For Petaluma Creamery, the Future Lies in Burritos

Larry Peter has a passion for cows, cheese, pumpkins and, more recently, burritos.

Peter has owned  since 1987, producing award-winning organic, handcrafted artisan cheese from the milk of pasture-raised Jersey cows. So when he heard that was up for sale, he saw an incredible opportunity to enhance the rich tradition of local cheese making that started in 1913.

He purchased the creamery in 2004, upgrading and expanding the facility and opening a retail store on Western Avenue next to the Petaluma Creamery. Today the location sells about 25 varieties of local and imported cheeses along with old fashioned milk shakes, coffee and bread. The creamery has 50 employees and generates $212 million a year in sales.

But operating a creamery is a tough business, especially over the past year when milk prices have dropped around the country. What has saved him, says Peter, is a partnership he struck up last year with Chipotle, a national chain of Mexican fast-food restaurants specializing in gourmet burritos and tacos.

Today, Petaluma Creamery produces up to 150,000 pounds of cheese for all Chipotle restaurants throughout the Pacific region. 

"If it weren't for Chipotle, we wouldn't be here," Peter said. “The economy has really hurt the dairy industry,” Peter said. “By doing the best we can to survive as a farmstead cheese company, we support Sonoma and Marin County farmers by purchasing their milk to create our artisan cheeses.”

Larry Peter also runs one of the most popular pumpkin patches in Northern California, aptly called “The Great Peter Pumpkin Patch." Located at Spring Hill Jersey Cheese farm, the seasonal experience is one of the favorites for families from all over Northern California.

In addition to choosing from a variety of homegrown pumpkins, guests can dig for potatoes, eat old-fashioned ice cream, pet baby pigs and donkeys, and even milk a cow. And of course, there’s plenty of cheese.

“If you have passion, you can do anything,” said Peter. “We’re just trying to leave this place better than we found it.”