Tours, Tastings & Locavore Lunches
Food & Farm Tours Delivers Visitors Behind the Scenes
Looking for more behind-the-scenes peeks into our region’s extraordinary community of food and drink producers? Locally owned Food & Farm Tours offers guests unique year-round access to the people, animals and places that are the backbone of sustainable, organic and regenerative agriculture in the North Bay: dairy herds, cheesemakers, oyster farmers, bakers, hard cider and mead makers and more.
“Flavors of Point Reyes is our most popular tour,” says Food & Farm Tours owner Alexandra Fox. “People get to taste local cheese, oysters, mead and freshly baked bread, and they get up close to the makers.”
Fox’s array of tours do showcase locally produced products, but guests come away having experienced far more than farm-fresh flavors. Visiting a farm or ranch gives people a deeper appreciation of how much work goes in to producing our food, and how the process all comes together.
“Point Reyes Farmstead guests see the creamery’s feed barn, the milking barn; they might even see a cow giving birth—it’s the whole lifecycle,” says Fox.
Cuddling baby animals is often a tour highlight. “People get to hold baby goats when we visit Toluma Farms and Tomales Farmstead Creamery. I can barely pull them in off the pasture,” Fox says. “They’re just lying there with the goats. It’s hilarious.” Kidding season begins in March each year.
Fox says she designs her tours to appeal to Bay Area locals, as well as visitors. “I have a lot of repeat guests; some come for a second or third time and bring along their kids who are home from college, or friends from out of town. People sometimes book an overnight stay at an Airbnb farmhouse—Toluma has one right on site.”
Fox says locals are often surprised at how much they didn’t know. “There’s so much to see: At Point Reyes Farmstead they use a robotic milker that keeps track of each individual cow—and the cows decide when they go in to be milked. Heidrun Meadery is a hidden gem—it’s right there in Point Reyes Station, but not everyone knows about it and you could drive by and miss it. At Toluma Farms, they milk for eight hours a day—we serve a big cheeseboard lunch there.”
Fox grew up in Marin and says that she has always cared deeply about the planet, loved food and enjoyed engaging with people. After majoring in environmental studies in college and earning her MBA in sustainable enterprise, she returned to Marin. When the opportunity came up to take over the tour business founded by Elizabeth Hill Gardner, it felt like a natural fit for her.
“This is my slice of the climate change pie,” she says. “It’s overwhelming to think about the whole climate crisis, but this is something I can do. I fit into the food and ag sector, and I love and respect the people here who are doing an incredible job.”
Fox has clearly found her place, and her impact extends beyond the tours she offers. Once they’ve been introduced, she says, “visitors love to support family-run businesses, and many tell me they now look for these products when they shop at their local farmers’ markets and grocers. It sends them further on the path of sustainability—and more aware of what they support with their food dollars.”
