Cowgirl Creamery is a company located in Point Reyes Station, California

Point Reyes Station, California

Point Reyes Station is small unincorporated town located in western Marin County, California. Point Reyes Station is located south-southeast of Tomales, at an elevation of . Point Reyes Station is located along State Route 1 and is a gateway to the Point Reyes National Seashore, an extremely...

 which manufactures artisanal cheese

Cheese

Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....

s. Founded in 1994, the company both manufactures its own cheeses (including Red Hawk

Red Hawk (cheese)

Red Hawk is a triple-crème cow's milk cheese with a brine washed rind. This cheese is made by Cowgirl Creamery in California. It was awarded "Best in Show" at the 20th annual conference of the American Cheese Society.- External links :*...

 and Mt. Tam, named after Mount Tamalpais

Mount Tamalpais

Mount Tamalpais is a peak in Marin County, California, United States, often considered symbolic of Marin County. Much of Mount Tamalpais is protected within public lands such as Mount Tamalpais State Park and the Mount Tamalpais Watershed.-Geography:...

) and sells other imported and domestic cheese. The company operates storefronts in the Ferry Building

Ferry Building

The San Francisco Ferry Building is a terminal for ferries that travel across the San Francisco Bay and a shopping center located on The Embarcadero in San Francisco, California. On top of the building is a large clock tower, which can be seen from Market Street, a main thoroughfare of the city...

 of San Francisco and in the Penn Quarter neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 (founders Sue Conley and Peggy Smith are D.C. natives). Smith worked for years in the kitchen at Chez Panisse

Chez Panisse

Chez Panisse is a Berkeley, California restaurant known for using local, organic foods and credited as the inspiration for the style of cooking known as California cuisine. Well-known restauranteur, author, and food activist Alice Waters co-founded Chez Panisse in 1971 with film producer Paul...

, and the restaurant is among many Bay Area establishments to incorporate Cowgirl cheeses into its menu. Cowgirl Creamery was referenced in an episode of the popular TV sitcom "Will & Grace

Will & Grace

Will & Grace was an American television sitcom that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 21, 1998 to May 18, 2006 for a total of eight seasons. Will & Grace remains the most successful television series with gay principal characters...

" (Episode 06.01 Dames at Sea) in the scene where "Will" is trying to ease the mind of "Jack" in suspicions of a drunken rendezvous with each other.

Cowgirl crafts their own cheeses using Organic milk from the neighboring Straus Family Creamery. Mt. Tam, a triple-cream similar to Explorateur

Explorateur

L'Explorateur is a soft-ripened French triple cream cow's-milk cheese made in the Île-de-France region of France.Created in the 1950s, it was named to honor the first US Satellite, Explorer. As a triple creme, the fat content of its dry matter is about 75%...

, and Red Hawk, a triple-cream, washed rind, unctuous cheese, are the more well known of their aged cheeses, but the company also makes Pierce Point, St. Pat, and Devil's Gulch on a seasonal basis. Only two of their aged cheeses are in a slightly different format. Inverness looks like an aged goat cheese but is actually made with cow's milk, and Wagon Wheel, which is a firmer cheese, is made in 25-pound wheels. Their aged cheeses are named after landmarks or other features local to the Marin Headlands

Marin Headlands

The Marin Headlands is a hilly area at the southernmost end of Marin County, California, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. The Headlands are located just north of San Francisco, immediately across the Golden Gate Bridge. The entire area is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area...

. Cowgirl makes fresh cheeses, a clabberd cottage cheese

Cottage cheese

Cottage cheese is a cheese curd product with a mild flavor. It is drained, but not pressed, so some whey remains and the individual curds remain loose. The curd is usually washed to remove acidity, giving sweet curd cheese. It is not aged or colored. Different styles of cottage cheese are made from...

, a fromage blanc, a creme fraiche

Crème fraîche

Crème fraîche is a soured cream containing about 28% butterfat and with a pH of around 4.5. It is soured with bacterial culture, but is less sour than sour cream. It has a comparatively high viscosity and a higher fat content....

, and Niloufer's Panir, which is named for chef Niloufer Ichaporia King. They make an unpublicized aged cheese, S.F Drake, which is the same size and shape as the Mt Tam, but is washed in Muscat wine and topped with macerated currants and has a stronger, sweeter flavor.

External links

• Cowgirl Creamery
• NPR's
  NPR
  NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
  
   All Things Considered
  All Things Considered
  All Things Considered is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio. It was the first news program on NPR, and is broadcast live worldwide through several outlets...
  
  : "For Cheesemakers, Cows Make All the Difference