It’s nearly spring. The sun is shining, the goats are frolicking and the cheeses are happily nestled in their caves throughout the North Bay. Here are some great places to take a day trip up that way, if you want to sample artisan cheeses and see how a farm/creamery works.

Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company

See how killer blue cheese sprung from the foggy hills of Point Reyes at this woman-owned creamery. A “cheese lovers tasting with walking farm tour,” typically given on Thursdays and Fridays, costs $260 for up to four people ($65 per additional guest) and includes your own personal cheese concierge. The tour takes you into the history of the dairy and lets you get up close and personal with the animals.

Details >> 14700 Shoreline Highway, Point Reyes Station; pointreyescheese.com

Achadinha Cheese Company

The cows and goats at Achadinha are some extremely pampered animals. They’re fed grain and yeast from local breweries and even have a “loafing barn” where they can spread out and plop down. You can have TLC with them plus sample the creamery’s Portuguese-inspired aged cheeses during a $40 farm tour on Saturdays. Achadinha also offers 2½-hour cheesemaking classes for $120 that include a ranch tour.

Details >> 750 Chileno Valley Road, Petaluma; achadinha.com

Bohemian Creamery

This slightly hidden gem is home to some of the wildest and tastiest cheeses in Sonoma. Think a “Turf ’n’ Surf” goat cheese rolled in Mendocino nori or a “Flower Power” Jersey-cow cheese dusted with local bee pollen. The creamery gives $35 hour-long tours of its cheesemaking facility and aging rooms on Saturdays and Sundays, which include a tasting they promise will be “mind-blowingly intense.”

Details >> 7380 Occidental Road, Sebastopol; bohemiancreamery.com

Pennyroyal Farm

This creamery makes sheep’s and goat’s milk cheeses that are named in Boontling, the 19th-century dialect still spoken (by perhaps 100 people) around Boonville. Public tours are given Thursday-Monday for $30 plus a service fee and must be reserved in advance. Aside from ogling cheese production for delights like pinot-soaked tomme and raw-milk blue, visitors can meet the animals in a solar-powered barn and enjoy a cheese tasting with a wine flight.

Details >> 14930 Highway 128, Boonville; pennyroyalfarm.com