
The Heritage Trail is open year-round but keep an eye on our website & newsletter for guided walk dates and other special events.
