Our Family
Our parents, Ellen & Bill, were refugees from Nazi Europe who settled on this ranch, raised four kids, and dedicated their lives to protecting West Marin and her stunningly beautiful farms and open space from the persistent threat of sprawl development. They were determined to help save the land that had, literally, helped save them.
The Home Ranch is now co-owned by three siblings: Vivien, Miriam and Michael; entirely separately, the dairy operation and Straus Family Creamery are owned by our older brother.
So much of what we all love about Marin County is the result of decades of hard work by a coalition of countless ranchers, environmentalists and activists who understood that, in order to preserve our region’s agricultural abundance and natural beauty, they’d need to sit down together, forge common ground and develop viable solutions to protect land loved by all. It hasn’t been easy, but their perseverance is, to this day, a continuing source of inspiration, and we encourage everyone to watch Rebels with a Cause (stream for free here), a fabulous documentary about how activists and concerned citizens have helped protect our region’s incredible vital agricultural lands and beautiful open space.
Pop’s 32 original Jersey milking cows (circa 1948)
Mom and her friend Phyllis co-founded the Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT) back in 1980, and their pioneering cost-effective conservation model has not only protected vast stretches of agricultural land from sprawl subdivisions, but simultaneously spurred a new generation of innovation, with many “MALT”ed ranchers leading the way of regenerative agricultural revolution, organic food production, artisan cheesemaking and land stewardship.
In the 1980’s, Mom created an experimental indoor shiitake mushroom inside the old hay barn, selling every week at the Marin County Farmers Market.
Our own dairy constantly struggled to survive, decade after decade. But farming is a brutally difficult business, and we were not alone … when our father settled here in 1941, this region was the ‘milk shed’ for the entire region with ~150 dairies just in Marin … but already by the late 1980s, just a few dozen remained. In 1992, our parents - who should have been long into their retirement years (but of course were still hard at work) - decided to sell our conservation easements to MALT (a couple of years after Mom had left the board) and, in a massive leap of faith, reinvested those funds into the expensive (and, at the time, incredibly-risky) transition to certified organic practices, to support our older brother’s then-novel idea to save the farm by ‘going organic’. The subsequent launch of Straus Family Creamery - the first organic dairy West of the Mississippi - is another fascinating story unto itself, and while Vivien and Michael played critical roles in the launch and early years at the Creamery, that was already many years ago.
(L—R) Michael, Vivien, Miriam (2014)
Our parents lived and worked here at the ranch, until death-did-they-part from their 52-year marriage - Mom on Thanksgiving weekend in 2002, and Pop the following July 4th weekend in 2003. Moments after being diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor, Mom’s said three things: “I’ve lived a good life. (pause). I would have liked to watch my grandchildren grow up. (pause). And … I still have $60 million to raise for MALT!”
After our parents died, and with the three of us living our lives away from the ranch, our beautiful homestead was crumbling apart: the house was severely run down, the barn literally falling down and the land poorly managed. Faced once again with the very real possibility that we might lose our ranch, the three of us came together (again) to try to save our family farm.
So, in late 2013, we began charting a new course. We began to breathe new life into the ranch, by rehabilitating our historic buildings, restoring wildlife habitat, improving soils quality, participating in land-based carbon sequestration initiatives (Marin Carbon Project and California’s Healthy Soils Initiative), and envisioning the ranch’s continuing evolution. We lease our pastures (166-acres), certified organic since the early 1990s, to Bivalve Dairy, whose heifers graze seasonally. While we’d never claim to be great farmers (unless shoveling cow shit counts, in which case we’re experts!), we do our best to steward this magnificent property and honor our parents’ legacy.
Vivien is a actress and playwright, and also created CheeseTrail.org promoting local and California cheesemakers. Michael had careers in public relations for sustainable agriculture and environmental issues, as an eco-travel journalist, and currently blogs about his mysterious psychic experiences at MichaelStraus.org. Miriam teaches agriculture and science in the classroom. Each of us are dedicated to supporting organic and sustainable family farm movement, and carrying forward our parent's commitment to being good stewards of the land. Michael and Vivien co-manage the ranch, and Miriam spends time beekeeping and resurrecting Mom’s community organic vegetable garden.
During Covid shutdown, we launched California Cheese Trail Home Delivery, to generate new sales for local and small-scale artisan cheesemakers.