Audrey Hitchcock is nothing if not determined. She and her husband, Craig Ramini, started their water buffalo business, Ramini Mozzarella, in 2009, even though neither one of them had any experience in farming, let alone dairying with 1,500-pound horned creatures. Their cheese is wildly popular, but today their unique and humane model is facing its greatest challenge.
Ramini Background
Ramini had worked in Silicon Valley and Hitchcock was an architect. After they both lost their jobs in the downturn of 2008, they decided to carve a new path by following their passions. They found that appreciating food + loving animals + wanting to contribute to the health of planet + being entrepreneurs added up to…cheese! While mulling over whether to raise goats or sheep, Hitchcock recalled her brother’s longtime plea. After a decade of living in Italy, he and his Italian wife moved back to the US and were distraught at having to purchase (previously frozen) buffalo mozzarella from Costco.
The Appeal of Water Buffalo
The idea of owning water buffaloes resonated with Hitchcock, who had spent time in Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia doing architecture. “I worked in the poorer communities, where they didn’t have running water or electricity, but every family but had at least one water buffalo,” she says. “The children’s chores included riding the buffalo down to the river to do the laundry, washing the buffalo, and bathing themselves. When you see 10-year-old kids riding on the backs of 1600-pound buffaloes, you wonder how anyone can trust their child to be on its back. It must be an incredible animal! And it’s true that they are documented as the most doglike animal you can find.”
Ramini immediately loved this unique idea. They decided to begin as “a lean start-up with a passion for making a quality product, instead of a passion for profit,” Hitchcock says. In November 2009, three months after they got the idea to produce buffalo mozzarella, Ramini bought five water buffaloes and brought them home. When they discovered that no one was currently making buffalo mozzarella in the US, they wondered why. They found that three companies had been making it, but all had shut down. It seems these companies had been following the traditional dairy business model: procuring 100+ water buffaloes, routinely separating the babies at birth, and milking the mothers twice a day to get as much milk from them as they could. “We realized they were operating with a passion for profit, instead of product,” says Audrey. Today, despite the health properties of buffalo milk and cheese, there are still just a few buffalo milk dairies operating in the Americas.
A Unique Business
Ramini always wanted to be “unique.” He proposed analyzing the usual business model and changing it all. They rented a ranch in 2010; the one Hitchcock is still on–for the moment–more on that later. They also rented the dairy, a quarter of the barn and pasture that hadn’t been used for years. It all needed renovation. While Hitchcock worked on the plans, Ramini spent time every day that first year with their five water buffaloes, who had not yet been tamed. The big girls were afraid of him at first, but after a year of kind attention, they ran toward him and not away. The next step was to bring them into the milking barn.
The couple discovered that all bovines are instinctively afraid of thresholds and arched doorways, which can signal danger. But instead of using physical force to coerce them to cross the threshold into the barn, they opted to finding a kinder approach. “We used the ‘pull method’ instead of the ‘push method,” explains Hitchcock. “Pulling is an invitation, ‘please come if you want, it’s your choice.’ Pushing is more forceful; it’s not nice.” They found two effective motivators to lure their gals into the milking barn: bowls of their favorite treat, an all-purpose livestock mix containing molasses and oats, and their own calves.
A Kinder Gentler Approach
Having the calves near their mothers solves another problem: mother mammals need to feel comfortable and safe before oxytocin is released which allows their milk to flow. Instead of milking the herd twice a day, Hitchcock maintains the relationship between calf and mother and only milks the mothers once a day so that the calves can continue to suckle naturally. “We are sacrificing 50% of our milk and revenue to maintain that relationship,” she says. That’s one reason she offers tours of the dairy every Saturday which include cheese tasting of several of her varieties and an opportunity for visitors to brush the calves.” Ramini’s mozzarella, ricotta and stracciatella are served in upscale restaurants and for sale at farmers markets and groceries in both Northern and Southern California (see list at end of story). The products are so appreciated that they sell as much as they can make.
Tragedy Strikes
But in 2014, things took a tragic turn when Ramini was diagnosed with cancer. Although he went through treatments that would supposedly cure it, the cancer quickly returned in a different form. After his passing in 2015, Hitchcock regrouped and came back, in part for the “girls” that they had raised together and named after their favorite rock stars including Gracie Slick, Janis Joplin, and Dusty Springfield.
The Next Challenge & A New Chapter
The latest challenge for Hitchcock is that her lease is up this October, and the landlord won’t renew it. She has not yet found a place for her 78 buffaloes. If she can’t find somewhere to move them, she must leave them and her landlord, who runs a cattle ranch, can do whatever he will with them. She is working on two possible scenarios. “The first is that we are looking for a safe haven for the herd,” she says. “This would be grazing land that I could rent, where I can keep the herd until we find a dairy or investors. The second is that we are actively searching for a dairy to buy or rent and investors or funding to help us purchase and or renovate. We are currently putting together a presentation for investors. I believe we will have to stop making mozzarella for the winter while we transition to our new home, and I am hopeful for a grand opening in the spring or early summer.”
Where to Find Ramini Cheese
Restaurants
Seven Hills, Montesacro, Saison, and The Morris in San Francisco
Pizzalina, The Kitchen Table and Hog Island Oyster in Marin
Rosewood Miramar Beach in Santa Barbara
Lucia’s Berkeley in Berkeley
Saltwater Oyster Depot in Inverness
Stanly Ranch in Napa Valley
Grocery stores
The Epicurean Trader in San Francisco
Woodlands Market in Kentfield and Tiburon
Good Earth Natural Foods in Fairfax and Mill Valley
Marin Community Farmstand in Forest Knolls
Oliver’s Market in Sonoma
Smallgoods Cheese Shop in La San Diego
Elroy’s in Monterey
Farmers markets
Foodwise in the San Francisco Ferry Building in San Francisco – Saturdays
AIM Markets in San Rafael Civic Center – Thursdays/Sundays
Larkspur Landing Marin Community Mart, Larkspur Landing – Saturdays
Sebastopol Farmers Market – Sundays
MarVista, Los Angeles – Sundays
Orange Home Grown, Los Angeles – Saturdays
Ramini Tours & Tasting
Saturday afternoons Ramini Mozzarella offers fascinating hands-on tours and tastings at their water buffalo dairy, in Tomales. The tour includes tastes of three of their delicious cheeses, a lesson on the sweet psychology of water buffaloes, and a pen full of water buffalo babies yearning for you to pet and brush them. The two-hour tour is provided by Ramini’s owner, Audrey Hitchcock.