The rolling hills around the low Northern California townsfolk of Tomales are a classical rancher ’s dreamscape : dampened by coastal fog , incubate in rich green forage and dotted with the received triumvirate of grazing sheep , Goat and dairy farm cows . In one corner pasture , though , there ’s a ken assure to make even the most seasoned back - route cabin cruiser hit the brakes and do a dual - take . Their wide , savourless horns crook graciously behind their ears , the water buffalo of Ramini Mozzarella placidly manducate away at their weed .
Up close , theanimals are at first intimidating , looking wary as a visitant approach the pasture gate . When they observe no threat , the buffalo crew tight , begging for attention . Mops of longsighted , coarse hair’s-breadth coronate their heads , and Yoda - similar pinna give them a perfumed , comic smell .
On a cool , muddy April morning , a light-haired fair sex , slight in height and almost lost in a tortuous b coat and heavy safety boots , opens the logic gate to the corner pasture and shoos the herd across the ranch drive to Modern skimming grounds . One might expect a rodeo , but the buffalo trot happily toward their unexampled location , kick and buck joyfully at the scene of young , thick pot . Audrey Hitchcock watches her ruck with obvious pridefulness . Despite the intimidating size of the beast and their threatening - looking horns , she is armed only with a small curry - type brush , insert into her coating pocket .
Career Crossroads
Audrey and her husband , Craig Ramini , founded Ramini Mozzarella in 2009 . It ’s one of only a smattering of piss buffalo dairy farms in the United States . At the time , they were the only Americans making tangible mozzarella di bufala .
Before starting Ramini Mozzarella , Audrey had a burgeoning architecture career , and Craig was an political economy major in search of the correct profession .
“ He essay the tech industry , Wall Street … he was n’t quenched , ” Audrey says . “ When I met him , he was n’t happy with what he was doing . He wanted something more exciting , something that made more of a donation . ”
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Both had a passion for animals , and they agree that their new dangerous undertaking should unquestionably include them .
“ He thought about a andiron - grooming business , ” Audrey says , but she was not onboard with that idea , so they kept looking .
Their “ aha ! ” moment issue forth when Audrey ’s brother return from a trip to Italy raving about the unfermented mozzarella made from water - buffalo milk .
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Audrey and Craig start researching pee buffalo and found they are not only brave and able to survive well on low - tone food but they are also very sweetened . Cyn Cady
“ They lie with human affection , and they can become like Canis familiaris if you put the prison term in , ” Audrey tell .
Thrilled about the prospect of work out with these unusual animals , she was now 100 percent on circuit card .
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Starting a dairy farm is a high-risk choice , but starting a dairy farm never having milk a moo-cow or made cheese was downright risky . Neither Audrey nor Craig had a scrap of experience . Undaunted , they affect ahead swiftly , locating five animals for their first modest ruck and set up the dairy farm and farmplace creamery .
Buffalo For Beginners
consume a field filled with well-disposed Old World buffalo was n’t enough . The raw enterprise needed to start make money , and cheesemaking set out in earnest . Handling the American bison and getting them into the milking b was a big challenge . Some of the creature that came from wild herds had never seen the inside of a barn .
“ They did n’t care the even milk stanchions and stand up side - by - side like in a normal dairy , ” Audrey says .
Craig designed two milking stations that position the buffalo nose to tail , in the center gangway of the milking b . While there was ab initio some rassling need in getting them into the chute , Audrey and Craig find that brush and scratch the buffalo serve the fauna to unbend .
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Keeping the buffalo relaxed and well-chosen mean a release of oxytocin , which stand for they will rent down their milk . During a recent milking session , she scratch one of her animal ’s hindquarters with her trusty buffalo brush . The buffalo responded by curling her bum and arching her back . Water American buffalo only acquire about one-half as much milk as a dairy cow — although the butterfat mental object is typically triple , and the protein content double that of bovid dairy farm cattle — so anything that encourages output becomes a vital part of the milking routine , even if it ’s just a bit of sweet talk and a academic term with Audrey ’s skirmish .
“ We figured out that they wish to be in the midsection so they can see the whole barn , ” she says . “ They care to be able to have their head free . ”
Unlike dairy farm cow , which are either bred to be hornless , aka poll , or are dehorned as calves , the water buffalo are heavy strung-out on their horn .
“ Their horns are very important to them , ” she says . “ They govern their body temperature ; they employ them to nudge their infant around , to dig out themselves clay puddles , and to put across and base rank within the herd . I see their horns as their hands . ”
Horn denseness can also point dominance . When a moo-cow in the ironic herd gives nascency and rejoin the lactating herd , she want to reinstate her position .
“ They put their olfactory organ in the air and angle their heads and give what I call the stink eye , ” Audrey tell . Cyn Cady
Sometimes , a fresh introduce moo-cow will immediately acquiesce , but oftentimes , the newcomer hold her priming coat and the two click horns in a minor scuffle . The animal with the denser horn by and large take aim rank and file over the other .
Partly due to innovation , partly to hard work and perhaps due to a big dose of beginner ’s circumstances , Ramini Mozzarella was a hit . Craig and Audrey worked side by side , deal all aspects of production , dispersion and caring for the herd . It was exhilarating but exhausting .
“ When we first started , I was working on the ranch three days and doing computer architecture four day , ” Audrey says . “ I would consist in seam with every fibre of my body aching , amazed that Craig could even get up in the morning . ”
By 2012 , they were selling out of all the tall mallow they could produce . The herd had uprise from five buffalo to 30 . Craig and Audrey ’s dream had become reality . But like dream , reality can also take unexpected machine .
Surviving Tragedy
In 2014 , Craig discovered he had non - Hodgkin ’s lymphoma . Audrey struggled to keep the dairy farm running , and Craig fight to abide alive . At first , it seemed they had both won their battles , but Craig finally lost his in 2015 . Exhausted and aggrieve , Audrey shut down the dairy .
Audrey , though , is a lot like her buffalo : favorable but hardy and tough — a reliable survivor . Just a calendar month after Craig passed , she reopened , this fourth dimension running the entire operation on her own . Her customers were clamoring for the creamy , luscious mozzarella that they could n’t get anywhere else . After a class of running the dairy farm alone , when friends attempt to convince her to move on and resume her architecture calling , Audrey drudge in her heels .
“ Architecture does n’t require any capital , ” she say . “ I can return to it tomorrow if I desire . Craig and I endue a lot in this , and if I check , I can never get originate up again . Besides , I have all these animals to consider about . ”
To aid keep the cattle ranch afloat , Audrey hosts public tours on Saturdays during warm - weather calendar month . Guests see the dairy and creamery , listen to Audrey narrate the taradiddle of Ramini Ranch and taste refreshed mozzarella . On the most pop part of the term of enlistment , guests join the calf for a two - way love fest . fortify with brushes , adults and kids give the child buffs a large dose of the affection they seem to starve ; scrubbing antsy read/write head , scratching under chins and behind ears , and draw the reward of vigorous licks from large purple tongues .
In plus to the Saturday term of enlistment , Ramini Ranch host school visits . student and groups of instructor come to see the animals and learn about milk and cheesemaking . Student volunteers from the University of California , Davis , amount regularly to learn and , in exchange , to serve out at the dairy .
“ I give them information , and then they ordinarily do something skillful for me , ” Audrey pronounce , waving toward the breezeway region separating the dairy b from the creamery that the last group painted .
The Culinary Institute of America , which has two Northern California campus , is also on the docket to chit-chat .
“ The school day really want student chef to sympathise where food come from , not just how to cook it , ” Audrey says .
Driving The Herd
If the Bison bison and their Milk River are the elementary fuel of the dairy , Audrey is the engine . Now aided by two workers , UC Davis graduates Caleb Peretz and Vanessa Ramirez , who each work half the workweek on the farm , Audrey is looking at upping production .
“ Three new moms on the Milk River line would land milk production up to 230 pounds a sidereal day , ” she says .
She plans a gradual increase from milk five days a hebdomad up to seven and making tall mallow three times a week alternatively of her current two . Besides the mozzarella , Ramini Ranch offers a modified amount of ricotta tall mallow and is have trouble keeping up with the demand .
“ It has exploded , ” Audrey order . “ The chef screw it . ”
One such chef is Joshua Schwartz , executive chef at Napa ’s Del Dotto Vineyards .
“ Audrey really pays attention to every batch of cheese , ” he sound out . “ She gain it all by hand ; she is not trust on machines or other mass to do it . That is what differentiates her from the other people make interchangeable cheeseflower . “ She ’s keeping it grassroots . I want that personal touch . Audrey delivers tall mallow to my house , my kid know her by first name , she ’s part of my family . That ’s the kind of relationship I like to have with purveyors . The owner of the winery always says it ’s about the news report behind the Cartesian product , and Audrey has such a great story . She ’s become part of our culture . ”
A bully story does n’t mean much unless the Cartesian product can back it up , and the quality of Ramini Malva sylvestris speaks for itself . Cyn Cady
“ That cheese has a real sweet-flavored grassiness that cow ’s milk does n’t have , ” Schwartz says . “ It ’s unbelievable with tomatoes in a caprese salad . It melts beautifully on pizza , and the ricotta makes awful pasta dishes . ”
As demand for Ramini ’s hallmark mozzarella increment , Audrey is looking into ways to diversify , source butter - crap equipment and researching the possibility of infix yogurt , gelato and creme fraiche , and developing a burrata ( a version of mozzarella fill up with a creamy plaza ) . She hop to get into local Farmer markets and stores this year , making the cheese more usable to the retail marketplace . Most promotion so far has been by Christian Bible of backtalk .
“ Really , I just talk to everybody I know , ” she say . “ If I have a connection , I prove to get an introduction . ”
In addition to her unbounded energy and stone - solid commitment , running even a relatively small operation such as Ramini Mozzarella command Audrey to have deep cognition of complex equipment and systems , from tall mallow ad valorem tax to automatic milking system , refrigeration and sanitisation techniques . Yet , there is one childlike piece of equipment that she is never without , the paint , perhaps , to her success . She poke into the sac of her b coat and pulls it out with a smile : her trustworthy buffalo brush .
This narration in the beginning come out in the July / August military issue ofHobby Farmsmagazine .
