We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Michael & Vivien Straus (brother and sister), of Straus Home Ranch in western Marin County / SF Bay Area a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Michael & Vivien, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
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 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’. This lead to the creation of of Straus Family Creamery.
Vivien is an actress and playwright, and also created CheeseTrail.org promoting local and California cheesemakers. She’s also an actress and playwright, and recently wrote and performed a highly-acclaimed tribute to our mom that she to thousands of people here at the ranch, and then Off-Broadway. You can check it out at VivienStraus.com. Michael had careers in public relations for sustainable agriculture and environmental issues, and as an eco-travel journalist. He currently blogs about his mysterious psychic and shamanic 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.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
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.
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.
In 2014, we restored our 160+ year old family home into a magical vacation rental, and soon thereafter renovated our historic red barn to host weddings, private events and retreats. In addition to offering farm tours with tales of how Tomales Bay and West Marin were protected from sprawl development, organic cows graze on our 166 certified organic pastures, where we also have multiple projects to restore wildlife habitat.
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
Word of mouth (reviews) and Instagram (epic photos) have been the two best sources of new clients.
Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?
Covid shutdown was *brutal* … in addition to losing 95%+ of our business in 2020, we racked up a ton of additional debt from wedding cancellations and rescheduling. We were still feeling Covid-related losses in 2021 and 2022 … it was pretty touch and go for a minute. By hunkering down, running a lean operation, and with the support of the government’s PPP and EIDL programs, we survived that rollercoaster and emerged dinged up but stronger.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.StrausHomeRanch.com
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/straushomeranch
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StrausHomeRanch/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/straus-home-ranch-marshall
- Other resources:
Marin Agricultural Land Trust: www.malt.orgCheese Trail: www.CheeseTrail.org
Image Credits
Aerial photo: Paul C. Miller and Jeff Lewis, landESCAPEvisuals.com