Welcome to Barinaga Ranch 

At Barinaga Ranch we are continuing the ancient shepherding traditions of my Basque family and ancestors in Euskadi, the Basque region of Spain. Our small flock of sheep graze year-round on nearly 100 acres of hilly, organically managed pastures on our 800-acre ranch, located on the east shore of Tomales Bay, just an hour north of San Francisco, in Marin County, California. Coming from a family of shepherds, I feel a deep connection with my sheep, and their happiness and welfare comes first in everything we do on the ranch. The ewes have their lambs in March just as the pastures are turning lush and green. From 2009 through 2016, we milked the ewes twice a day from April through October, and I made their rich, delicious, raw milk into a Basque-style cheese. In 2016 I retired from cheesemaking, and we shut down the sheep-dairy, although we continued to sell lamb and wool.

In 2018, we embarked on a new sheep adventure, and began to transition our flock to optimize for high-quality wool production as well as excellent lamb and purebred breeding stock. We love our East Friesians for their beauty and their very friendly personalities, and our favorites are staying around as retirees, but we are not breeding them any more. We have added some beautiful and very well-bred Corriedales and Romneys to our flock and will be raising purebred Corriedales and Romneys, as well as crossbred sheep. Look for beautiful fleeces, yarn and other wool products, as well as delicious lamb and high-quality breeding stock from Barinaga Ranch in the 2020 season and beyond.

Our ranch is a beautiful spot, and we have been fortunate to have its beauty captured by many talented photographers over the years. Thanks to Paige Green, Paolo Vescia, Marla Dell, Kristin Martin, Robin Carpenter, David Collier, Karen Pavone, Sally Gale, and Melinda Bower, whose photos grace this site.