BRAVO FARMS IS WORTH THE STOP

Likely you have driven by Bravo Farms, on the east side of Highway 99, about six miles south of Kingsburg, without giving it a thought. Maybe the 1950s Nash Metropolitan poking out from a rooftop caught your attention. But unless you needed gas, you probably never thought about stopping.


Well, think about it. If you stop once, you will make it a favorite “destination” on your trips north.

The Bravo Farms complex includes a gas station, market, restaurant, gift shop and gourmet cheese factory. But it’s much more.

It’s a jumble of antiques and collectables. It’s a petting zoo, private park, garden patio, meeting place and Old West town. Tomorrow it will be something else, as the visionary and eclectic owners add to their menagerie.

Like most people, I stumbled upon Bravo Farms on my way to someplace else. I left Bakersfield, driving north on Highway 99, heading for a conference in Lake Tahoe. About 90 minutes into the trip, I was already hungry and I needing to find a restroom. The Traver offramp looked promising.

My plan was to get quickly in and out. Instead, I spent nearly two hours savoring the house special – a Bravo cheeseburger – poking around the gift shop, sampling cheese and watching cheese being made through a factory display window.

It was so much fun that I didn’t mind being two hours behind schedule. Those traveling with small children would find this an entertaining place to let the kids blow off some steam.

Bravo Farms’ restaurant is not a mere hamburger joint. It has a large menu that includes a variety of American and Mexican dishes. And if you have a sweet tooth, there also is an ice cream and coffee house.

What began in the 1970s as a Highway 99 fruit stand midway between Bakersfield and Fresno has evolved into a “field of dreams” for an old-time Visalia dairyman and a young Cal Poly San Luis Obispo graduate.

Jonathan Van Ryn, who grew up on his father’s Tulare County dairy, studied cheesemaking as a Cal Poly student. After he graduated about five years ago, he laid plans to build a cheese factory.

Bill Boersma operated a small dairy near Visalia, where he milked cows and produced handmade cheese he branded as Bravo Farms. With demand for his cheese increasing, Boersma needed a new, bigger location for his factory.

The young man with lots of ideas and the older man with years of experience became partners, moving Bravo Farms into a factory built at the former Traver fruit stand. Last year, the factory turned out 400,000 pounds of award-winning cheese. This year, Bravo Farms expects to produce and sell 600,000 pounds, according to Ryan Davis, who oversees business operations at the manufacturing and retail complex.

“If you are a big cheese lover, you know about Bravo Farms,” said Van Ryn, during a recent interview. Bravo Farms cheeses have won awards at national and international competitions. They are served in five-star restaurants, and sold in gourmet shops, farmers’ markets, chain supermarkets and over the Internet (www.bravofarms.com). “They are very well known in the Bay Area. You can find them in Bakersfield in Save Marts.”

Davis says the top seller is Bravo Farms’ Chipotle Cheddar cheese. This cheese and Bravo Farms’ Silver Mountain, a 13-pound clothe-bound wheel of cheddar, have won raves and awards at numerous competitions.

Van Ryn explains Bravo Farms cheeses are produced the “old fashioned way – all raw milk, nothing pasteurized and a lot of natural flavors.” The cheese is produced from milk that comes from a Pixley dairy operated by Van Ryn’s uncle, Gary de Graaf. It takes about a gallon of milk to make a pound of Bravo Farms cheese.

Visitors can watch cheese being made through a large viewing window or by arranging a tour by calling Davis at 559-897-4634. Bravo Farms cheese is made in three 500-gallon vats. After processing, the blocks are aged for up to nine months before being sold to customers.

Boersma brought his time-tested recipes into the partnership. Van Ryn brought his production knowledge and marketing ideas.

“In four years, we have quadrupled our business,” said Van Ryn. That business expansion has included opening a restaurant and cheese store at the Preferred Outlets Mall in Tulare last fall.

It’s a steady, cautious growth. The partners recently purchased an additional acre of land adjacent to their Traver complex, where a wine retail outlet may be added to complement Bravo Farms’ cheeses.

“We have a lot of dreams,” said Van Ryn. “But we have to make sure Tulare does well first. A lot of people want to do things with us.”

Van Ryn’s father, an antique collector who moved his Tulare County dairy to New Mexico, is credited with bringing many of the collectable items to the Traver complex.

“He doesn’t play golf. This is his hobby,” said Van Ryn, explaining his father collects nostalgic signs, statues, furniture and just plain “stuff” that are on display and for sale at Bravo Farms.

And what about the Nash Metropolitan on top of their building? There’s no deep meaning. Like a lot of the stuff at Bravo Farms, it’s just there for the fun of it.

This article appeared first in The Bakersfield Californian on Feb. 7, 2010.

BRAVO FARMS – TRAVER

Located – Along Highway 99, about six miles south of Kingsburg

Services – Restaurant, gift shop, petting zoo, Old West town, garden patio, gas station, cheese factory

Highlight – Watch cheese being made through a viewing window or call 559-897-4634 for a cheese factory tour.

Cheese – The factory produces award-winning Bravo Farms cheeses, which are sold at the Traver complex, as well as in gourmet shops, farmers markets, supermarkets and over the Internet at http://www.bravofarms.com/
 

VOLUNTEERS PROTECT ELEPHANT SEALS

It's 7 a.m. George Larson slides behind the wheel of his white Toyota Camry. His wife, Sandra, makes herself comfortable in the passenger seat. She knows she soon will be dozing off, leaving her husband to drive them safely to their destination, more than two hours away.

It’s a ritual the Shafter, Calif., couple has followed nearly every week for the past five years. It’s their trek to the Central California coast, where they volunteer as docents, or guides, at Piedras Blancas, a rookery for elephant seals, north of San Simeon on Highway 1.

“We probably travel the farthest of all the docents,” said Larson, whose fascination with elephant seals dates back to the early 1990s, when the huge, oddly shaped, magnificent animals took over a once popular fishing and hiking beach.

At first, George and Sandra Larson simply joined others who pulled off the highway to gawk at the elephant seals’ invasion. “We were able to get so close to so many wild animals.”

But that closeness became a problem. As the number of seals increased, contact with humans, particularly with people who also wanted to use the beach, created conflicts. While elephant seals may appear docile and harmless, they are wild and powerful animals.

To protect both humans and elephant seals, Friends of the Elephant Seal, a non-profit organization, was established. The organization trains docents, who help separate humans and elephant seals, while promoting better understanding of the animals and their habitat.

George Larson, a retired Shafter High School teacher, and his wife, Sandra, who retired as an administrator with the Kern County Superintendent of Schools, trained in 2004 to become docents, beginning their regular trips to Piedras Blancas. Often they are accompanied by friends Jim Siler and his wife, Margo, retired Richland School District teachers. Jim Siler became a docent a year ago.

George Larson is now on the board of the Friends of the Elephant Seal. He recruits volunteers to become docents through service club presentations and word-of-mouth. Three weekend docent training sessions will be held in October. To sign up or learn more about volunteering, go to www.elephantseal.org or e-mail Larson at glarson@bak.rr.com.

“I have always liked animals of all kinds. But these wild animals are fascinating,” said Larson, who is no stranger to animals. His father, who worked in the race horse business, moved his family to Shafter when Larson was 15. Harness racing was popular in those days, with ranches and training tracks scattered throughout California. Larson’s father was the superintendent of a Shafter ranch, handling breeding and training operations.

But the athletic son wanted to play football and baseball, instead of going into horse racing. He enrolled as a history major at the University of Redlands, in Southern California, where he met Sandra. Later he went into the Marine Corps for eight years, enrolling at California State University at Humboldt when he left the military. Initially he hoped to pursue a career in the parks service. But agencies were not hiring and he returned home to Kern County to begin a teaching career.

Being a docent has combined his two career interests – teaching and parks service. Docents answer the questions of thousands of visitors from throughout the world who pull off Highway 1 at Piedras Blancas to watch the elephant seals.

The Piedras Blancas parking lot falls under the jurisdiction of the California Department of Transportation. In recent years, the Hearst Corp. donated the five miles of coastline to the California Parks Department to protect the elephant seals’ habitat.

As are most volunteers and paid staff associated with California parks, Larson and fellow docents are worried about budget cutbacks that threaten to close 100 state parks. But the state’s concerns about liability, lost revenue and obligations to private contractors have stalled the announcement of park closures.

“Docents save state parks a lot of money,” Larson noted, explaining that without the docents’ presence at Piedras Blancas, security and other staffing would have to be increased. Friends of the Elephant Seal also raises money for improvements to give visitors a better view of the animals.

Sheryl Watson, a state parks spokeswoman, agrees that the willingness of people to volunteer is critical in these financially stressed times. Watson’s department is seeking corporate sponsorships and collaborative arrangements with local government agencies to keep the gates open to some state parks.

And while volunteers alone cannot replace specially-trained laid-off employees or make up the difference in the shortfall of tax revenues to operate state parks, they can help with maintenance, visitor services and fund raising.

The Parks Department so values its Central Coast volunteers that they rewarded some with the most donated hours with a special dip in the outdoor pool at Hearst Castle last month. George and Sandra Larson were among those invited.

Watson noted that many opportunities exist for people to volunteer in state parks. Go to the website www.parks.ca.gov and click onto: “Become a Parks Volunteer.”

“Every day I spend over there [Piedras Blancas] as a docent is like the best day I had teaching,” said Larson, whose rich, three-decades-long Kern High School District career included teaching history and coaching a variety of sports.

HOW TO VOLUNTEER

To become a docent at the elephant seals’ Piedras Blancas viewing area, go to www.elephantseal.org. Three weekend training sessions will be held in October.

To become a volunteer in a California state park, go to www.parks.ca.gov, click onto “Become a Park Volunteer.”

In photo above, George Larson explains the elephant seals' habitat to visitors.

A version of this story written by Dianne Hardisty appeared in The Bakersfield Californian on Sept. 22, 2009.

BLIND PLAYER WINS AT SLOTS

It was like the squealing of an orchestra tuning up. The random noise that filled Eagle Mountain Casino, northeast of Bakersfield, Calif., seemed to have no meaning, no pattern. It was mostly just the ringing and clanking from rows of slot machines.

Most people would dismiss the noise as just the clatter of a gambling hall. For Chuck Wall, it sent clear messages. It spoke to him as it spoke to no one else.

Wall, 68, is blind.

As he pushes buttons and the slot machine spins, Wall keeps two counts in his head -- one of how many plays he has left, the other of how much money he has spent.

As he counts his machine's sounds, he listens to the machines around him. He recognizes sounds, particularly those coming from machines that have paid off in the past. He moves around the room, listening for "lucky" machines to play.

"It's fun. I have a system. I don't have to rely on someone else. I can do it by myself. It gives me a bit of independence. It is always important for someone with a disability to have independence," he said.

Wall lost his sight to retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited disorder in which an excessive amount of a substance called phytanic acid accumulates and causes extensive damage to the retina and eventually blindness. Wall was diagnosed with the disease at 19 years old, the year he graduated from East Bakersfield High School. His eyesight began deteriorating years earlier.

Wall, who retired in 2004 from his position as a management and communication professor at Bakersfield College, has not let his loss of sight stand in the way of his ambitions. He earned advanced degrees, including a doctorate in education from UCLA.

He formed a foundation to promote his national "Random Act of Kindness" movement and is in demand as an inspirational speaker.

At his home in northeast Bakersfield, he does woodworking on power saws. Recently he took up pottery, throwing clay onto wheels and shaping it into pots.

Anyone who knows Wall likely wouldn't be surprised that he refuses to let a little thing like being blind stand in the way of enjoying a day out with his wife, Diane (or Di, as as everyone calls her) at the Indian casino in the hills above Porterville.

On a recent Monday morning at 7:50, Wall and Di boarded an Eagle Mountain Casino bus near the East Bakersfield Senior Center on Ridge Road. The bus already had picked up a few passengers at the Wal-Mart on White Lane and would make another stop in front of the Smart & Final store on Golden State Avenue, before heading out of town. The route is one of four originating daily from Bakersfield. The last bus leaves Bakersfield at 6 p.m.

Wall's bus arrived at Eagle Mountain at 9:30 a.m. The charge was $10 per person, roundtrip. Each passenger received $15 in "bonus cash" and other incentives, easily breaking even on the transportation.

From the friendly greetings, it seemed the bus was filled with regulars. Like Wall, many were retirees enjoying a cheap day out.

When the Walls arrived, Di guided her husband to a familiar row of slot machines. Wall ran his fingers over the front of the machine, found the opening to insert the card he was given by the casino to retrieve his incentives and found another opening to insert a $10 bill.

Then Di disappeared. Matter-of-factly, Wall explained that his wife is the lucky one. She doesn't stick around with losers.

He was right. At the end of the day, Di was ahead by more than $500. Wall was ahead by only $200.

"It's a rare day that I don't come home at least breaking even," he said, smiling at the memory of his largest jackpot: $2,500.

"He's amazing," said casino worker Patti Gemmell, as she hovered around Wall, watching him play. He is the casino's only blind gambler.

Wall and his wife set strict limits on how much they will spend, pulling money from separate envelopes that contain their winnings from earlier visits. They gamble until 11 a.m., when the buffet opens. After eating a leisurely meal, they play some more slots. They cash out at 1 p.m., moving to the casino's entrance, where they "dink around" on some more slots until the bus leaves for home at 2 p.m.

"For me, it's an adult Disneyland," Wall joked, noting they have been visiting Eagle Mountain for more than a decade.

"Some people may moralize that I shouldn't be here; that it is wrong to gamble. But I do not consider it to be harmful to my character," Wall said.

As the Walls boarded the bus to return home, there was a friendly stream of "how'd ya do?" and some good-natured grumbling. Folks settled into their seats. The bus pulled away and headed down a windy road. Within minutes, the bus fell quiet as the gamblers snoozed.

As Wall also snoozed, he smiled, content with his day of independence.

This article written by DIANNE HARDISTY appeared first in The Bakersfield Californian on Nov. 15, 2009.