BN Ranch in Bolinas, California
Posted by Jay on Friday, 16 January 2009
Over the New Year’s break we had the opportunity to drive up to the north part of the state and visit some of our friends up there. We also got to make new friends with Bill and Nicolette Niman in Bolinas, near Point Reyes.
Bill Niman with Steph from the Linkery
Although Bill is the namesake of Niman Ranch, the Nimans split with Niman Ranch fairly recently in order to go all the way with sustainable, high-quality farming. Now they raise cattle, turkeys and goats on their many acres of pasture near the ocean, and they market the meat under the name BN Ranch.
We served some of their goat late last year and we were very impressed by the quality. It turns out that the Nimans brought the goats in because they’re highly compatible with cattle — the goats actually make the pasture more productive for raising beeves. We didn’t get to see the goats because they spend part of the year in Oregon, and had just left.
We did get to see the cattle and the turkeys.
The Nimans were very gracious hosts and fun to get to know. Nicolette’s bound galleys had just come in for her upcoming book, too, that was neat to see. I’m looking forward to reading it. We late ate some of their goat at a fantastic Point Reyes restaurant, along with Tomales Bay oysters and some great mead.
We’ll have BN Ranch goat on the menu soon you can try it. I will update.
January 19th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
[…] a note that goat from Bill and Nicolette Niman’s farm in Bolinas is on the menu now. Posted by Jay Filed in The Linkery Restaurant Share this post with a […]
January 21st, 2009 at 6:49 pm
[…] * Pastured goat’s head tamales, with goat from BN Ranch, which we visited a couple weeks ago. […]
January 21st, 2009 at 7:18 pm
I gotta say, I don’t personally know Bill Niman but I love what he’s doing, and what he’s done, to change the way we raise and celebrate meat. Glad to hear you’re carrying his goat. One more reason to visit you when I (hopefully finally soon) come visit San Diego this spring.
January 23rd, 2009 at 9:11 pm
[…] photos from our trip up north, courtesy […]
January 27th, 2009 at 11:28 am
[…] it is to get lungs these days. So, for our haggis, we used the heart, liver, and spleen of Bill and Nicolette Niman’s goats. And about as difficult as it is to procure lungs, so goes it with stomachs. I challenge […]
February 11th, 2009 at 1:17 am
[…] * Prosciutto made from pastured goats raised by Bill and Nicolette Niman in Bolinas, CA. […]
February 17th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
[…] Hahn Niman’s book is out today. When we were visiting the Nimans in January the galleys had just come in and we noted that the book looks really cool, and could bring the […]
February 19th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
[…] kitchen is serving a starter tonite of tandoor goat tenderloin skewer (goat from BN Ranch in Bolinas) with farro salad (farro from Anson Mills) and cilantro mint chutney (herbs from […]
February 24th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
[…] - The lamb prosciutto was very popular, so we decided to make some with the goat legs we got from BN Ranch, the sustainable farm owned by Bill and Nicolette Niman, up in […]
March 12th, 2009 at 11:54 am
[…] family, from whom we now regularly buy pastured goats * Bill and Nicolette Niman started selling their pastured goats from Bolinas, which are amazing * Longtime Linkery supplier Albert Lewis has started a farm in Julian which will […]
April 24th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
[…] the menu tonite as a starter for seven-fifty. Totally pasture raised goats, of course. We visited Bill and Nicolette at their farm in Bolinas in December. Posted by Jay Filed in The Linkery Restaurant Share this post with a […]