Returning to
Past meets future at the family farm
Story by Jolaine Collins • Photos by Paige Green
Karen and John Taylor didn’t set out to be dairy farmers. But in 2006, the couple changed career courses and put down new roots on the west Marin County dairy farm Karen’s parents began in 1973—the year she was born— and focused on building the future Bivalve Dairy. Fifteen years later, the Taylors have transitioned the pasture-based grazing operation and dairy into an organic- certified business, created sustainable farming systems across 1,500 acres of ranch land, established a creamery,
raised three children on the ranch, and weathered the pressures of a pandemic, wildfires and extended droughts. “Our goa l is to create a sustainable operation for generations to come,” John said. Karen is a sixth-generation dairy farmer, continuing the practices learned while growing up at her parents’ ranch overlooking Tomales Bay, an hour from San Francisco and minutes from the rocky headlands of Point Reyes National Seashore. Her family’s farming heritage goes back to
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May/June 2021
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